Ramakrishna Mission Ending 5th Phase of Swachh Mluru Abhiyan with Mega Cleanliness Drive- Sun 29
Ramakrishna Mission Ending 5th Phase of Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan with Mega Super Clean on Sunday 29, where 23 Black Spots in Central Market-State Bank-Car Street will be cleared.
Mangaluru : Ever since the day one launch of Ramakrishna Mission’s First Phase of ‘Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan’ on 1 February 2015 until the conclusion of the 5th Phase of this Abhiyan on 29 Sunday 2019,’Yours Truly” of Team Mangalorean and Mangalorean.com have covered practically all the projects of this Abhiyan, and we feel proud to bed associated with the Ramakrsihna Math in this novel Clean and Green Mangaluru initiative. The Math while initiating this Abhiyan, has planned to conclude it in October 2019 to coincide with 150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhiji, which is on 2 October.
We need to commend Ramakrishna Mission, Mangaluru, along with their energetic volunteers in carrying out Swacchata Abhiyan for the last five years with sustained vigour and enthusiasm on special request from Government of India. Sincere and dedicated efforts had been put to create awareness about cleanliness and hygiene all these years among the public. Thousands of volunteers have come forward with the single aim of seeing a CLEANER & BETTER Mangaluru, irrespective of distinction of caste, creed, religion or social status.
Mission Secretary and Mangaluru Ramakrishna Math president Swami Jitakamananda addressing the media persons during a press meet on Thursday, 26 September said, “Ramakrishna Mission’s main focus of the Abhiyan is not just to sweep our streets clean but to generate awareness in public. While we keep our houses clean but our streets remain dirty. We do not show the same social concern when it comes to public places and our surroundings. This shows the general lack of social awareness and responsibility. If we can be more responsible in keeping our surroundings clean, then only Swacchata Abhiyan becomes meaningful and effective. Therefore, Ramakrishna Mission undertook several initiatives and through various modules had tried to create this social awareness”.
“While initiating this Abhiyan opinions of several people and groups were collected and most had opined that people won’t come forward to sweep streets clean every Sunday mornings as it’s the only week off they get. But keeping Swami Vivekananda’s words, “If we have higher aim and pure intentions, nothing is impossible in this world” it was decided that Mission should take the lead in carrying on this Abhiyan. It was decided to carry on the Abhiyan for 1 year and depending on the public response and feedback extending it further ” added Swami.
He further said, “First phase of the Abhiyan was started on 1st February 2015 by honouring 100 sweepers in Ashrama. Since then, except in rainy seasons, every Sunday Shramadan was carried out. It was very difficult in the beginning to motivate people to join the Abhiyan and it was felt that the Abhiyan won’t go further. After much deliberations and change of strategy, slowly public started supporting the Abhiyan. As the curtains come down for the fifth phase of the Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan of the Ramakrishna Mission, the Central Market-State Bank-Car Street region, the busiest locality of the city, will witness a massive cleanliness drive this Sunday, 29 September. As many as 23 black spots in the region would be cleared of waste and steps would be taken to stop further littering in those spots. Individual volunteers as well as those from various organisations would join hands to make this massive exercise a success”.
Also speaking during the press meet, Abhiyan Convener Swami Ekagamyananda said, “People were urging the Mission to continue with the initiative. While pot-composting and urban forestry campaigns are on the cards, the Mission would soon hold a meeting of all the concerned to chalk out the future course of action. This Sunday, District in-charge Minister Kota Srinivas Poojari will launch the drive in the presence of Belur Ramakrishna Mutt Vice- President Swami Gauthamananda, and Nitte (Deemed to be University) Chancellor N. Vinay Hegde and others at 7 a.m. at the Central Market. When the Abhiyan started in February 2015 at the request of the Central Government, the Abhiyan has had over 2,500 programmes. Many doubted whether the cleanliness drive would last long in the initial days; however, determined volunteers and social organisations made the Abhiyan a grand success”.
Swami further said, “The Central Market will remain closed till at least 10 a.m. on Sunday as the Ramakrishna Mission would undertake a massive cleanliness drive in the region. We have convinced the traders about the importance of the drive. They should also know the volume of waste generated from the Central Market and its orderly disposal. The district administration and the Mangaluru City Corporation have agreed to the proposal and have issued the necessary directions to the concerned. In the meantime, the pot-composting model for disposal of domestic wet waste might be the answer for eliminating solid waste from the public arena. We have distributed over 2,000 pot sets and another 5,000 will be delivered to residents. With zero wet waste and dry waste to be recycled, solid-waste management would get a new definition. Currently an initiative of the Mission, pot-composting model could be popularized across the city if the Mangaluru City Corporation joins hands”.
Besides the massive cleaning on September 29, the Mission has organised a special seminar, Swachh Bharat-Samarth Bharat, for college students at the Ramakrishna Math on October 1 followed by felicitation programme for volunteers on October 2 at the same venue. Abhiyan associates Ranjan Bellarpady, Dilraj Alva, Umanath Kotekar, Sachin Shetty and others were present at the press meet.
Swachh Mangaluru Abhiyan by Ramakrishna Mission in a nutshell :
First phase of the Abhiyan was started on 1st February 2015 by honouring 100 sweepers in Ashrama. Since then, except in rainy seasons, every Sunday Shramadan was carried out. In the second phase, many groups and NGOs started supporting the Abhiyan. Thanks to the support from media, slowly awareness started to creep in the minds of public. Third phase of the Abhiyan saw widening of the scope of cleanliness drives with each of the 50 groups carrying out 10 Shramadans each in different localities of city.
During the fourth phase, awareness campaign was planned in different domains. Along with ongoing weekly Shramadans, cleanliness drives in selected 100 villages of Dakshina Kannada dist., 500 Swacch Manas Programmes for 10000 students of 100 schools of Dakshina Kannada dist., 200 awareness programmes by 50 groups in different localities of the city were planned.
FIFTH PHASE:
Starting from December 2018, sustained Shramadans have been carried out every Sunday from 7 am to 10 am for the last 42 weeks. About 100-200 volunteer shave dedicated their time and energy to these weekly Shramadans. Along with sweeping streets, cleaning road dividers and drains, distributing awareness handbills, erection and repainting of way boards and direction boards, renovation of bus shelters, beautification of children’s park in Police Line, Erection of new bus shelters in Panjimogaru, Morgan’s Gate and Jeppinamogaru, Beautification of Kottara Flyover, removal of unofficial banners and hoardings from public places, initiating Miyawaki urban forest, Converting black spots into green spots and several other initiatives benefiting the public.
Pot Compost Demonstration:
Till date about 221 pot demonstration workshops have been held in different localities of the city urging the public to segregate the household garbage and manage the wet waste through pot composting. About 15000 people have attended these workshops and 5000 people have registered their names for pots. About 2000 pots have been distributed among the public.
Swacch Manas Programme:
To create awareness in children about cleanliness, Swacch Manas programmes have been conducted in 130 schools reaching out to 13000 students. About 500 students have been earmarked as Swacch Ambassadors and are given special training. About 60 resource persons are involved in imparting training to students. This programme also involved activities and cleanliness drives in their respective schools.
Swacch Soch – 50 Seminars in Colleges:
Swacch Soch seminars were organised in 50 colleges to impart awareness among the youths about generation of waste, segregation of waste and how to manage it. This programme involved speeches by resource persons, demonstration, interaction etc. District Level and University Level Seminars were conducted.
Swacch Gram Abhiyan:
In the last phase, 100 cleanliness drives were conducted in 100 selected villages of Dakshina Kannada dist. This time 100 more villages from Udupi Dist. Too were selected and the cleanliness drives were extended there. Till date about 1300 cleanliness drives have been conducted in 200 villages of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Dist. with active support from Dakshina Kannada and Udupi Zilla Panchayats.
