One month after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a Clean India with the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan mission, a group of seven friends – all working professionals based out of Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur – came together to clean all the dirty spots of the city.
Today, from an originally seven-member team, Bunch of Fools (that is the community’s name) has over 200 members who come together every Sunday to clean various pockets of the city. As part of the cleaning, they put up murals, clean the area of rubbish and awareness campaigns on cleanliness.
Speaking to DNA, Satish Bhuwalka, one of the original founders said that the name came from the fact that people would laugh at their dream of a Clean India. “They would call us fools, but instead of taking it negatively, we made it a point to channel it in the right direction to initiate the Clean Raipur drive,” he said.
The group comes together every Sunday to go to various pockets of the city and clean it. On the first weekend, they spent between Rs 2,000 and Rs 3,000 to buy cleaning equipment to begin their programme. “From then, we have a Maruti van that full of cleaning equipments,” Bhuwalka, now aged 32, said.
Initially, there were several challenges as the areas that were cleaned up were immediately messed up in a day or two. “We then would go on Saturdays with our awareness team and speak to locals. They would agree in joining our initiative and help us cleaning the area on Sunday. That way, the area got cleaner because residents felt a sense of ownership,” he said.
On April 1, Bunch of Fools will clean their 200th venue. “It’s our day as it is April Fool’s Day,” joked Bhuwalka added, but on a serious note added that it was a matter of pride that they were able to successfully continue working every Sunday without taking a break. “We’re achieving our dream of cleaning our city. It was ranked 129 earlier, but I hope that we will see an improvement,” he added.
The highlight, however, for the team was meeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi on October 31 last year. “November 1 is Chhattisgarh Foundation Day and Prime Minister Modi met us a day earlier. He didn’t want to see our work, but said that he had been following what we had been doing to the city. It was a matter of pride for us, as he keenly watches the Swachh Abhyaan Mission,” Bhuwalka said, adding that Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has also actively followed their work.
On thoughts of expanding, Bhuwalka says that there is still plenty of time for that, as Raipur is their primary focus. “We have received calls from Mumbai and New Delhi to come. While we are unable to, we have asked people to use our name to clean their respective areas,” he added.
From a seven-member team, today Bunch of Fools has over 200 members with a 60-40 men-women ratio. “In our first year, we had no women in our team, but they gradually joined and their presence has made a lot of difference because of their commitment and sincerity to keeping their area clean,” he said.
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 "The Bunch of Fools team with Prime Minister Narendra Modi")
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