Students from Shri Balaji International School clean up Aksa Beach with the help Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA)
At the dawn on Monday, a day after the Ganesha immersions, the city’s beaches were swarmed with children, who had come to clean up the beaches. It was heartwarming to see hundreds of children, armed with aprons, gloves, masks and garbage bags; cleaning up the mess created by adults!
The beaches, after the immersions, were in a pitiable state with flower and food offerings strewn all around, while the idols were washed ashore (see pictures). The condition of Malad’s Aksa Beach was improved by 55 students from Malad’s Shri Balaji International School, with the help Children’s Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA).
CMCA is a 15-year-old non-profit organisation, working with schools across Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu with the aim of promoting democracy, citizenship values and civic awareness among children and youth.
Sangeeta Harekal from CMCA shares, “We will clean this beach by collecting the garbage and will then segregate it into dry and wet waste, while the idols will be kept aside for the BMC to collect. By doing this, we also help the kids understand that the garbage issue can be solved via segregation, which can also be practised at home.”
The children were briefed about all this beforehand, so they started executing the work with much confidence. Abhishek Bharambe, a student, shares, “It is exciting to clean up the beach as I feel we, the citizens, need to give back to the city. We started cleaning up by collecting the litter on the beach and will segregate it later. We don’t have to do anything about the idols for now; we just need to keep them aside.”
Krishna Mehta, another enthusiastic student, chimes in, “We have been divided into groups and from each group, one of us stands in one place with a garbage bag; while others go around to pick up the trash to put in this bag. I feel really good that I am able to contribute to the cleaning process. I don’t celebrate Ganesh Chaturthi, but if I ever did, I will ensure that it is done in an eco-friendly way.”
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 "Idols in a bad state at Aksa Beach")
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