Swachhta or cleanliness is a relative term. I say this with a heavy heart, because for most Indians, cleanliness is usually about their personal selves and not their neighbourhood, their city or their country. Litter on the roads is an infuriating sight for all of us. It is the lack of civic sense among its citizens that has virtually turned Mumbai into a dumping ground.

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It was a late Sunday evening and while having a coffee pe charcha, a friend, Anand Thakkar and I were discussing the ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ that the Prime Minister recently announced. Amidst the discussion, we realised that we fall under the category of people who criticise others for littering but do absolutely nothing about it. That changed in the course of 20 minutes because we brainstormed and decided to clean up both our homes and our city during Diwali. The concept of waste management, that includes segregating dry and wet waste, has not been understood by the majority of our population. Inspired by our PM, we decided to wield the broom ourselves and contribute towards making the city clean. Using social media as a platform, we posted the ‘Clean Our Neighbourhood’ message to our friends and family members. We received an overwhelming response with 20 enthusiastic people volunteering for the clean-up initiative. A local chemist supplied us gloves and masks at low cost and we bought the brooms ourselves. We realised that numerous people were ready to help for this cause. 

The very next day, we took it upon us to clean Carter Road and Juhu Scheme in the suburbs of Mumbai. It was shocking to discover tony neighbourhoods littered with plastic, paper and empty bottles of alcohol. On our first day of cleaning we received a great response from passersby who offered to help us. We got in touch with a bhangarwala or recycling expert, and offered him the waste we had collected. The next cleaning session had a larger group of volunteers who also spread awareness about the importance of cleanliness and the segregation of waste among residents. The students canvassed neighborhoods and made people take a pledge not to litter, using slogans such as “Keep Mumbai Clean, something it has never been”, to drive home the message.

Till that moment, we were restricted to a group of friends and batchmates, but on hearing about our efforts, our school, Jamnabai Narsee, Juhu, also stepped in with plans to support us and incorporate this initiative under the Jamnabai Narsee Youth for Environmental Sustainability programme. With increased expertise and skills, the volunteer group now plans to spread the campaign to Matunga, South Bombay, Thane and Andheri.

We must all realise that we call this dynamic and wonderful city our home but treat it worse than a garbage bin. Littering not only makes our city look unclean and “uncool” but also gives birth to a lot of diseases. All Mumbai’s citizens must leave no stone unturned to make our common home look clean. Take a pledge today and make people around you take the oath to neither litter this city and nor let anybody else dirty it.  Our ancestors gave us a free India, let us honour their memory by keeping India clean and sparkling at all times.

The author is a class XII student in Jamnabai Narsee School