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MILESTONES
Sixth CLEAN-India MEET,
2003 |
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The 6th
CLEAN-India Annual Meet held during 31st Jan ’03 –
1st Feb ’03 served as a platform for the school
children to interact with likeminded students from various parts
of the country and take remedial actions to improve the
environment thereby making the community aware. It also gave
them an opportunity to learn about the environment by way of
various workshops.
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The 2-day Meet
comprised of three major events- Workshops on
environment, Presentations by CLEAN Members and Clean
up drive at the ridge. Students and teachers from the member
schools of Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida and from 15 CLEAN-India centres
(Jhansi, Bangalore, Varanasi, Ranikhet, Muzaffarnagar, Lucknow,
Aurangabad, Amreli, Nagpur, Pune, Dehradun, Ahmedabad, Kurnool,
Dindigul and Udaipur) actively participated.
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The first day there were workshops
for students from the regional centres by Ms.Bahar Dutt on
“Making Animal Toys out of Waste’’, Prof. H.Y Mohan Ram on
"Trees for Life",
Mr. Rajiv
Ashish on "Creative Expressions" .
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The second day saw more than 300
students gather and present their concerns and actions about
environment. The students from the Delhi schools presented a
skit on the CLEAN programme highlighting its achievements and
outreach while CLEAN centres like Jhansi, Bangalore, Pune,
Udaipur, etc put across their messages for the environment
through plays, skits, songs etc. The MEET was also an occasion
to release of “Children of the
Monsoon- South Asia: State of the Environment 2002,
The Youth Version”. This report brought out under the aegis of
United Nations Environment Programme in collaboration with SACEP,
NORAD and Development Alternatives, has been written by the
Youth of South Asia as a stimulus
for action. This well illustrated report brings into fore the
problems and solutions but most importantly it calls upon each
one of us to act and become responsible for collective action.
Students were also awarded
certificate of participation
to encourage their efforts in environment improvement. The Best CLEAN-Delhi School of
the Year was awarded to Gyan Mandir Public School,
Naraina on the basis of their sustained work throughout. the
year.
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The highlight of the day was the
clean up drive which brought the Action mode of the CLEAN
programme to the fore.The Delhi Ridge was the focus of the
campaign as it constitutes the major green area of the city. Students
armed with gloves, rakes, gunny bags and a lot of enthusiasm
moved out to Delhi Ridge cleaned a vast stretch of of the Ridge
of all the polybags and
waste that were littering there. |
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One of the areas which was cleaned
is the so called “Monkey Point”. As
this area is a home for many monkeys, many people frequent this
place to feed them and consequently throw the poly bags in which
they carry the food. As the area is inside the Ridge, and thus
outside the purview of municipal Authorities cleaning, over the
years the place had become a virtual heap of poly bags. Not only
was this affecting the growth of trees and plants but was
proving to be harmful for the monkeys that indulged in playing
and nibbling the poly bags. This area was given a face lift by
the students and cleaned of polybags. Students actively took part in the
distribution of Green Code pamphlets at the traffic intersection
and in turn made the people aware of the ongoing activity and
the importance of conserving the Ridge.
At the end of the event every
student was convinced that it is only action that can bring
about a change in people’s attitudes. The students left for
their homes with the determination
that they will conduct similar
drives around their schools and thereby involve more and more
people in keeping our neighbourhood and our city clean.
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