Rupa Mehta, an educationist has come with an innovative project titled CLAY-O (Cleanliness Awareness Young to Old), was successfully carried out in the primary section (Standards III and IV) of the Padmakar Dhamdhere School from the Indian Education Society group of schools.
“I have two children and I realised we adults rarely teach our kids the importance of keeping his or her surroundings clean. This way though the child is educated in a posh school, he or she doesnt really care about our surroundings. This thought acted as a catalyst and the project was born,” reveals Mehta, a Dadar-based resident.
Catch them young is her mantra and she targets primary students since they are most impressionable. She adds, “To address this issue, one needs to change the habits of people.Since older people find it hard to change their habits, I decided to catch them young because they can be easily moulded. In addition to teaching school children about the importance of cleanliness, they also need to be shown what to do when you get the urge to litter.”
As an introduction, Mehta and her team used volunteers and went from class to class explaining the importance of the cleanliness. They went on to explain to the children how to keep their surroundings clean whether it was their class, school, playground, road or housing complex.”
Each child was given a card which suggested ideas on how not to litter. Also, as a part of the project, each child was given four extra cards and was encouraged to give the cards to their friends or family to spread awareness about cleanliness. The card also had a section where the children could write a slogan on what they would do if they found someone littering and the best slogan from each class won an award.
The project benefits children because they believe that they can make a difference to their community by keeping their surroundings clean. Grown-ups in turn stand to learn alot from the younger generation. We help them realise that school premises, housing colony premises and even roads will be fun to walk on when they are clean.The most important outcome is that when children don’t litter, grown ups will feel embarrassed to litter and that will bring about a great change,” hopes Mehta.
Municipal schools are next on her list. My next task is to train young minds in municipal schools. Im talking to Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai’s (MCGM) officials and Im looking forward to spreading more awareness, she signs off.