The Hindu 06.06.2013
Children from slum areas show the way
Launch cleanliness drive as part of the World Environment Week.
Children of slum areas in Berhampur launched a cleanliness drive on Wednesday as part of the World Environment Week.
During
the week, the children would meet corporators of the Berhampur
Municipal Corporation (BMC) to discuss with them the problems and issues
pertaining to their respective areas.
The ambitious
project to make the children part of societal activity has been
initiated by the Youth for Social Development (YSD), a philanthropic
organisation of the city.
At the initiation of the
YSD, children’s clubs had been established in 15 major slums of the
city. In all, 400 children had already become members of these clubs.
Awareness
“Our
aim is to create awareness on cleanliness among the inhabitants of the
city, especially among the slum-dwellers, through these children,” said
Bibhu Prasad Tripathy of the YSD.
In the morning,
members of children’s clubs at Dhobabndhahuda, Haridakhandi, and
Raghupati Nagar launched the cleanliness drive. They cleaned up their
respective areas and also sprinkled bleaching powder. For most of the
children, it was a means to have fun during the continuing summer
vacation.
Several inhabitants of these areas started helping the children to clean up the areas near their houses.
The
cleanliness drive would be taken up in 12 other slums in a phased
manner till June 11. Dates to meet the corporators have also been fixed.
The corporators have also agreed to meet and discuss with the children
the problems in the slums.
Representatives of the children’s clubs would also meet the Commissioner of the BMC on June 10.
