Over a lakh people participated in over 3,000 sessions of sensitisation campaign for slum dwellers on safe sanitary practices during the 'Swachh Bharat Pakhwada' organised by the Environment Ministry.
The campaign was organised from August 1-15 in line with International Youth Day, which fell on August 12 and also as part of the government's attempt to accelerate efforts to achieve total sanitisation and cleanliness by October 2, 2019 under the Swachh Bharat Mission.
"Eco-Clubs established under the National Green Corps programme of the Ministry carried out various activities relating to Swachhta such as 'Safai Abhiyan' at nearby commercial areas and cleaning of public wells, ponds and rivers of the locality.
"Tree plantation drive and greening neighbourhood, 'Nukkad nataks' were played at prayer time to convey this message to their family and neighbourhood, volunteers took pledges on related themes and organised rallies and poster and slogan competitions on related themes," said secretary, Drinking Water and Sanitation, Parameswaran Iyer, and additional secretary, Environment Ministry, Amita Prasad, in a joint press briefing.
Apart from routine activities, the youth volunteers sensitise citizens and slum dwellers about safe sanitary practices and youth groups also took mass pledges on mygov.In while undertaking cleaning drives in various locations.
"Approximately five lakh participants undertook mass pledges on mygov.In and around 2,500 pictures were uploaded on swachhbharat.Mygov.In.
"Youth volunteers sensitised citizens and slum dwellers about safe sanitary practices. The Number of awareness campaigns conducted in this regard were 3,519 and number of participants was 1,38,630," an official statement said.
It added that while 5,56,500 participants undertook mass pledges, 1,36,190 cleaning drives were undertaken.
Earlier in June, the Ministry had launched a cleanliness drive in national parks for safe disposal of biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste and standard operating procedures in tiger reserves and zoos.
In order to extend the scope of Swachhta Campaign to include waste management concepts and recent regulations, special drives were launched in 10 selected protected areas to sensitise the visitors on the regulatory regime for waste management, the statement said.
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