Every individual on this planet desires a clean place to live in and Mahatma Gandhi well explained the values to us concerning cleanliness by quoting “I will let no one walk through my mind with their dirty feet”. Gandhiji termed cleanliness “an act of worship.” So, keeping in mind the ideology of Gandhiji, we must work on making India a better and clean place to survive.   

To make India a cleaner, India’s Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Anurag Thakur announced a Clean India Drive, month-long nationwide from October 1 to October 31, focusing on plastic-free India and cleaning the waste. The sole purpose of this drive is to communicate the message “Clean India: Safe India”. This will be the largest cleanliness drive in the world where the prime concern will collect 75 lakh tonnes of waste, majorly plastic waste. This waste will be collected from different parts of the country and will be further processed in a ‘Waste Wealth Model.   

Announcing the drive in a tweet, Anurag Thakur said: “Cleanliness is next to Godliness! As we celebrate #AmritMahotsav of 75 years of Independence, I urge everybody to join Clean India Drive from 1st-31st October to realise the dream of plastic-free India.”

In 2014, our honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself initiated Swachh Bharat Mission, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan and Clean Indian Mission to improve solid waste management and to eradicate open defecation. He encouraged people to come forward and help him fulfil the dream of Mahatma Gandhi of a clean and hygienic India. The mantra he gave was “Na gandagi karenge, na karne denge’. Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is a remodel of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan. The Government of India started this program on 15 August 2002, to eliminate the traditional practice of open defecation. The name of this program, which was given earlier, was the Total Sanitation Campaign. By continuously inviting people and urging them to join this drive, the Clean Indian Mission turned into a National Movement. Under this movement, States and Union Territories, villages, districts, gram panchayats of India declared themselves “open defecation free” by October 2, 2019.

The government of India aims to gradually dispose of the use of single-use plastics by 2022, which will certainly help the environment thrive better. India is all set to achieve its target by making policies and taking initiatives. The government of India has notified Plastic Waste Management Amendment Rules,2021 where the manufacture, sale and use of single-use plastics will be prohibited.

So, India let’s join hands and make our nation clean and plastic-free.

Harshita Sinha