Details

Written by: Bilal Bashir Bhat

Category: ENVIRONMENT

Published: 12 May 2017

"Truly, Allah loves those who turn to Him constantly and He loves those who keep themselves pure and clean." (Al Baqarah 2:222)

Cleanliness is a habit not an act. However starting a campaign or drive highlights the issue, builds champions and brings focus on the task at hand. This also further leads to internalizing and inculcating cleanliness as a matter of habit and routine.

As your computer starts alerting for system clean-ups to maintain its work efficiency, earth system demands regular clean- ups too. However, we as a race have acted quite antagonistically, instead of clean- ups we have collected and dumped materials which have today clogged the functioning of earth system. Plastic waste, e- waste, domestic waste, animal waste, medical waste form the basic constituents of the waste dumps. 

They are nuisance not only for us but for animals, birds, plants and earth as a whole. Bearing this in mind, we (AYDA) designed a unique cleanliness program. These are not mere drives of going into an area and cleaning their waste instead we have unique campaigns which engage local communities in cleaning their surroundings. The program generates a long- term understanding on waste management and segregation. The aim is to reduce waste generation and wherever possible to recycle and reuse stuff. 

By inviting people to participate in the cleanliness drive, the AYDA starts this initiative today and a sense of responsibility has been evoked among the people through this drive. Citizens now becoming active participants in cleanliness activities.  The main aim of this drive is to create awareness about Hygiene among the masses. 

Today the Members of the Andergam Youth Development Association (AYDA) taking into minds that no one from the government comes forward to help the peoples of this village which have almost 500 families living in. This village is about 7 kms away from the Main town Pattan. The members of the association (AYDA) Takes up Brooms to clean the entire village, because of negliance of the politicians and other govt. departments. We vote to choose our leader so that in future they help us to solve such problems, but when these politicians wins the elections they forget the people and never sees back until next elections.

People from different sections of the society have come forward and joined this mass movement of cleanliness. From government officials, Private officials to the sportspersons, to spiritual leaders, all have lined up for the noble work. The AYDA Organising frequent cleanliness campaigns to spreading awareness about hygiene through plays. 

Considered as a neglected village (Andergam) of north Kashmir from the politicians and the other departments and allegedly neglected by the government because of its political ideology, Andergam Pattan saw its young boys taking everyone by surprise on Thursday (11/05/2017) as they took brooms in their hands and started cleaning the entire village. Such drives are a wonderful opportunity for people’s participation and they are major avenues to raise awareness on the importance of cleanliness in one’s. 

Cleanliness is not a work which we should do forcefully. It is a good habit and healthy way of our healthy life. All type of cleanliness is very necessary for our good health whether it is personal cleanliness, surrounding cleanliness, environment cleanliness, pet animal cleanliness or work place cleanliness (like school, college, office, etc.). We all should be highly aware about how to maintain cleanliness in our daily lives. It is very simple to include cleanliness in our habit. We should never compromise with cleanliness, it is as necessary as food and water for us. It should be practiced from the childhood which can only be initiated by each parent as a first and foremost responsibility.

Cleanliness is the pathway to health and strength. In this regard a brief campaigning for the event a day earlier drew tremendous response from the local boys. AYDA members meet other people and understand them about the importance of cleanliness. We also convey the message of importance of keeping the environment neat and clean.

The students from government high school and a private school, SAMS voluntarily participated in the cleanliness drive. The teachers of the schools also help us a lot to make this drive a successful.

We start from the upper side of the village and after cleaning the main link road we then clean every lane of the village, the young boys mostly in the age group of 13-30 were seen showing keen interest in keeping the surroundings clean. "The idea is to show the administration that they can ignore this village, however local youth can deliver on their own when it comes to responsibility towards the society. The garbage which has accumulated over the years in the Grave yard, Mosque surroundings, and roads and on the local drinking water stream was first removed by the AYDA volunteers and later the area was cleaned with water.

We use the tractor for garbage collection and a tiller for spraying water on the roads in the entire village. However the authorities here never bothered to play their part in keeping the area clean. Hence we (AYDA) decided to take the lead.  

The idea of cleaning the village floated in our minds after a meeting under the chairman of the AYDA Bilal Bashir Bhat in a local shop at Kamal Chowk the main market of this village. Seeing the village turned in to garbage dump, we decided to do something in this direction and aware people about the bad affects about the pollution, which affects our health, Air, soil and water.

Andergam village is not priority for the district and Tehsil administration. They don't care for the local population. There are also many problems which are faced by us like drinking water facility, roads, schools and electricity. This happens because of political ideology of the local residents. However, we have shown that youth of this village will never shy away from their responsibility towards the society and community development.

After the cleanliness drive the elders of this village were feeling proud over the initiative taken by the AYDA Members. The other people of this village also proud on this Association who have learned to perform and act independently without assistance of administration.

 

                 Courtesy: CHAIRMAN ANDERGAM YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ASSOCIATION (AYDA)