Cleanliness Drive At India Gate, Delhi
The first ever cleanliness index for cities 2015 report prepared by the ministry has thrown up some startling facts. The Union Tourism Ministry, which spends over `200 crore every year on the publicity and marketing of its ‘Incredible India’ brand overseas, often finds itself at cross purposes due to negative publicity generated by foreign tourists.
At the centre of New Delhi stands the INDIA GATE and surrounding the imposing structure is a large expanse of lush green lawns, which is a popular picnic spot. One can see hoards of people moving about the area on bright sunny mornings. The foreign tourists who come to India looking for a spiritual connect, to witness its thousand years old history are often put off by the filthy environment they find even near our national monuments.
Figures explain a lot. In 2007, the Union tourism ministry had fixed a target of getting ten million foreign tourists by 2010. In 2014, India had 7.70 million tourists, the highest number so far in any year. The report had analyzed six factors to arrive at these ratings: cleanliness of sewer and drainage, the effectiveness of garbage collection, cleanliness of public conveniences, cleanliness around drinking water facilities, cleanliness around eateries, and cleanliness on ambiance-related aspects.
On 23 August 2015 Delhi team of Earth5R took over India Gate to make it litter free. Active members included Tanvi Garg, Sneha Sharma, Raina Moitra, Pratiksha Motwani, Aradhna Mahajan and Abheet Nigam. The area was heavily crowded and had lot of things littered here and there.
The team collected plastic bottles, food wrappers, polyethene bags scattered all over the place. Seeing them do so, few people started helping them too. The team ended the cleanliness drive successfully by 11:30 am cleaning major part of the lawns and dumping the litter into the dustbins.
This little act done by the Earth5R team gave them great satisfaction and they eagerly look forward to more such cleanliness drives by engaging local citizens of Delhi and to make the city LITTER FREE.
Kudos to their deeds and high spirits!
-Report by Aradhna Mahajan. Edited by Pragya Lodha & Vandita Morarka.