Members of the Samridhi Mahila Mandali planting a sapling during the summer internship of Swachh Bharat campaign at Cherkady village in Udupi district. A 13-member women’s group, ‘Samridhi Mahila Mandali’ has clocked 108 hours of work in cleanliness and sanitation under the summer internship camp of Swachh Bharat campaign at Cherkady village in Udupi district. Cherkady village has a population of 7,500. The Mandali held 30 different programmes under the internship camp from May 1 to July 31. Initially they took up cleaning of various places including the bus stand, migrant workers colonies, schools, schools, primary health centre, storm water drains, by the side of Madisal stream at Cherkady. They also held ‘Shun plastic, save environment’ jathas at different places in the village and staged street plays. They painted pictures and wrote slogans on cleanliness on the 25-metre wide compound wall of the gram panchayat office. “Since the people of the village often visited the gram panchayat office, the intention was to catch their attention through these paintings,” said Prasanna Prasad Bhat, mandali leader. They made hanging pots out of used plastic bottles. “These pots also bettered the ambience of people’s homes. It is also gave the message of protection of environment and recycling of materials,” said Sahana Hebbar, group member. Waste segregation The group segregated waste collected from the houses into dry and wet categories. They held demonstrations on compost manufacturing and the pipe composting method so that the manure could be used for kitchen gardens. The group also stitched cloth bags from old jeans, t-shirts, churidars and other cloth material. They also taught schoolchildren how to make paper bags. They had planted over 100 saplings on Malpe beach, at Udupi District Offices Complex and other places. Portable toilets “Our next plan is to construct portable toilets at the migrant workers colony and use the waste there for creation of biogas to be used in the same place. The manure could also be used for cultivation of vegetables there,” Ms. Bhat said. 24 groups Wilfred D’Souza, district coordinator, Nehru Yuva Kendra, which organised the camp, said that 24 groups and seven individuals had registered for the summer internship under the Swachh Bharat programme in the district from May 1 to July 31. The Cherkady Mandali had done good work. Four more groups too were in the same bracket. After an evaluation of all 24 groups, those who came first, second and third would be given cash prizes of ?30,000, ?20,000 and ?10,000 respectively, he added.

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