From the plastic that we see littered by the side of our roads to the plastic that has reached the bottom of the oceans due to human negligence, there are a million reasons why we should start adopting a plastic-free lifestyle. These four child heroes from Semmambadi have started something remarkable in their village to achieve just that.

Students cleaning their school premises.

Yuvarani, Janavika, Gokulaveni, and Premkumar, four 12-year-olds from the Panchayat Union Middle School, Semmambadi, Tamil Nadu, are creating awareness about the importance of waste segregation and disposal. They wanted to illustrate the harmful effects of plastic pollution to their villagers and do something to find a sustainable alternative. They took this up as a project and enrolled in the International Changemaker Olympiad.

They had noticed how waste was being dumped near their school premises. The garbage was not collected regularly which led to waste accumulating over long periods of time. Plastic waste was not properly disposed of at the village level and was being burnt instead. Garbage was scattered in front of the post office and the library.

Garbage near school premises was causing the proliferation of insects and flies inside classrooms, affecting students. Burning plastic in public places was causing air pollution and affecting the health of the people living there. Due to all these, the streets and roads were looking dirty. The students wanted to do something about all of this.

Oath-taking in progress.

Yuvarani, Janavika, Gokulaveni, and Premkumar prepared a detailed chart illustrating the importance of proper waste segregation and disposal and did a house-to-house campaign showcasing the same. They explained the difference between biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste to the people of the village. Along with this, they also conducted a house-to-house oath-taking-campaign through which they encouraged household members to avoid littering public places and roads and use the provided dustbins to segregate and collect waste at home instead.

The children also found that the government-built compost pits were not being properly maintained and utilized. They cleaned up the area with the help of a few others and set up proper signboards in the village directing people to dispose of their kitchen wastes in the compost pits. During the door-to-door campaign, they explained the merits of organic manure that could be obtained from these compost pits and encouraged household members to use it for their farming.

Waste segregation boxes prepared by the students.

They also found that there were cleaning members set up by the Panchayat who were not cleaning the common places regularly and were not collecting the garbage door-to-door. The children submitted a petition to the village panchayat president stating the need to regularize the cleaning in public places and conducting a routine door-to-door collection of waste.

The children also collected plant saplings that were native to the village and distributed them to each household as a part of their door-to-door campaign to increase the green cover of the village. The dustbins and saplings were distributed to around 50 households in the Semmambadi village. The door-to-door campaigning about waste segregation and disposal benefited around 100 households in the village.

One of the village elders stated, “We are happy to see students take such initiatives for the good of this village. We promise to keep this village litter-free and use the compost pits for disposing of biodegradable waste. We are grateful to them for the initiative to petition the panchayat president to regularize the routine of the cleaning personnel in the village.”

Source : Facebook page of International Change Maker Olympiad

Yuvarani, Janavika, Gokulaveni, and Premkumar were successful in their mission to clean their village and this showed when they were declared the finalists for the Changemaker Award. They continue with their initiative to make sure that their village remains clean and litter-free.

Let’s come together and make sure that children like them get the chance to make a difference in this world.

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