Cleanliness Begins at Home

Clean and green environment is a basic ideology in sustainable development. The importance of cleanliness is known to us all and we try to keep our homes clean, yet somehow we just forget that we are equally responsible for the cleanliness of our environment as well.

This is the story of Nasima Javed Sangre, a 54-year-old woman from Maharashtra. She hails from the village of Sakhar Mohalla, in the district of Ratnagiri, and defied all odds to create a mini- revolution in her village.

Nasima is an active member of the self-help group, ‘Pahel’. She realized that the fishing community has more challenges related to sanitation and cleanliness, because they can easily dispose all types of waste at the sea shore. Sakhar Mohalla is completely adjoining to the Arabian sea and access to the sea is hardly 5-10 meters from the houses. Earlier villagers of Sakhar Mohalla were using sea as a dumping yard and all type of waste including non-biodegradable like plastic items were thrown in the sea.

Mrs. Nasima herself believes that sanitation should be started from self. “Making change in the community is very difficult, but it could only be possible if we internalize this and started from our own house.” She reports that now villagers have stopped throwing waste in the sea and on the roads. But Mrs. Nasima isn’t satisfied yet, and wants to see her Gram Panchayat and her village as one of the best in India.

Under the guidance of Mrs. Nasima, 500 cotton bags were also distributed in the Gram Panchayat to collect daily waste and dry materials. She is personally monitoring this campaign in the Gram Panchayat and regularly ensuring that collected material from all the houses is sent to the JSW Collection Center at the Ice Plant premises.

Now Mrs. Nasima is leading this ‘SwachhataAbhiyan’ at the Gram Panchayat and helping make her society plastic and waste free with the support of JSW Foundation and Maharashtra government’s facilities. With this leading role, 100% of plastic waste is being collected from all houses. Every month,village-wide clean up campaigns are organized to ensure that the roads remain clean. Garbage collection containers have been set up in various locations throughout the village, so the villagers can effectively use them.

Till date, more than 21,500 plastic wrappers, milk bags, plastic bottles and medicine packets have been collected from her village. With these cleanliness drives, she creates aware among people of the importance and methods of handling waste responsibly. Mrs Nasima has taken the first step towards a cleaner environment by bringing a collective sense of ownership in the community.