Swachhta

Cleanliness (swachhta) of the localities and public facilities adopted by NSS - IIT Kharagpur has remained one of their key commitments over the past several years. While all 15 units of NSS - IIT Kharagpur works on cleanliness, a few interesting initiatives related to cleanliness since the last monsoon are shared here.

Unit 10:

Unit 13:

Every Saturday, the Unit 13 clean up the litters from the Primary School ground and disposes of the garbage. An attempt by Unit 13 to install a garbage bin as to address the issue was not deemed workable by the locals, who figured the bin could be stolen. The unit also cleans up garbage-clogged nullahs (gullies) of Kashijora. An awareness drive was launched to request the locals not to dispose garbage in the nullahs. Although recent survey of the same area shows reappearance of garbage in the nullah, garbage quantity is somewhat less than before.

Unit 8:

A survey was conducted at Balarampur - the village adopted by Unit 8 - to identify the impacts of recent monsoons on health, hygiene, living conditions and risk of waterborne diseases. Roads damaged by rains and appropriate remedial measures have been prioritized in consultation with Panchayat members. Discussion with the villagers and local government functionaries initiated on cleanliness issues led to the identification of following action items:

Safe drinking water supply
Chlorination and disinfection of water sources
Deployment of Mobile medical teams, epidemiological surveillance and disease control and treatment
Health and hygiene education and raising awareness
Malaria prevention

On November 5 Unit 8 volunteers organized a street play (nukkad) performance to sensitize Balarampur residents on cleanliness and sanitation. Pictures shared below indicates that their performance generated an interest on the issue among the residents.