From sullied to pristine

KOCHI: The place was once a dump yard. Mounds of plastic, filth, food waste and paper dotted the premises of  AUPS Kunnamangalam school, making it the most despised and detested locales in the town.  But that has become an old story. Things have changed here and that too not in a small way, all thanks to the initiative called ‘Ente Sneham, Ente Shuchithwam’ (My love, My cleanliness) 
Today the place has become the cleanest in the locality, leaving citizens wondering how the tremendous makeover was achieved. The success story of AUPS Kunnamangalam, which has transformed itself from being a normal government school to a place equipped with modern facilities, is peppered with tales of hard work, blood and sweat. 

 
Renovating school premises
The social science teacher and the major drive behind the huge makeover the school has undergone, Aekanathan U P recounts the efforts put forth by the student, parents and teachers.
“Our school was in a pathetic state. With garbage strewn all over the place and bathrooms in an inhospitable condition, students found it tough to cope. So, we decided to go in for a total makeover. Out of the total 1,300 students, we formed six groups of five volunteers each and named the teams 'Suchithwa Sena.' The Sena then began their work in early 2016," he says.

Dressed in brown camouflage uniforms, armed with broomsticks and dustbins, these students began cleaning the school premises. They segregated the plastic, solid and paper wastes into three dustbins, which had been coloured coded as red, blue and green.

They opened a Material Resource (MR) Centre to collect the waste. While the plastic items were sent out for recycling, the organic and paper wastes were buried in a huge pit. “Once the school premises was cleaned, we began distributing leaflets to the locals describing the necessity to clean their surroundings and how it can be achieved. People are unaware of how to handle plastic wastes. Our students described the recycling process to the residents," says Aekanathan.

The efforts of the students didn't remain confined within the walls of their school. Panchayat authorities, who came to know of their initiative and the success they had achieved, encouraged the kids to conduct awareness classes for the ward members and the residents' association on waste management. 
"We received immense support from the people and the panchayat members who attended our classes, " says Sadhika P K, a Suchithwa Sena volunteer. Their hard work paid off when the school was named as the 'best school’ by the National Green Corps, on the International Youth Day.

Reaction of the people
Everyone appreciates the work done by the students. “The work done by the students is appreciable and we hope every school will follow their path,” says Kunnamangalam panchayat president Shameena Vellakkatte. “The classes they conducted for us were extremely informative and worked towards spreading awareness among the people.”  According to Shameena, the classes were so effective many took it upon themselves to clean their localities. “Since everyone got cleaned their locales, we had very less work on Gandhi Jayanthi day.” When contacted a representative of the school management committee, he said provisions will be made to improve the infrastructure of the school. 

Efforts for a safe, hygienic bathroom
It's not just the premises that got a facelift. The toilets too underwent a magical transformation. The 18 bathrooms in the school now boast Gujarat glass tiles that provide enough light even when there is a power outage, paintings depicting the Harappan and Egyptian civilisations, and a banner that says 'Sanitation is more important than Independence'.  There are separate bathrooms for girls and boys and each has washbasins, mirrors, accessibility for physically challenged students and tall roofs to allow enough passage of air.

 “The second major concern was the unhygienic condition of the bathrooms. The constant pungent smell emanating from the toilets made many students sick. Moreover, they lacked proper roofs and washbasins. Under the leadership of Aeknathan, we began our work in April 2016 and finished it before the start of the new academic year," says M P Indira, the former headmistress of the school.  According to Indira, while clearing the land to renovate the bathrooms, they recovered 22 sacks of plastic, one sack of bottles and half a sack of other solid wastes from the soil.

 Can you lend me a pen?
In another initiative called ‘Kootu tharu, peana tharam’ the volunteers of the Suchithwa Sena went around collecting discarded pens. For every 10 discarded pen, a new pen was given to the donor. Under this initiative, the students were able to collect nearly 12,000 pens by December 2016.  Of these 8,000 were donated to create Kochi Biennale installation works.