A group of 12 people, in their mid-twenties to early-thirties cleared garbage in several localities in south Bengaluru as part of the citizen-launched “Clean Bengaluru campaign” on August 15th. Thousands of individuals from around the city had signed up in the preceding weeks on the website cleanbengaluru.com, and some NGOs joined the cause as well.

Representing Youth for Seva (YFS), one such NGO, the cleaning drive for the south zone started at 7 am from Hoskerehalli, near PESIT College. They moved on through Banashankari, Basavanagudi, JP Nagar, Jayanagar, BTM Layout and concluded at HSR Layout. Coordinating the drive was Vikshut Mundkar .

All the volunteers wore rubber gloves and masks while collecting garbage in trash bags. They were mostly visiting residential areas. After collecting the garbage, all the trash bags were kept at one location and the BBMP was informed by a text message. (The SMS mentioned the number of trash bags in the area and the location where they are left). However, Mundkar said he was not sure whether BBMP have done their job or not.

“We have not checked if the bags in any area were actually collected and we don’t know how to cross check", said Mundkar.

The group also spoke to the residents of the respective areas on not littering the surroundings and creating some awareness. "Most people kept complaining that the slum dwellers and poor people are littering but in reality in Basavanagudi we saw so many used cups from McDonalds and Cafe Coffee Day, will poor people use this?” asked one of the volunteers. The group also faced opposition from some areas saying, "Why are you people wasting time and what are you going to achieve of this?"

South zonal drive of the clean Bengaluru campaign. Pic: Supriya Khandekar.

However, they also got positive responses from other places and residents even joined in the cleaning, "In Kathrikuppe we had five residents, out of which some were students, joining us. In Basavangudi, two, and in JP Nagar one girl joined us in the campaign," added Mundkar.

The youngsters were enjoying the cleaning mission. They were cracking jokes and singing Hindi movie songs to entertain themselves.  But they were very disappointed by HSR Layout.  There, the whole place looked littered, said Mundkar, and added that at the same time residents were simply passing the buck and not accepting that they should not litter.

“Nobody here has ever seen a BBMP van coming to collect the garbage. And of what we can see there is only one public garbage bin for  six lanes or more. Thus there is garbage all over", concluded Mundkar, disappointed. The group had thought of going to Marathahalli after this but there were no volunteers from that side so they called off the mission at HSR Layout itself.

The YFS group did not cover all the lanes and streets in the areas they visited – only the parts they thought were not clean. "We had expected a bigger turnout of volunteers but not many came, in fact we cancelled visiting some areas because nobody volunteered from there," said M S Jagadeesha, a part time volunteer who works at Bosch as an engineer.  Around 35 people had volunteered initially to join this particular group, and 12 turned up. Some even dropped out because of the swine flu scare, added Jagadeesha.

North Bengaluru

Around 24 people cleaned up Kumara Park in Seshadripuram, all of them in the age group 17-20. They were all students of Sri Bhagwan Mahavir Jain College's Centre for Management Studies. Like elsewhere, they wore masks and gloves.

Manish Sankla, a final year BBM student, and co-founder of an NGO 'Yuva Ignited Minds' was one of them. These youth are very well aware about their own generation.  Sankla said his group wants to create awareness about not to litter public areas. “Kids come to parks, we have to keep it clean for them.” Another group was cleaning JC Road in the meantime.

East of here, in Frazer Town, it was a family-led affair. Nandu Asrani,  Director at an advertising agency in the city, was blunt. “The point is about where to throw the garbage. The habit of throwing garbage outside your house is ingrained”, he said. His mother, brother and nephew and couple of neighbours helped clean Spencer Road.  “People need to get together. The ultimate goal is for each part of Bangalore to get involved”, said Asrani.

Further east, the Bangalore International School (BIS) students, parents and teachers cleaned the entire area from the school until the Hennur cross road. Anu Munga, Principal of BIS, explained, “One of the parents Myriam and her husband Ajesh are behind this campaignWhen Myriam called me and explained the project, I thought it was a great initiative. We have community projects for all students starting from Grade 1 and we took up this campaign with much enthusiasm."

Members of the NGO 'Yuva Ignited Minds' cleaned Kumara Park in Seshadripuram. Pic: Vaishnavi Vittal.

The students, their parents and all the teachers participated in the cleanliness drive. They were equipped with gloves, masks, brooms and sticks to remove litter. The garbage collected was sent away to the BBMP landfill near Hosur Bande.

The school faces a vacant stretch with some small hutments. This area, thickly shrubbed and parthenium filled, runs parallel to the tarred road that leads to Hennur cross. The usually scene of strewn plastic bags, tattered clothes and other wastes that litter such vacant sites looked clean for a change.

Supriya Khandekar, Vaishnavi Vittal, Poornima Dasharathi and Pushpa Achanta contributed to the article.

See articles on