NEW DELHI: Setting an example for others to follow, several schoolchildren who had come to the Red Fort to hear Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day address, helped clean up after the event, collecting plastic waste, cups and banana peels littering the venue.
Students of the Rajkiya Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Yamuna Vihar, had volunteered to collect the waste, said their teacher Raj Kumar Maurya.
Deepanshi Tomar, 15, of Sarvodya Kanya Vidyalaya No. 1, Yamuna Vihar, said students had been asked to collect their used plastic water bottles in a paper bag.
“We made sure there was no littering. They were a few spots where plastic bottles and bags lay strewn around but we have collected and put them in the bins,” she said.
The children also carried home the prime minister’s message of reducing the use of single-use plastic.
Aaditya Baliyan, 15, of Rajkiya Sarvodaya Vidyalaya said, “The prime minister’s words will serve as an inspiration to everyone.
He is leading the cause and people need to do their bit. For it, it is important to make people aware of the devastating effects of plastic waste on the environment and their health.”
Another student, Komal, said: “I will avoid using polythene bags and would also ask my mother to use only cloth bags for her grocery shopping.”
Maurya, the teacher from Rajkiya Sarvodaya Vidyalaya, Yamuna Vihar, said, “We have been emphasising on reducing the use of single-use plastic in school. Children have a great influence on society. They are doing their bit at home, school and beyond,” he added.
During his address yesterday, the prime minister appealed to people to take a pledge on October 2 to make the country free of single-use plastic.
“Can we free India from single-use plastic? Can we take the first step towards this on October 2? I invite industries and start-ups to help recycle plastic,” Modi said.
He urged people to shift to cloth bags, encouraging shopkeepers to scrap the use of plastic bags.
In June last year, the prime minister had announced that India will eliminate all single-use plastic in the country by 2022.
With PTI inputs