NEW DELHI: In a first, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has directed the 10-lakh strong Central paramilitary forces personnel to participate in an essay competition as part of the ongoing pan-India cleanliness campaign ‘Swachcha Hi Sewa’.The essay will have a word limit of 3,000 and three best entries from each of the seven paramilitary forces will be rewarded with a cash component and citation.
Personnel from Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF), Border Security Force (BSF), Indo-Tibetan Border Police Force (ITBP), Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), National Security Guards (NSG) and the Assam Rifles (AR) will participate.
The uniformed personnel have also been asked to participate in the campaign by sending videos of 2-3 minutes duration to improve cleanliness in India. Three best videos from each paramilitary will be rewarded.“The idea is to inculcate a spirit of cleanliness in the public consciousness. Personnel of Central paramilitary forces are deployed all across the country, and people have an impression that they are disciplined, punctual and secular. The forces’ enlistment with the cleanliness campaign has a potential of spreading the message far and wide and across the communities. They can act as role models to the people,” an MHA official said.
The evaluation of the essays and videos would be based on the novelty of ideas, simplicity of the message and its potential to induce behavioral changes with regard to the approach towards cleanliness, the official said.The Swachhta Hi Seva Campaign aims to mobilise people to get directly involved with the Swachh Bharat Mission by offering shramdaan (service) for swachhta (cleanliness) in the fortnight leading up to Gandhi Jayanti on October 2.
The personnel will participate in an essay competition as part of the ongoing pan-India cleanliness campaign