HYDERABAD: A grassroots movement against casual littering, which sprang up in Secunderabad, is changing the face of the city, one bylane at a time.‘Fenko Mat’ (throw not) has consistently been spreading awareness against casual littering and dumping of garbage in the city. Launched by Medha Naniwadekar, an architect, the movement comprises cleanliness drives in residential suburbs as well as mindfulness programmes to encourage and sustain sanitation measures.
Medha and her team of volunteers take regular strolls in residential and commercial suburbs of the twin cities, keeping an eye out for garbage piles. Not only do they clean up dirty colonies, but also create awareness among residents and shopkeepers on keeping their surroundings tidy. “There are different kinds of littering. Before doing anything, we first analyse the problem. Lack of a dustbin or its careless placement is a major problem in commercial areas,” said Medha. “If there is a bin in front of each shop in any market area, littering would reduce drastically,” she added.
Most shop vendors in commercial areas dump garbage in front of their shops, and it remains untouched until the municipal sweeper arrives the next day, claimed Medha. “To prevent this, we have asked shop vendors to clean up litter beforehand. We also take up campaign from shop to shop and vendor to vendor, urging them to purchase bins,” she said.
Sustained sanitation
“Even if we clean up an area, it becomes dirty within a few days. To stop things from going back to square one, we conduct awareness drives among residents of the area,” the architect said.On Saturday, the citizen group conducted a sanitation drive at open plots in Sanikpuri through ‘shramdaan’ or voluntary labour. “In residential areas, we have to inculcate a sense of ownership in the public so that they take objection whenever someone dumps rubbish in their locality. We make places clean and usable, so that citizens think twice before they throw garbage,” Medha said.