Marie Kondo may be the world’s popular tidying-up guru, but worldwide, several ‘cleanfluencers’ are making tidying up fun. Well, that’s the power of social media — it can make a drab and boring chore into an ‘Instagrammable’ activity.
In Kerala, the State Suchitwa Mission is playing one such ‘cleanfluencer’. The mission’s Instagram handle is full of perky videos, where the message to keep our surroundings clean is conveyed with zest and satire.
Ambassadors of this outreach are not stellar personalities but regular Haritha Karma Sena workers who knock on doors every month to collect segregated waste. They pose, talk, mime, and even dance to tell people why it is necessary not to use plastic, to sort waste, and even how they, too, deserve respect.
In one such reel on Instagram, a bunch of pleasantly offended group of Karma Sena workers use the Hanumankind number ‘Big Dawgs’ to show their aghast at finding food leftovers in plastic wrappers.
“There was a reason to use these workers. They are usually shown the door when they go to collect waste. Traditionally, too, they have been treated with disdain. We also used them to drive in the message that these women do a job that can prevent a catastrophe of the magnitude of the Brahmapuram incident that happened some years ago,” says Gokul Prasannan, expert, Information, Education, and Communication wing of the mission.
IEC is a component of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, handled in Kerala by the Suchitwa Mission. It aims to change the social outlook towards such social causes.
“Diverse media are used for it. For example, in a recent movie, there is a scene where the use of disposable cups is flagged as a concern. It leaves an imprint on people, which slowly leads to a stage of effecting behavioural changes. Our modules aim to attract the young-at-heart. The idea of the recently held ‘Vritti’ conclave was also that. We wanted people to visit an otherwise serious topic in a lively manner. They came for the fest like they would go to IFFK or Biennale,” says Gokul.
The Suchitwa Mission’s Instagram handle also has interviews with people who make a difference. One such digi tete-a-tete was with a caretaker at the Government Medical College and Hospital, who has set up a garden turning redundant toilet commodes into plant bases.
There are also real stories of how Karma Sena workers deserve to be treated — one video has two Karma Sena workers chancing upon good words written on paper chits kept in corners of a home (a la treasure hunt). In one of the chits, the owner asks them not to leave before taking a break with water kept ready for them.
“Our latest Instagram campaign is ‘Perumazhaykku Oru Muzham’. When said fast and in repeat, the line becomes a tongue twister. The fun in the twist deftly drive in the need for management of self and surroundings during monsoon. We even have Thrissur District Collector Arjun Pandyan doing a small role in the play,” he says.
The staff of Suchitwa Mission, too, star in the videos, even shaking a leg to upbeat tunes.
“Such pep moves are game changers. Marie Kondo or the Mrs Hinch feeds on insta may feed upon the spotless surface syndrome, but here, the task is to create a community to keep nature healthy for the future. For this, it takes people who work for the cause and those for whom the cause is being worked for,” says Athira Josephine, who follows the Instagram handles — of both Suchitwa and Mrs Hinch.
