SAIIER 2021:Auroville Cleanup Group

Payanam Cycling Team		Auroville Pre-Crèche
Entity::Auroville Cleanup Group by Lakshmanan

The purpose of the project was to continue the ongoing work of the Auroville Cleanup Group round the year with regular Sunday cleanups and other joint cleanup activity on some specific days. The aim of Auroville Cleanup group is to create awareness of keeping the Auroville and its surroundings clean by running a regular demonstration through the activity. We aim to restore a beautiful, non-polluted environment. We aim to sensitize people to the beauty they are losing and to encourage them to protect and enhance that beauty by communal clean-ups, tree and shrub-planting, etc.

Description of project:

After the Covid pandemic lockdown, the regular Sunday cleanups resumed in September 2020, and on an average 20 people participate in this activity regularly.

There were several specific cleanup activities organized, other than the regular cleanup:

• World Environment Day (5 June 2020) - 30 people (approx.)
• World Cleanup Day (15 September 2020) - 50 people (approx.)
• Tree Planting with the Auroville Forest Group - November 2020 (around 30 people)
• Auroville Birthday week cleanup activity (21 February 2021) - 60 people (approx.)
• Cleanup at the Kali Temple (specifically to create awareness in the village, this was supported by Auroville village people)

The participants in these cleanups were Aurovilians, students of Auroville/ youth of Auroville and several young students from the bio-region. Auroville volunteers also got inspired and joined in several of the cleanup activities. The tree planting activity was done in association with the Forest Group, in Samriddhi community.

Outcomes:

The idea was to create awareness and bring together the community to work collectively towards a litter free Auroville. We feel that the benefit was for the community as a whole, and in specific to all the participants who did their part in keeping the community area and surrounding spaces clean. The demonstration through the activity was a major aspect which has inspired and made several other guests, workers/ employees motivated to keep the spaces clean.

Reflections:

The most meaningful part about the project was the participation and the enthusiasm from varied people to the cause.

There are several ongoing challenges related to this activity: even though we have been trying for about 20 years, still the community members and villages around are throwing waste on the roads, in the empty land etc. The villages around need much more awareness and attention as we move forward.

The major learning from the project is that as we move forward and continue this activity it is important to include more people from the villages, who in turn can assist creating this awareness around. We would also like to do more campaigns to keep the community and surroundings informed about waste management.

Conclusion:

We would like to continue this activity for many more years, and see how we can grow our group so that we can increase the reach and not be limited to Auroville places.