Whistle Army to help clean Meghalaya

Press Trust Of India / Shillong November 04, 2009, 0:37 IST

From now on, if you happen to litter roads or lanes in Meghalaya, you might land up in a tricky situation when a child jawan nearby blows a whistle in remonstration.

In a unique initiative, school students have been roped in to become active participants in changing the mindset of people towards environment in this hill state.

The initiative, called the Sustainable Environment through Whistle Army (SEWA), is a brainchild of former chief secretary Ranjan Chatterjee.

“The main objective in empowering the students with the whistle is that they act as the protectors of environment. Children will blow their whistle to stop people from violating against the environment such as throwing of garbage, mud, emission of smoke and others,” Chatterjee added.

So far, children from 18 different schools have been given whistles after they were inducted into the movement and told what their role would be.

“The students should make good use of the whistles and not blow them unnecessarily,” Chatterjee said.

As part of SEWA, the students will form environment clubs in their respective schools. They will be sent to certain localities once a week to ensure cleanliness.

Some schools have already formed environment clubs while others are in the process of forming them.