Modi urges youths to join Clean India mission

Prime Minister Narendra Modi Thursday urged the youths to connect with him in the task of ensuring a clean India by 2019, saying that it was responsibility of "every child of Mother India" to remove the blot on her.

In a message on public broadcaster Doordarshan, the prime minister said that he wanted to create a movement for cleanliness through the social media.

"I call upon lakhs of youth to connect with me," Modi said.

He said special clean India website has been created and urged people to connect through social media including Facebook and Twitter.

He said people can upload photos and videos of the cleanliness work done by them and share it on social media at #MyCleanIndia.

Modi, who invited nine eminent people including actors on the stage at the function at India Gate to carry forward the message of cleanliness, suggested to the youths to connect with nine of their friends on social media with a cleanliness message.

"It should become a public movement for cleanliness," Modi said.

"This (cleanliness) should not become a programme of leaders. It should be a programme of people," the prime minister said.

He said people should not spread filth and pick up garbage if they see any.

"If this habit is cultivated, filth and dirt will go...The picture will change if all of us become cleaners," he said.

Modi said many governments had contributed to the task of cleanliness and the responsibility now came to him.

"This is not shramdan (voluntary labour) for me. This is shramanubhav (experience of labour) and it connects me with every citizen," Modi said.

Modi said the prime minister is also a child of Mother India like any other of its 125 crore citizens.

"It is the duty of all 125 crore citizens that the blot on Mother India about lack of cleanliness...we have to remove it as her son, her daughter, her child. We have to do it together," Modi said.