If you happen to litter roads or lanes in Meghalaya from now on, you might land up in a piquant 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 protector of the environment.
Children will blow their whistle which acts as a weapon to stop people from violating against the environment such as throwing of garbage, mud, emission of smoke and others,” Mr. Chatterjee said.
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 duty of the whistle-blower would be to prevent people from littering streets or engaging in other means of polluting the environment.
“The students should make good use of the whistles and not blow them unnecessarily,” Mr. 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.
The respective environment clubs, assisted by the teachers, would form the guidelines regarding the blowing of whistles, Mr. Chatterjee said.
Emphasizing on the need to include every one in the society in the cause of safeguarding the environment, Mr. Chatterjee urged the community leaders to come down heavily on highway polluters and those who dump filth recklessly.
“There was need to make the surroundings more sterile so that Shillong can become a centre of attraction for tourists,” the former chief secretary said.
