Rajasthan’s Kota Community leads grassroot cleanliness movement

Community-led initiative succeeds while ‘Swachch Bharat’ stays on paper

While various cleanliness initiatives launched by the government have flopped on the ground, a community-led, low-profile initiative is making its impact felt in Kota and its environs in Rajasthan.

With India’s environmental issues increasing day by day, ranging from air and water pollution, land degradation, waste management issues, among other concerns, community-based sustainable actions are gaining popularity. 

India generates over 60 million tonnes of waste annually, with plastic, electronic and other hazardous waste growing rapidly, of which over 60 pc goes untreated. While the government has introduced initiatives like the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Green India Mission, National Action Plan for Climate Change, Mission LiFE, among others, their impact remains on paper, even as waste heaps sprawl across the country. However, some community-based sustainability actions driven by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and youth groups are plugging the gap and making meaningful impact on the situation on ground.

One such initiative is Kota Community group, started by Gulshan Manwani and his wife, Mayuri Manwani, in 2023, which has been working on maintaining clean surroundings in and around Kota in Rajasthan. 

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“I hail from Banswara, a small city in Rajasthan, and shifted to Kota in 2020. On one fine evening in 2023, when my wife and I were roaming around Kota Barrage, a dam located on the Chambal River, we saw heaps of garbage lying around. Since we were with our relatives, we brought to their notice the issue and asked about their opinion but to our surprise they quickly put the blame on the government on how no action was being taken by them. At that moment, both, my wife and I, realised that the government and the people in this country keep playing a blame game rather than working on solutions for the problem. So, we decided to clean the place on our own and posted a photo for a cleanliness drive on our private Instagram page, now called the Kota Community. To our surprise, we received responses from four to five people who were interested in cleanliness drives,” Manwani tells Media India Group. 

“Since that day, every Sunday we have been organising these drives. Initially, we used to conduct them at public places and later switched to holy places like temples, where litter today is more than in a normal place, which was quite shocking for us,” he adds. 

In the last three years, the cause initiated by Manwani and his wife has grown from a private Instagram page to a social-cause-driven platform with over 20,000 followers which has organised more than 75 drives across 30 temples and 45 public spaces in not just Kota but nearby cities, including Boondi and Udaipur, among others.  

Volunteers for the drives mainly include students and teachers in government schools and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who have been lending a helping hand to the community by providing financial assistance and tools required for cleaning. 

Speaking about the number of volunteers joining for the cleanliness drives, Manwani says that the minimum count of people who have joined have been around 15 to 20. 

“On days when we do a combined society drive with Nagar Nigam or a bigger institute, over 500 people join the drive. As a part of the “Pehal ek Kadam,” we have also been recognised by the Asia Book of Records for conducting a 101-hour-long cleanliness drive in 2024,” says Manwani.

Manwani acknowledges that simply collecting community drives cannot reduce garbage and says that Kota Community goes beyond just the drive itself. “Before organising every drive, we contact the municipal officers-in-charge who provide us with trucks in which we dump the garbage collected, which is then sent to the trenching ground for proper decomposition,” he tells. 

In one of the longest drives conducted, which went over for approximately 11 days, Manwani says over 50 tonnes of garbage as collected from an auto garage area. 

Despite the numerous drives carried out, Manwani says that the good deeds carried out, the community has failed to gain recognition from the government and no efforts have been made to review new proposals sent. 

“We have been funding everything from our pockets. However, the expenditure does not stop us from carrying out our responsibilities as citizens and spreading awareness among others,” Manwani adds. 

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To have a long-term impact, the group has been keeping dustbins and banners at every public place cleaned and visits the area every two to three months to ensure that cleanliness is maintained. 

The group, along with the volunteers, has also been working on waste segregation. During cleanliness drives conducted in the temples, they segregate flowers and waste into drums for an easier dumping process.

Manwani believes that the lack of awareness among the public of the power they hold often ends in choosing a government that does not take proper measures. 

“What we have learnt during our time of conducting these drives is that the general public is not awake and neither do they have the unity. We keep blaming the government, but honestly, it is not just the fault of the government. If today, even 100 or say 200 people would unite and take action against the situation, the conditions in the country would change. Sadly, we like to be in our own personal spaces and we need to learn that it is our responsibility to keep our surroundings and environment clean,” he adds.  

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On future plans, Manwani says that he is looking to take the initiative beyond Rajasthan, though their expansion will be limited by finances available.

“Since funding is a major issue for us, expanding across all parts of the country is a step which requires government recognition. However, we have spoken to volunteers and are planning to start our cleanliness activities in Jaipur and Mumbai,” he concludes.