Facelift - an Initiative

FACELIFT-an initiative

I founded FACELIFT as a part of my action plan at the Brown University Leadership Institute during my summer school at Brown University with the objective of being a ‘socially responsible leader’ in my community.

If you cannot do great things, do small things in a great way.

-Napoleon Hill

"Our cities are the dirtiest in the world. If there is a Nobel Prize for dirt and filth, India will win it hands down."

-Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment.

"I know that in India throwing rubbish out of a window and total disregard for the cleanliness of a public area is normal behavior … in London this is not acceptable behavior.

-Lucy Ivimy, Councilor, London

Why is the ‘Right to Litter’ a fundamental right in India?

• How can we live in such filth?
  
• Why do we care about our homes and not the street ?
  
• Is it because that is someone else’s job?

Why have we given up?

• Is it that hard for us to get basic sanitation right?
  
• Putting an Indian on the moon seems easier than keeping an Indian street clean.

ACTION PLAN

1. Mission Statement: The larger purpose of my project is to improve the aesthetics of my community by making people realize that it is their responsibility to keep their surroundings clean rather than complaining about the filth. I want to accomplish my mission of making places garbage free as well as make the community aesthetically sound. While some citizens and elected representatives focus on system-level big-picture long-term solutions, we wish to spend a few hours every week focusing on local 'spots' and fixing them to the best of his ability.

1. Goals:

1. Spreading awareness for the need to keep our community clean.
2. Gathering youth volunteers to help in accomplishing the mission.
3. Organize spot-fixing and cleanliness drives by choosing to fix a particular location every weekend.
4. Creating a network on social media to connect volunteers with our work schedule, spread awareness, showcasing our activities and encouraging more people to join us in our activities.
5. Educating rural citizens as well as School students, what it means to keep your community clean.

1. Issues and Background: India has the largest population of any country in the world other than China, housing 17.4 percent of the Earth’s population, and it’s expected to soon overtake the land of the panda. It grows ever more powerful, along with the other BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India and China). One small problem is that, in the words of Sunita Narain, director of the non-governmental Centre for Science and Environment, “We are drowning in our excreta.” India is rapidly transforming itself into the largest rubbish dump in the world. The waste in many places in India is openly disposed on streets and neighborhoods. This waste becomes a breeding place for many disease carrying vectors and has adverse health impacts on humans. Even animals like cows, buffalos and street dogs who often tend to eat up the waste material causing health hazards and resulting in death.  There are so many ugly spots in India which need to be fixed.

The plan is mainly focused on two theories, ‘The Broken Windows Theory’ and ‘Tragedy of the Commons Theory’. The Broken Windows Theory states that of a place is ugly, it becomes uglier and if a place is beautiful, it commands respect. The Tragedy of The Commons Theory states that, we care for our private spaces, we don’t care about our public spaces. India is the perfect example of both these theories in action. So if we go by the Broken Windows Theory, a place where there is a little garbage will tend to be accumulated with more garbage while if all the garbage is cleaned up, and the place is made to look beautiful, a person will think twice before littering at that place.

Thus, through this project I intend to aspire volunteers from my school, which is the one of the best schools in India to creating a network through social media to engage youths to make our community so beautiful that every citizen would feel guilty to even drop a piece of paper in that surrounding.

I intend to involve improving minor infrastructural problems which the government cannot concentrate on a regular basis such as uncovered drains, open pits on footpaths and unmaintained dustbins, all of which are very prevalent in India.

Through the course of our program we will educate children in different schools of the city and also those in the slums adopted by my school so that they have a clear understanding of the need to manage waste effectively and keep your surroundings clean. We must spread the notion that if there is a problem, you go fix it and others will join you.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Be the change you want to see” and I have always wanted to see a clean India and thus I wish to be this change for society.

1. Action steps:

1. August 1-August 5(2015): Presenting my action plan to my School Social Service coordinator and acquire permission to implement this plan.
2. August (2nd and 3rd week): Contact and seek support from “The Ugly Indian” which has inspired me to implement this plan.
3. August (4th week): Seeking permission from the Dehradun Municipal Commissioner, Mr. Nitin Bhadauri and from the Indore Municipal Commissioner Mr. Manish Singh seeking permission for making spot-fixes at various ugly locations in the city.
4. September (1st week): Present my Action Plan to my entire school and gather volunteers to work for the plan.
5. September (2nd week): Create a network on social media to gather volunteers throughout the city of Dehradun, where my school is and Indore, the city where I live. This will connect all those who wish to work towards this cause and want to help to us in any way.
6. September (3rd week): Connect with the “Waste Warriors” NGO in Dehradun to gather volunteers and help.

1. Resources:

1. I will need some basic materials for my plan like sweeping tools, gloves, garbage cleaning instruments and paint.
2. I will also need some financial resources to implement the plan. This will come from major Businesses and Companies which I am attached to like “Sundervan Gardens” and “Elixir Greens” as a part of their “Corporate Social Responsibility.”

• I would approach the CSR chief ONGC (Oil and Natural Gas Corporation) in the city of Dehradun as my school is attached to them due to its heritage status. The ONGC is well known for its CSR and has been awarded the Maharatna status by the government. It had a CSR budget of 2688 million INR in 2010. The ONGC takes active part in Infrastructure support near operational areas and thus would be of great help. Mr. Ashok B. Chakraborty.

1. Children from my school who can benefit from serving the society in order to fulfill certain mandatory social service hours.
2. My friend who will be my partner in this project because it will not be possible for me to handle and co-ordinate everything by myself. I believe that the ideas and views of more than one person are necessary to implement any plan successfully.
3. My School Social Service Coordinator at school and my mother who will support me at home.

1. The Pitch: 

1. My School Social Service coordinator whose permission is required for me to go out of school and implement my action plan and also to allow me to educate and create awareness among children in rural areas for the need to keep our locality clean. I will pitch in my project to her in a way which complies with her interests. We are allowed to leave school on a daily basis for our social work and thus it will be easy for me to convince her as this work will be conducted on a weekly basis.
2. The Municipal Corporations of the cities I will be working in: I believe that I will be able to convince the Municipal commissioners to implement my plan because I am reducing the government’s task to fix small things at different places. By doing this we are making the government believe that Yes, the people do care about the aesthetics. I will convince him as our work is not harming any part of the city in any way, nor are we forcing people to work. The Municipal Corporation obviously would appreciate the citizens taking self-responsibility and making the city a better place.
3. Mr. Ashok B. Chakraborty, the Chief for CSR in ONGC who will be providing financial assistance for my plan. As I mentioned before, ONGC has had very good relations with our school and takes active part in infrastructural operations and cleanliness drives as well as provides financial assistance.

1. Challenges:

1. Gathering volunteers and convincing youths for the need to address such a problem.
2. Giving incentive to students to work for the project. I will overcome this challenge by helping volunteers who work for this project complete their mandatory social service hours (15 hours a term). The other rural volunteers from the villages we are attached to will be exposed to the Urban World. They will be taken to a place every month like a Mall, a food place, a museum or a film. This will expose them to the Urban world, show them how civilized we must be and will give them incentive to make their locality a better place.
3. Maintaining the spots fixed by us to prevent them from future damage or filth.
4. As we are in a boarding school, for me and my partner to carry out this project at school and at our hometowns when we go back for holidays will be a major challenge. We will have to manage work at both locations effectively.

1. Sources:

www.hindustantimes.com