Pune, Maharashtra: Shekhar Mundhra, an Art of Living teacher, started the ‘Aadarsh Pune’ project with the thought that the city had given so much to its residents and therefore it was time to give her something back. “It is every citizen’s responsibility to keep the city clean, safe and in a healthy condition. We take care of our house but rarely do we spend time and resources to keep our community clean, healthy or safe,” says Shekhar.
The project started with the cleaning of the Mula and Mutha rivers, which are the primary source to meet the water needs of the city but have become one the most polluted rivers in the nation. The Mula-Mutha River cleaning drive started under the Adarsh Pune Abhiyan, where more than 100 volunteers came together and filled 32 huge bags with garbage from the river in merely two hours. Local MLA Vinayak Nimhan, BJP Secretary Sandeep Khardekar and education mandal member Manju Khardekar also came forward to serve Pune city.
“June 29th 2014 started with mixed emotions. That was the day Pune was going to witness the first ever freeze mob addressing environmental issues,” says Swati Dawari. “After eight clean up drives in Mula-Mutha from February 2014 to June 2014, this time we were adopting a unique way of making people aware of keeping the river and city clean,” she adds.
The freeze mob began at Sambhaji garden, where a group of people with different posters and banners froze for a few minutes in public. “I could see the nervousness on everyone’s face and a sense of uncertainty - What will happen? What I am supposed to do? What if I suddenly burst into laughter?” said a volunteer participating in the drive.
“We started with these thoughts and could see people passing by, getting confused and curious at the same time. Then some 40-50 of us froze with the posters in their hands, saying ‘Save Mula-Mutha,’ ‘Join us for Mula-Mutha revival,’ ‘Save water, life or river is in your hands,’ said Swati who works for an IT firm in Pune.
This campaign helped raise awareness amongst youngsters about the rivers and why we must save them.
