BANGALORE: There is not much difference between a young mind and clay, both can be easily moulded. YUVA an NGO run by students, based out of Jain University is making the most of this fact. They are currently running a campaign, ‘No Litter’, where they are urging schools and students to not litter. They have managed to get 10,000 signatures for students studying in nine schools in the city for their campaign.YUVA has so far had many campaigns including the likes of puppy adoption drive, newspaper collection drive, anti-cracker bursting drive and more. “At the moment we are concentrating on the No Litter drive. Our target are school students for the same, said Akshita Shah, representative for the Non Governmental Organisation. Shah explained the primary reason for focusing on students was that ‘young minds are easier to mould’. “Children take oaths and promises more seriously than adults do. If the right kind of practices are preached to them at the right age, they are more likely to follow it through adulthood as well. Moreover, when adults see children complying to their civic responsibilities they are likely to follow suit and mind their behaviour as well. We are trying to motivate children to do the right thing by not littering so that they can set an example for others as well,” she asserted.After narrowing down on the schools, the members of the organisation speak with the principal of the school about the drive. pOnce the permission to speak with the students is granted they go ahead and talk about the necessity of keeping surroundings clean and the ill-effects of littering. “We speak to the students for ten minutes and ask them to take an oath not to litter, after which they are handed out a hard copy of the pledge at the bottom of which there is an acknowledgement slip. The students are asked to sign the slip,” she informed.When asked about how the organisation can ensure that if the students are actually keeping their word, Shah was quick to add that the entire exercise is a two phase programme. “The first part is taking the pledge orally while the second involves signing the acknowledgement. A class representative from each class is appointed who motivates his classmates to stay true to the oath they took. We also send them regular mails reminding them about the same and then do follow-ups,” she said.The programme has seen various students from schools like Oxford Senior Secondary (ICSE and state), St Joseph High school, United Mission, Baldwin Boys High School, Sishu Griha Montessori & High School and Bharath Vidyaniketan sign up for the drive. Depending on the age group, the speaker educates the students about keeping the city clean. “The really young children are encouraged to avoid disposing off garbage in a story-telling manner, while the older ones are spoken to in ‘their lingo’,” she said.
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