One of the dirtiest villages until a few years ago, is now the cleanest and zero-waste village in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. People of this village who used to walk in knee-deep cow dung are now breathing fresh air from green trees without their nostrils getting blocked with the foul smell of litter. The members of Swachch Silluk Abhiyan spend close to two hours every morning from 5am to 6am before they proceed to their regular jobs. Every two weeks, the whole community comes together to clean their village. 

 

The Point of Realisation: 

 

In 2018, a few people of this village realised that their village is unhygienic and such filthy conditions are not good for health and wellness of the people. They thus decided to take up the cleanliness drive. They formed SSA - Swachch Silluk Abhiyan. Who shall be readily inviting a change initially. It takes a lot to change the mindsets of people. Here in this village too, people were not initially ready to keep the village clean and control their cows and pigs. But once SSA went and cleaned their compounds, they found their own compounds attractive and beautiful - that's where people got convinced and began to lend their hand to keep their village clean.  

 

Today, the garbage and dung on the roads is vanished. All that we see is rejoicing trees and clean roadways. Even kids are a part of this mission and they know what to do to keep their village clean. The people along with SSA were so deeply focussed on cleaning their village that they didn't even realise when their village has become the cleanest one in the state.

 

More Steps Forward: 

 

An NGO came forward to make the efforts of these villagers pay more. Having identified that the plastic problem is still prevailing, they introduced 'magic bags' where dry waste is collected. The organic kitchen waste is dropped in the compost pits arranged by them, to turn it into manure. With this, from being the cleanest village, it became the first zero-waste village in the state. 

 

Why not other villages take their example and work towards achieving this goal? So that we can see a better, cleaner, healthier and liveable India! Well, did I tell you the name of the village? It's the Silluk village in the East Siung district of Arunachal Pradesh - the role model!