TidyCity: Working Together For A Tidy City

Posted by Cris in News, Other | 2 comments

In January 2009, 5 people gathered at Museum to talk about what they could do to make a difference in bringing about a clean Trivandrum. A blog came about to put their thoughts in and it came to be called Tidycity.org. It was decided that in place of long plans for future, action had to take place right away – actions that could tell people “Hey we are doing something here for our city. Why don’t you join us?”

Thus on 1st February 2009, the first actions came about – a voluntary clean-up at the Museum. When the authorities asked them who they were, they said “TidyCity”. And thus was launched the initiative that strived to remind people we had a responsibility, and a change of attitude was the need of the hour.
February 1st was a Sunday. Every Sunday afterwards, TidyCity dedicated 2 hours in the evening to alert, talk, bring awareness, and learn about how bad the sanitation situation was and how we could all pitch in to make a difference. A number of clean-ups followed in the Museum, the Kanakakunnu palace, at the beaches, in the streets and in residential colonies where it could spread a message to the public. There were surveys and rallys, efforts to coordinate with the government, talks from waste management experts, and campaigns like ‘Bus Ticket Campaign’.
TidyCity placed no restrictions on who could be part of the group or the boundaries that it covered. Anyone from anywhere and of any age could be part of the group. The idea is to work together and spread the message to as many people as possible.

People kept complaining “We have no bins to throw away the waste and hence wehave no option”. TidyCity kept trying to find alternatives, suggesting other options. But there had to be a permanent solution. We tried to study the existing system we have in place. A visit to the coporation office with a request for bins in public places was met with an explanation of the government’s no-bin policy they adopted after feeling bins proved more burdensome. A member visited the Vilappilsala complex where all the waste was processed and saw how the plastic waste was capped into hills. A visit to the biogas office was met with a number of suggestions on how the degradable waste could be processed in households.

Says Anil Sreedhar, a long time member of the group: “As TidyCity is on its way to celebrate its one year of efforts to bringing about a change, we hope more people will join in the fight cause we are sure a lot of things could happen when we all work together.”

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