On Gandhi Jayantim, when the nation revises the vision of Mahatmy Gandhi about pure India, Indore stands tall with the legend of the cleanest city in the country for seven consecutive years. But how deeply did this vision penetrate the city schools where future citizens formed? A closer look shows that while Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has created visible awareness, institutional integration into the curriculum and school life remains uneven.
Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, launched in 2014, was published to transform hygiene and waste management throughout the country. Indore, often called “purity of India”, was in the foreground of this mission. Thanks to the combination of strict urban enforcement, public participation and community campaigns, the city has remarkably improved in the field of waste management and has built a systematic rather than a psychological culture, where purity is considered to be a shared citizen.
The Indore model was a combination of innovation and discipline through awareness of markets, residential colonies and schools. In Shishukunj International School, Indore, the best-rated co-day school in Madhya Pradesh, cleanliness is referred to as part of a general social responsibility rather than as a structured learning. Anshu Jain, a student of a class 7 student, says: “There are often discussions about awareness where students learn to maintain roads and monuments clean and not litter in public areas. However, there are no specific curriculum modules in Swachh Bharat in textbooks or activities.
Some other schools, however, took modest steps to weaving purity to life in the classroom. In Delhi, a public school (PCB), an Indore, which ranks among the best co -founder schools in the state, a social studies teacher and the Coordinator of the Department, Rahela Ahmed, explained: “In class 6 we teach the chapter on” Work “where Swachh Bharat Abhiyan is based on chapters.
Mrs. Rahela remembered one such event that class 3 students organized a assembly: “As soon as we had a assembly where the students made posters dressed as plastic bottles, garbage baskets and picked up the garbage in the school complex, even though it was not appeared in purity they had to learn in practice.
From the administrative party, Indore Municipal Corporation (IMC) says it regularly addresses schools, especially around Swachh Survekshan surveys. Sandeep Pathodi, Chief Medical Director, explained that teams were attended by schools and coaching institutes to meet the awareness of the mission. “We explain to students how Indore consistently ranked first because of collective efforts, and we encourage them to transfer the same habits of maintaining roads and houses of clean and segregation waste,” he said.
This session often focuses on practical aspects, such as the proper use of garbage bins, discouragement from waste and proper disposal of packaging and everyday waste. In addition to the classrooms, IMC also organizes visits to the exhibition, organizes school groups on the ditch land of the city to show how waste is segregated and processed on a large scale.
The effort to raise awareness also applies to the urban landscape. Images on Indore’s paths and selected walls are part of the IMC field program, which aims to remind citizens of the target of cleanliness in public spaces. Similar units are also carried out in corporate offices, hospitals and other institutions, ensuring that the Swachhata message will be reinforced across several settings.
According to Udis+ 2024-25, Madhya Pradesh has made significant progress in hygiene, more than 99% of schools state that both girls and boy’s toilets, with more than 98% of them functional. However, the gaps remain in the hands for washing hands and everyday hygienic practices, especially in rural or radius schools, where one -off activities during the Gandhi Jayanti or Swachht Pakhwad often replace continuous wiring.
On the Gandhi Jayanti, because the city is proud of its laurels of purity, many teachers emphasize that the movement must start in the classroom. As Indore celebrates the national recognition of purity, the classrooms throughout the city illustrate progress and challenges ahead of us, which shows that the journey to pure India can begin with habits cultivated by its youngest citizens.
Published – 3 October 2025 01:02 IS IS
