Swachagraha - Take your pledge today!

SwachaGraha is a citizen driven campaign initiated by the Solid Waste Management Round Table Bangalore to address garbage woes in Namma Bengaluru turning our garden city into a garbage city.The campaign challenges you to make you look at the waste you generate as a resource just by starting three green spots.

What are the three green spots?
GreenSpot 1 - Your Composting Spot
Green Spot 2 - Your Garden where you use your compost
Green Spot 3 - Your kitchen, where you cook from vegetables and greens from your garden

How is my Green Spot 1 beneficial?

Swachagraha aims to educate you to understand that Composting is a smell free, non messy, easy peasy process which will reduce your carbon foot print.  60% of the waste every household throws can be managed by composting.  Just by starting this simple process of composting your own wet waste, you will be avoiding it from getting dumped in landfills which will pollute our land, water and air.

How is my Green Spot 2 beneficial?

When you grow your food in your second green spot, you will be blessed with fresh oxygen to breathe from your plants. The plants will grow from your compost and any remains will go back to your compost bin too. Understanding this circle of life with a hands on, in as less space as a small balcony is a soulful experience beyond words. Its therapeutic and will make you a much happier human being. Gardening along with other innumerable benefits teaches you such wonderful skills for life! Its a great family bonding activity too!

How is my Green Spot 3 beneficial?

Imagine harvesting a fresh bunch of palak for palak paneer or cucumbers for a salad, the joy is inexplicable. Technically, you will be saving so much of energy by growing safe food in the confines of your balcony. How? - here's how - 

• You will save fuel energy used to transport your vegetables from a farm 
• You will save energy wasted on herbicides, fungicides and insecticides; all used to grow vegetables in a non-organic set up just by adding your home made compost
• You will save energy used for packaging the vegetables by your supermarket
• You will save energy used by huge refrigeration equipment to keep your vegetables fresh even after days of harvesting it!

Here's a picture of Green spots in my community.

Why should you take the pledge?

Composting is going to save Namma Bengaluru and its one of the coolest things you can do these days. Why else will you see the government talking about it and leading dailies covering about it in Page 2/3 of their newspapers!!

I have taken the pledge because I wish I can leave behind a rich and beautiful legacy of clean air, water and resources for the future generations, because like an old African proverb goes -

"We Do Not Inherit the Earth from Our Ancestors; We Borrow It from Our Children"

So guys, if you think you want to see a cleaner city, take the pledge, start composting, reach out to many more.  Swachagraha is a one-of-a-kind green revolution where people come together to solve their civic problems. Every pledge counts! The target of this campaign is to get a million bangaloreans to start composting, that's why we want your count too!

What will happen after you take a pledge on the swachagraha website?

You will receive an email on the email address you registered with telling you about a simple technique of composting. This is just to show you how easy peasy composting really is. Further when you click on "HOME " button, you will be getting a list of individual and community composting solutions, all listed out with contact numbers for your greater benefit and faster reach.

Link to Individual composting solutions

You finally decide which method you want to follow and go ahead. You will be directed to vendor websites from once your click on the BUY button.

How can you decide among different systems listed?

If you are looking at individual composting solutions, decide between aerobic and anaerobic methods. Like i already mentioned, you will receive an email from the Swachagraha team with a video of a simple home composting solution. You can start doing that right away, or if you want to explore other options too, join our FB page - SwachaGraha and ask away all your doubts and questions. No question is silly and all of us are here to help you out to start composting.

I am convinced that i should start composting, but I am hesitant to start. How can you help?

We have a huge set of mentors and volunteers as a part of the Swachagraha campaign who will readily help you out and make you start. Discuss proactively and you will find that much needed inspiration to start off. Take the "ONE WEEK CHALLENGE".

This challenge calls for layering your veggie and fruit peels in a container with holes with innoculated cocopeat layer alternately. The container can be anything from your unused carton box with holes drilled for aeration to a plastic bucket with holes drilled or terracotta containers. These containers can also be bought. Do this for a week and keep your container aside. After 25 days you will end up in rich compost. This way you will gain confidence in the system, to start off with all your kitchen waste. Do it to believe it, really! 

We are a big community, How can i get more people to compost in this setup?

More the merrier,  Schools, colleges, organisations, apartment complexes fall into this category. Here we are challenging  people in these institutions to take up the "SWACHAGRAHA COMMUNITY PLEDGE". 

Declare the day beforehand and request the people in your organisation to get vegetable and fruit peels on a single day.You can use the invitation available on the swachagraha website to declare the event in your organisation.

Link for Posters

Get each one of them to drop off their peels in the composting drum and add inoculated coco peat to layer it. This is such a humbling activity and will put people from all strata to come together for a great cause.Keep them updated with information of how composting is going on and finally when compost is ready, get them to touch and smell it. This way we are targeting to change the mindsets of people who otherwise thought wet waste was of no use. Further, request each person who participated to take the pledge online and initiate composting at their home/community.

I want to help my friends to compost? How can i do that?

Talk as much as you like to your friend about composting, guide them and get him/her to start off with the one week challenge and post pictures of your activities on Swachagraha Facebook page or email. It will motivate many more friends for life out there to do that!!

Whichever method you start off with, be it community pledge or one week challenge, record your activities and share your pictures over email or on our Facebook page!! This is what is most important, because this being a citizen driven campaign, we need to inspire more people. Remember the Dandi March for our independence? Why is it so popular in history - because people, real people came together and voiced their opinion. These people were the ones who challenged the British that they could think differently and could inspire others. Today, we have a struggle of a different magnitude, a struggle for clean air, water and land. This struggle will affect all the generations that come after us. So lets buck up now and act upon. Lets challenge others to look at waste as a resource. Lets start the three green spots for a better Bengaluru and most importantly inspire each other. That's when we will truly leave a mark similar to the freedom struggle in Indian Independence. So start today and this will be your chance to change the world. 

Website : www.swachagraha.in

Email : swachagraha@gmail.com

Signing off with the tag line of Swachagraha - "BE THE CHANGE YOU WANT TO SEE IN THE WORLD!!"