“Swachh Bharat” (Clean India) campaign in WGSHA

Inspired by Prime Minster Shri Narendra Modi’s call for a ‘Swachh Bharat’ or ‘CleanIndia’, the students of Welcomgroup Graduate School of Hotel Administration and Department of Culinary Arts , Manipal Academy of Higher Education joined hands and took up brooms and garbage bags to clean up the neighbourhood in and around the college. 

On October 29, 2014, as part of their Experiential Learning, a few students of IV year BHM chose the area behind their hostels in ‘Ganesh Bagh’ to clean up household garbage and waste accumulation in the roadside and corners. The clean-up was also assisted by hostel staff for removing shrubs and bushes near the gates. With the excitement and enthusiasm in abundance, it was in no time that the area transformed into a much cleaner and shining place where students hang out in the evenings.

On October 31, 2014, a group comprising BHM and Culinary Arts students reached Parkala Bus stand, an area near Manipal. Soon after, wearing musks and gloves, they were busy picking up loose pieces of plastic, waste items, bottles around the bus stand, and, to amazement and also slight embarrassment of the local shopkeepers, auto-rickshaw drivers, and passers-by,  in an hour or so, the whole area became much cleaner than what it was  before. 

The students and staff are planning a series of such activities over a year to educate the neighbours as well as themselves on the importance and outcome of such clean-up campaigns, in terms of health & wellness and also the environment.