Bidar school students clean places of worship as part of ‘Swachhateye Seve’ campaign

The ‘Swachhateye Seve’ (Cleanliness is Service) campaign is being carried out in association with the Zilla Panchayat, Taluk Panchayat and the Kannada Sahitya Parishat. (Source: Special Arrangement)

Students of Shaheen Group of Institutions are cleaning places of worship in 18 villages in Bidar district in Karnataka, as part of ‘Swachhateye Seve’ (Cleanliness is Service) campaign.

They have cleaned temples, churches, mosques, hospitals, schools and other public buildings across the district. The campaign began on September 15, and will go on till October 2.

The campaign is being carried out in association with the Zilla Panchayat, Taluk Panchayat and the Kannada Sahitya Parishat.

Student volunteers

Students of Shaheen Group of Institutions have cleaned temples, churches, mosques, hospitals, schools and other public buildings across the district. (Source: Special Arrangement)

Every morning, the school buses drop off students in villages identified by the taluk panchayat officers. After volunteering, students hand over the sanitation kits to the managers or chairpersons of the temple committees in the villages. These kits were bought from the money raised by the students through voluntary donations.

Prateek Aigod, a student of the I PUC residential programme in Bidar campus, said he was thrilled to participate in the drive and described it as “a unique experience. Aigod, who hails from Uttara Kannada district said, “I have never been involved in such social service activities through school. I had also never spent time inside a mosque. While I had visited mosques for a short while in childhood during Moharram, this week, I spent over an hour there. I felt very happy when we completed cleaning the mosque at Mannalli village. Village residents thanked us and shook hands with us. I was touched. I will surely remember this for a long time,’’ he said.

Students are also are also creating awareness among the public about personal hygiene, house, road and village cleanliness.

“Shaheen does not just provide academic input. It aims at building the personality of students, by imparting social service education to all the students along with their curriculum. As a result, the students of the institution are involved in various social service activities,’’ said group chairman Abdul Qadeer.

Deputy Commissioner Govind Reddy has appreciated the work of these students. Speaking during the inauguration of the drive, he asked students to develop social responsibility and empathy.