Calicut Beach Cleanup

Date: December 30th, 2012

On Sunday morning of December 30th, around 35 people in Calicut did something different. They- mainly students, onlookers, and a couple of families- joined hands with Yawp, a community collective of youth in Kerala, volunteered to clean up the beach premises of Calicut.

Over the years the beach had become a dumping ground for plastic materials and sewage waters, mostly thrown in by locals and tourists. With Yawp providing the basic infrastructure to carry forward change, a clean-up exercise lasting more than 2 hours was initiated. Yawp coordinators and founders took the lead in speaking to the local public and informing them about the need to keep our beaches clean, to prevent them from littering, and building up a sense of ownership towards them. They also cite alarming examples of India’s declining coastlines despite having such strict environmental legislation like the Coastal Zone Regulation Act. Gloves and bags were distributed by Yawp to those who showed interest in doing their part for their environment. Many, both young and old, joined Yawp in its effort to clean the beach.

Throughout the length of one km, around 19 non-bio-degradable sacks full of plastic the dump was collected by these volunteers. The goal of Yawp’s Calicut Beach Cleanup program was to create awareness about the need for cleanliness and its correlation to public health. It is also the Gandhian way of inspiring the local authorities to keep the public property clean.

We realize that in order to keep Calicut Beach clean, Yawp shouldn’t stop at a one-day program. Follow-up meetings were also held with the corporation and local authorities for the betterment of the waste situation at the beach including the provision of new bins and more frequent cleaning. We aimed at involving potential individuals and providing them with a sense of duty to Mother Earth through our series of voluntary programs.