In a move aimed at giving a fillip to ‘Swachh Bharat’ initiative, a pet project of PM Narendra Modi, Union HRD Minister Smiriti Irani on Wednesday asked National Bal Bhawan authorities to rope in children to create awareness about the Swachh Bharat campaign at the local level through art and cultural programmes and celebrate cleanliness as a festival.
“I have requested Bal Bhawan authorities if they can celebrate cleanliness as a festival and in every district, Bal Bhawan teams can spread this message through art and inspire our children,” Irani said at an event where ‘Bal Shree Awards- 2013’ were conferred on children for excellence in fields of performing arts, visual arts, creative writing and scientific innovation among others.
Later, Irani said since Bal Bhawan has centres in every district, she hoped the message of Swachch Bharat initiative could be spread across the country through them.
The HRD Ministry is working with the Urban Development Ministry to carry forward the Swachh Bharat campaign. Recently, UGC and CBSE had asked institutions to administer a cleanliness pledge to students and make them an active stakeholders in making India clean.
Noting some differently-abled children were among the awardees, Irani suggested a conference of teachers should be held to discuss how the talent of “children with special needs” can be developed. While applauding the work of teachers, who train and make a student extraordinary in their field of interest, Irani stressed on felicitating ‘gurus’ too along with awardee students.
“It’s the efforts of teachers who train students to perform best in his/her area of interest such as dancing, art and culture, so they also need to be honoured. From the next year onwards, during Bal Shree Awards function, teachers would also be felicitated along with students,” Irani said.