The Spooky Festival Of Halloween Given A Swachh Twist In Gurugram

The festival to ward of evil spirits was converted into a cleanliness drive to get rid of filth, this Halloween in Gurugram. An initiative undertaken by Zikr, a group devoted to environment, formed in 2016 by Rahil Taneja, Sanya Aggarwal, and Sonali Pahuja. On October 29, a cleanup drive was organised in Gurugram’s Sector-31. The theme of the drive was Halloween and all the swachh warriors were decked up as per the theme. The idea behind the theme was to draw the attention of the people and make them aware about the importance of cleanliness.

“The idea behind the Halloween theme cleanup drive was to encourage people to come and clean their area in a fun way”, said Rahil Taneja, the co-founder of the group.

This is not the first time that the group has done something like this. Last year, Halloween was right after Diwali and the roads of Gurugram were filled with leftovers, trash from the celebration. It was then that the group decided to take up the responsibility of cleaning the streets of Gurguram and came up with Diwaloween.

The sad state of the streets and markets of Gurugram led to the birth of Zikr in the year 2016 by the students of Delhi Public School, Sector-45, Gurugram. Though the group was initiated with idea of cleanliness, but it is not only limited to organising cleanliness drives, but everything that concerns environment.

We usually conduct drives once every 2-3 months. However, there are times when we don’t conduct any drives but we simply go and talk to the shopkeepers to suggest to them the ways to maintain cleanliness. We usually aim for markets because it has a lot of footfall so that it’s easier to create more awareness about cleanliness which is our main aim, said, the co-founder Sanya Aggarwal.

Zikr took the cleanliness game a step higher by combining Swachh Bharat with Halloween drive and it is evident with the appreciation it received from the locals. Spooky attire of the volunteers grabbed attention of the local shopkeepers and passersby. Along with cleanup, the volunteers also spoke to the locals about the role cleanliness play in our life and why they should not throw all the waste on the road. They also encouraged local shopkeepers to keep dustbins outside their shop.

Most of the people seemed really impressed by the initiative and some found it to be very different. One lady approached us and told us that she loved the initiative and had been thinking of doing something like that. The kids seemed to be the happiest, said Sanya Aggarwal, the co-founder of the group.

The wave of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has been effective in bringing a change in the minds and habits of people and it is visible with the initiatives taken by different individuals at different level.

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