Although India is one of the most polluted countries in the world, the village of Mawlynnong in the east of the country is considered the cleanest place in Asia.
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| Home to about 600 people, Mawlynnong is famous as the cleanest village in India. It was honored by Discover India magazine as the cleanest village in Asia in 2003 and the cleanest village in India in 2005. In 2015, Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi also confirmed that Mawlynnong was the cleanest village in Meghalaya and a model village in the country. In May 2016, at a ceremony to celebrate the success of the new government, Mr. Modi once again emphasized that Mawlynnong was the cleanest place in Asia. With that title, Mawlynnong gradually became a legendary name and a source of pride for the people here. |
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| Before that, like many other places in India, the streets of Mawlynnong were littered with cow dung, garbage, and bottles. India’s trash problem was so bad that Prime Minister Modi decided to launch an ambitious Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Program) in October 2014, determined to clean up the country’s major cities before the 150th birth anniversary of national hero Mahatma Gandhi in 2019. |
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| One of the factors that makes this program successful in Mawlynnong village is the youth. Every day, 11-year-old Deity Bakordor wakes up at 6:30 a.m. The first thing she does is clean up the village with other children. Brooms in hand, the children quickly sweep leaves and trash from the village streets before going to school. They are also responsible for disposing of the trash in public bins. Leaves and other biodegradable waste are buried underground to be used as fertilizer, while other waste is transported elsewhere to be burned. Gardeners also help trim the trees and flowers planted along the streets. |
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| A public rubbish bin in Mawlynnong village. Bakordor said that cleaning the streets is a daily chore for people from young to old in Mawlynnong. Here, everyone believes that social work needs to be done for the benefit of the whole village. Cleaning is really ingrained in the lives of people in Mawlynnong. |
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| According to tour guide Shishir Adhikari, the Mawlynnong people's habit of cleaning up started after a cholera outbreak more than 130 years ago. At that time, villagers were called upon to clean up the streets to limit the spread of the disease, with the help of Christian missionaries. "We learned how to clean from our ancestors; then we passed those skills on to our children, and they passed them on to the next generation," said Sara Kharrymba. In other words, cleaning up the village is a long-standing tradition in Mawlynnong. |
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| In Mawlynnong, plastic waste - one of the biggest problems with waste management - will be reused to make plant pots or swings. |
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| Under Prime Minister Modi's Swachh Bharat Abhiyan programme, every household here has its own toilet, while many places in India only have public toilets. "I am very proud to live in this village," said Kharrymba. |
According to VNE
