ITC Launches its celebrated ‘Wellbeing Out of Waste’ (WOW) initiative for school children
Hyderabad: Reinforcing its commitment towards building a Swachh India, ITC Limited today announced the launch of the ITC-WOW Clubs in Schools program, an extension of ITC’s ‘Wellbeing Out of Waste (WOW) initiative. Supported by Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD) and Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), the program educates and engages school children as Bala Swachhagrahis. The school students are encouraged to practice and spread awareness about waste segregation at source and sustainable management of waste.
ITC’s WOW initiative, aligned with the Government’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, spreads awareness about waste segregation and management through innovative methods. Awareness and motivation among children, the future of India, is critical towards achieving and maintaining the society’s cleanliness goals. The larger objective is to create a cleaner and better environment, improve hygiene, and reduce usage of landfills.
Waste segregation and management help in the retrieval and recycling of paper, which would have been sent to landfills and proportionately contributes in the reduction of global warming. It also creates direct and indirect employment opportunities.
Having been ranked 1st among the Metros and 22nd out of the 434 cities that participated in Swachh Survekshan 2017, the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC), a partner at ITC’s WoW initiative, has been making continuous efforts to raise sanitations standards of Hyderabad City. GHMC has taken significant and steady steps and is continuing its efforts to improve the situation and achieve world class standards of sanitation in Hyderabad, which is aspiring to become a global destiny.
As part of the initiative, GHMC and ITC have joined hands to implement a major awareness campaign across 2000 selected schools in Hyderabad by forming WOW Clubs and conducting creative activities aimed at developing appropriate knowledge, attitude, and behavior among children.
Speaking on the occasion, Mr Vadiraj Kulkarni, Chief Operating Officer, Paperboards and Specialty Papers Division, ITC Ltd., said, “At ITC, our main purpose of the campaign is to raise school children’s awareness on waste segregation and further engage them as change agents for spreading the awareness among their parents, family members and in the close by neighborhood areas. Children being the future citizenry of this nation, their awareness and motivation are pivotal for achieving Swachh Bharat and Swachh Hyderabad.”. ITC has been
working on waste segregation and its sustainable management for almost a decade now under its flagship program – “Well Being Out of Waste” (WOW), which helps in the creation of a clean and green environment through awareness and education of citizens on source segregation and recycling of dry waste.”
ITC’s Waste Recycling program, ‘WOW – Well Being Out of Waste’, has been carried out extensively over the last decade across various parts of India with the objective of providing a practical and workable solution to this challenging task. It also promotes sustainable livelihoods for rag-pickers and waste-collectors.
During the year, in addition to Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Telangana, and Chennai, the program was expanded to Hyderabad, Delhi, Tirupathi, and Muzaffarpur. The program covers over 64 lakh citizens, 25 lakh school children and 2000 corporates. The program creates sustainable livelihoods for 13,500 rag-pickers and waste collectors by propagating source segregation at each of the households and facilitating effective collection mechanisms in collaboration with municipal corporations. It has also created over 60 social entrepreneurs as part of the initiative.