FoV workforce has taken up the challenge of trying to keep public areas clean of refuse through its programme ‘Swacch Vrindavan’. From time to time cleanliness drives are organized around different temples, shrines, community neighborhoods and on the Yamuna bank. Our Street cleaning team is equipped with Tractor – trolley unit, garbage collection rickshaw, Tata Ace mini truck and different cleaning tools. We select one of the dirtiest spot in the town to provide relief to the locality by our ‘Cleaning operation’. The garbage collected during the drive is deposited at the official dumping site of the Municipal Corporation. We have also initiated the garbage collection at source from some temples, institutions and the larger establishments, which used to dispose their garbage indiscriminately. We also collect the floral waste (used flowers and garlands) from different temples to recycle them into organic manure.
In the span of 25 years, we have experimented different ways to keep ‘Vrindavan’ clean and manage its garbage as a pilot project. Weadopted some innovative measures to sustain our efforts of ‘cleaning Vrindavan’. The UNDP GEF Small Grants Programme had recognized our ‘Swachh Vrindavan’ initiative and provided financial assistance to establish a ‘Composting unit’, to recycle bio degradable waste. We produce vermicompost by recycling the flowers, leaves, leftover vegetables and other biodegradable waste, which is sold to the farmers and gardens to support the charitable efforts to bringing relief from the garbage menace in Vrindavan.
We also operate a paper recycling unit to make handmade papers. The paper waste is separated from the garbage collected during the ‘Cleanliness Drive’ and doorstep garbage collection. It is the recycled in the handmade paper unit by the women from the marginalized
section of community, employed under the project. The schools also donate old paper waste to our project. Wide range of products is made from the handmade paper produced at our paper recycling plant.
In last two and half decades, we adopted several areas for cleanliness and garbage management. Hundreds of cleanliness drives were organized in different parts of the city. There is no area left where FoV’s cleanliness drive didn’t take place. With the changing time, the population of Vrindavan has doubled in last two decades, the tourist intake increased drastically. The unplanned development and the change in the status of the municipal body affected our ‘Sohani Seva’ dedicated to the dham.