School kids learn about Clean India from Japan's Mottainai Grandma

The children of Government Girls’ Primary School on Wednesday learnt about the Clean India Mission from Japan's 'Mottainai Grandma'.

The inaugural session was conducted at the school in Kasan village in Manesar.

 The event was supported by Maruti Suzuki India Limited along with Japan India Cooperation Agency (JICA) under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programme.

 The session was based on “Mottainai Grandma”, a successful picture book published by Kodansha, a leading publication from Japan. Understanding the need of Indian demographics, the book is adapted in Hindi and English in collaboration with the National Book Trust (NBT).

 During the campaign, a storytelling session, based on waste management, environment and cleanness was performed. The programme to promote the Japanese concept of 'Mottainai' means ‘do not waste’. Students at Maruti Suzuki supported schools to learn the values of ‘Reduce, Reuse and Recycle’ the waste management during the session.

 The session has been initiated by Kodansha with the objective of promoting 'Clean India' mission by creating environmental awareness among the students. School children, between 9-12 years, will take part in the activity and learn the values of cleanliness, use of resources and consciousness towards the environment.

 “Mottainai is a thoughtful Japanese word which means “Do not Waste!” It is a word of compassion and love, for nature and its bounty. We are happy that JICA has taken this initiative to educate students on environmental consciousness. With Mottainai Grandma, these students will retain the lessons for life. We are confident that this activity will strengthen our community development projects by driving behavioural change and contribute to Government's Swachh Bharat Mission,” said Ajay Tomer, Executive Director, Corporate Planning, MSIL.

 Mottainai Grandma is a character from a successful series of books from Japan to educate teachers and children on the growing need for resource management and waste management. A small truck fabricated as a caravan was loaded with more than 300 books also accompanies as a mobile library. It will visit 30 schools in Delhi, Gurugram and Manesar. These include six schools supported by Maruti Suzuki.

 “Japan promotes the culture of cleanliness and respect for natural resources which aligns with the concept of 'Mottainai' - Reduce, Reuse, Recycle plus Respect are perhaps the most important values that Japan continues to contribute to the rest of the world. The literal meaning of the word 'Mottainai' is 'Do not waste' which is part of everyone's life in Japan. We hope this initiative would impact the mindset of the Indian people and contribute to the Government of India's 'Clean India' mission,” Said Kubo Eiji, Director, Private Sector Partnership Division and Finance Dept, JICA.

 “Under the Programme, we are providing Infrastructure facilities and Study Material among the students so that they can perform well in their academic session. We have appointed around additional 42 teachers at government school's in Gururam, Manesar and Rohtak in Haryana. These faculties provides career consultancy, preparations of competitive exams, special classes for the students at government schools,” said Narendra Kumar, Deputy General Manager Skill Development (CSR & Sustainability).

 “The Initiative will be conducted in 4 phases. In the first we will conduct Survey on cleanness then explanation and act out on the survey in the third phase teachers will narrate about the mission to the children and in the final session Students will narrate about the campaign to the villagers and teachers as well,” said Jasmeet Sethi, a storyteller.

 “During the session, we have learnt how to recycle the waste things and how to tackle with pollutions. 'Mottainai Grandma' taught us about the cleanness and how we can play a major role and support our country in the Swachh Bharat Mission,” Nitika a student, said.