September 2022
Read Coverting Letter – Rama’s squirrel calling …..
Dear Friends,
The Indian Swachhata League is India’s first inter-city competition led by youth towards building Garbage Free Cities. More than 1,800 cities from Leh to Kanyakumari participating by setting up a team for their city, and planning activities that will be undertaken on Seva Diwas. ‘India Swachhata League’ started with ‘Swachh Amrit Mahotsav’, a fortnight of activities from September 17 to October 2 to galvanise action around ‘swachhata’.
The activities are being organised by the Union Housing and Urban Affairs Ministry. According to the statement, the day began with whole-hearted participation and presence of highly motivated youth teams rallying for garbage-free cities.
During the month of September, the Municipal Solid Waste Management programme at Rameswaram has been shortlisted under the special mention award category for the Indian Swachhata League (ISL) 2022.
Our partner Hand in Hand Inclusive Development Services, Chennai are handling the waste management of Rameswaram municipality. Thiru.Nazar Khan, Municipal Chairman and Thiru.Kannan, Municipal Commissioner received the certificate at Delhi in a glittering ceremony at Talkatora stadium, on 30th Sep 2022.
This month’s newsletter has the following highlights:
- Dr.Sanjay Banerji in his blog writes about “Model of an Enterprise”
- Hand in Hand inclusive development, Chennai about their regular activities on solid waste management
- Dr.A.Abirami, Programme Officer of the C.P.R. Environmental Educational Center writes about the herbal plant – Castor Bean (Aamanakku)
- Green Health covers introduction of yoga session at Vivekananda Vidyalaya, Rameswaram and workshop on “Recipes of Minor Millets”
- Livelihood Opportunities covers training on ‘Cow waste Value Added products”, CSR Partnership with Dhanalakshmi Bank and use of E-Rickshaws
- In Revival and Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies section ,we have covered the story of “Jatayu Teertham”
- Under Social capital – Teertha Poojas, Deepa pooja, celebration of Universal Brother Day etc. and finally ‘Green Rameswaram newsletter’ by the students and for the students of Rameswaram
With best wishes,
Editorial Team
Green Rameswaram Project
Mahabeer Dharmasala
Rameswaram – 623526
Tamilnadu.
Ph: 04573 – 222296(office)
E-mail: greenrameswaram@gmail.com
Web: www.greenrameswaram.org
Newsletters
Model of an Enterprise
Dear Friends,
I do hope that you liked the second newsletter in this ‘management series’. I had stated that “In the next blogs, we shall discuss organizing.” However, on second thoughts, I felt that it may be better to give you a larger picture of how generally a business organization runs. For that, we shall discuss the ‘Model of an Enterprise’.
Solid Waste Management
Door to Door Source Segregation Demonstration Programme
Everyday door-to-door waste collection and source segregation along with street cleaning were carried out uninterruptedly.
Seven Source Segregation Demonstration programmes were organized on 7th, 12th, 14th, 15th and 17thof August at Thampankolai (Ward No: 8), Murangavadi (Ward No: 9), Rajagopal Nagar (Ward No: 18), M.K. Nagar (Ward No: 10), V.P. Street (Ward No: 5, 2 and 4).
In this Progaramme, our staff and green friends gave awareness to households in each ward on the types of waste, segregation of waste and the importance and benefits of recycling. A live demonstration on Source Segregation was organized for the public.
Herbal Garden (Muligai Vanam) Castor Bean (Aamanakku)
Distribution and Habitat
Ricinus communis L. is an annual or perennial shrub belonging to the family Euphorbiaceae. This plant being a native of Africa and India is widely distributed throughout the tropical, sub-tropical and temperate regions of the world, very commonly found in fallow land, roadside, and compounds in rural and urban areas and also along seasonally dry rivers in altitudes between 400 and 2700 m. Leaves have long petiole and palm like lobed blades.
Green Health
Apart from the regular morning and evening yoga sessions at Green Rameswaram office, yoga classes started for students of Vivekananda Vidyalaya, Rameswaram from 16th September 2022. Shri.Hegdeji, with the assistance of Sister Selvi, conducted the programme.It will be held regularly, 3 days in a week.
“Livelihood Opportunities”
Status of SHGs
Present status 122 groups with 1593 members
This month, we concentrated more on mobilizing SHG members for the EDII Training programmes.Entrepreneurship Development Institute of India from Ahmedabad is partnering Green Rameswaram Trust for working in Ramanathapuram- Aspirational District. EDII have sanctioned four training programmes which are as follows:
1.Cow waste Value Added training
2.Organic fertilizers
3.Establishment of Nursery Garden
4.Bee keeping
Cow waste Value Added training
Interview – 19 September 2022, 50 candidates selected out of 127 applicants
Interview panelists – i)Shri.Jaisankar, Project Coordinator, EDII, Ahmedabad, ii)Shri.Saravanapandi, APO, MahalirThittam, iii)Smt.Dhanam, Asst. Manager, DIC, Ramanathapuram District and iv)Shri.Sridhar K, Project Coordinator, Green Rameswaram.
“Revival and Renovation of Traditional Water Bodies” Jatayu Teertham
Process of Renovation
Shri.Pakshi Sivarajan, literature scholar from Rameswaram who is also a volunteer of Green Rameswaram from its inception, informed us the existence of Jatayu Teertham. When the renovation team visited the location dilapidated Teertham structures were visible and the area was covered with thorny bushes. Water was stagnated in the area and wild animals use to quench their thirst in the Teertham. Initially renovation team considered the Jata Makuta Teertham, which is 1.5 km away from this spot, as Jatayu Teertham. A careful literature review and consultation with field experts cleared the ambiguity.
Social Capital
Teertha Pooja
Regular Agni Teertham SamudraAarathi was organised on the full moon day (9th September 2022) by the local community. Approximately 135 members participated.
