Eleven-year-old Sujal Kumar Singh is too young to understand swachh mission, but wasted no time when he saw his mother facing problems while crossing an overflowing drain to reach a nearby pond to offer arghya during Chhath.

So, what was his solution? He built a two-feet channel and diverted the overflowing drain water away from his mother’s route to the pond. His simple action is today benefiting a lot of people in his locality.

Sujal, a Class V student of Lakshmi Narayan Vidya Mandir, Dhansar, and son of street vendor Sushil Singh, along with 149 students of 50 different government schools in the coal town were felicitated at a function held in Jharia’s Agarwal Dharamshala on Sunday.

“Every year, my mother has to hop, skip and jump to reach a pond due to an overflowing drain during Chhath. This year, the problem aggravated as the sanitation workers went on an indefinite strike ahead of Chhath in support of their different demands,” Sujal said.

“When I saw nobody was coming forward to address the problem, I took out a spade and started diverting the drain water by creating a small two-feet channel. Seeing me, more children of my locality joined me and we overcame it soon, much before Chhath,” said Sujal, who earned a certificate and a sanitation kit comprising a toothbrush, a toothpaste, a detergent cake, washing powder, shampoo, a dishwashing cake and other items during the felicitation programme.

Jharia-based social worker Anil Jain (45), who organised the function under the banner of Anchal Foundation said, “We visited around 200 schools across the district in the last three months and provided forms to the school management asking students to fill it with their personal details and work done on cleanliness. On the basis of around 500 forms received, we selected 150 students out of 50 schools after carrying spot verification of the work done.”

Jain, a commerce graduate of Bhawanipore College, Calcutta (1994) said, “The idea is to encourage people to keep their localities clean instead of holding the government responsible for everything.”

Felicitating students who have done something in their localities for cleanliness will encourage more people to take swachh steps.

Jain also lauded the effort of Khusbu Kumari (14), daughter of a golgappa seller in Ghanudih locality of Jharia, who along with a few girls of her locality cleared a large heap of garbage in her neighbourhood and planted saplings.

“The garbage not only posed health hazards, it could have even caught fire and spread to neighbouring areas, especially during Diwali,” he added.