Turning a school project into civic action, five students from The Valley School organised a community clean-up and beautification drive at Madhavrao Circle in Basavanagudi on Saturday. The initiative brought together more than 80 volunteers, including children, parents, college students and locals, to improve the public space and spread awareness about waste management.

The drive was led by Avani Sekhar, Veera Jain, Anirudh Bhandari, Talha Wangdu and Jayaraman Shankaranarayanan, all aged 15. What began as a Global Perspectives (GP) school project on civic awareness turned into a larger effort to address a real issue in their community.

Speaking about the initiative, Ms. Sekhar said the team chose to focus on waste management after studying various civic challenges. “We have always heard people blame the government or someone else for these problems. We felt it was time to take responsibility ourselves. If children can take the initiative, others can too,” she said.

Apart from collecting waste, the volunteers also focused on beautifying the area. The team cleaned the circle and one of the adjoining triangular spaces and carried out painting work to improve the appearance of the location.