How Indore adopts behaviour change programmes in schools

Indore Municipal Corporation’s official Facebook page, SwachhIndore, is crowded with display of activities geared towards Swachh Survekshan. With the annual exercise nigh at hand, posts involving school children take centre stage. Street cricket carries the message on cleanliness. Republic Day celebration goes zero waste. RRR (Reduce Reuse Recycle) corner comes up on campuses. Catchy jingles repeat the message that citizens take ownership of city’s cleanliness initiatives. All of these together signal a concerted push towards shaping behaviour early.

The 10th edition of Swachh Survekshan has a new indicator that looks at behavioural change programmes in schools, and the way Indore has been preparing its young citizens suggests that the city has already been laying the groundwork for this, may be even before the metrics were formally introduced.

Having won India’s cleanest city tag for eight consecutive years, the enthusiasm to maintain this status is evident. Information, Education and Communication teams fan out to various zones and wards and approach each school for a round of open discussion with the management. The expectations are clearly outlined; and suggestions are also invited from institutions. The team engages in pep talks through activities and games on waste segregation, make students take mass pledge.

Activities often use visual cues such as a snake and ladder game to understand segregation of waste. Even competitions are conducted among wards to foster long-term behavioural changes.

“A plogging activity outside the school, within 50 to 100 metres from the school area, involving children is conducted. We expect school managements to adopt the areas outside their school campuses and ensure they are kept clean,” says Captain Sunpreet Singh, founder of Human Matrix Securite, a waste management service company working with the Indore Municipal Corporation.

From government schools with big numbers to small private schools, awareness programmes cover all institutions.

He says the School Education Department sends our circular mapping private and government schools in the city and has set up mandates depending on the locality.

“From government schools with big numbers to small private schools, awareness programmes were conducted even in the previous edition. With assessing behavioural change being introduced as a new criterion, I am sure Indore Municipal Corporation will refine this further and make it more interactive,” says Captain Sunpreet.

The impact of these campaigns is that schools also take the onus of driving home the message in their own ways. For instance, schools make sustainability a theme during annual day. “Since last year, we started inviting schools to our waste processing sites for them to understand how the city’s waste is processed,” he says. Indore’s consistent performance and engagement has only pushed the bar for citizens. “These campaigns are on not just because of Swachh Survekshan but they gain increased momentum a few months before February and March. For instance, in Government schools infrastructure-related issues such as non-functional lights in toilets are taken up by the municipal corporation. For the IEC team, it is compulsory to conduct at least one school event a month, so by the end of the year we are able to cover most schools in a ward/ zone,” says Captain Sunpreet, whose company works with the municipal corporations in Pune, Jaipur, Patna and Nagpur.

A good cleanliness campaign is one that is designed to motivate and nudge citizens towards action, and should tap into emotions such as pride, gratitude, compassion, curiosity and empathy.

Pulkit Khanna, Dean and Professor (Psychology), Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences, O.P. Jindal Global University, says involving school students as ambassadors of positive change can go a long way in promoting a sense of greater civic engagement, environmental consciousness as well as collective responsibility among young people.

She says schools play a critical role in socialising children, and behavioural change programmes in the format of embedded-curricular or extra-curricular activities can prove to be very useful. These students could further champion the cause in their own homes and neighbourhoods, thereby bringing about a cascading effect of community sensitisation.

As a behavioural scientist, she recommends consistent implementation of programmes, taking up initiatives involving multiple stakeholders including school teachers and administrators, proper training of programme facilitators such that it is not a ‘one size fits all’ approach.

“Steps such as these are important to scale policy level developments and ensure meaningful change at the grassroot level,” says the professor of Psychology.

As the Swachh Bharat Mission framework puts it: “Knowledge regarding a city’s performance could act as a positive nudge for citizens to adopt new behaviours to help their city win laurels nationally and rank higher in the next Survekshan.”

Published – February 08, 2026 04:09 pm IST