Pankaj, 36-year old food entrepreneur and IIT Delhi pass out, cycles 4600 kilometers, solo on a cycle from Kargil to Kanyakumari.
Are you thinking what makes him to cycle this much long journey?
There is a cause behind this adventure.
His only motive is to spread swachh agenda.
When asked why he took this step? He said..
It is my mission to empower 10,000 people to lead a life of happiness, prosperity and purpose. I thought I will start with a very basic thing – ‘Swachhta.’ On 2nd October I bought a cycle and on 6th I was out on the roads to undertake this Swachh journey, says Pankaj Mall.
Pankaj covered 12 states, 90 small towns and cities and 350 villages in his swachh journey.
I used to catch hold of people early in the morning around 4 and 5 am and late at night around 9 and 10 pm. I used to stop them from defecating in the open and educate them about the ill-effects of open defecation, says Pankaj.
In his journey of 60 days, Pankaj educated villagers with the benefits of having toilets at home and how it benefits women, benefit of keeping surroundings clean. He also built 17 temporary toilets for women and cleaned River Narmada in Jabalpur in just one day.
When I personally went inside different villages, I got to know the sad state of these villages. Villages in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh are currently among the worst in terms of cleanliness. Women there have no access to toilets, recounts Pankaj.
Pankaj met Gopal Bharagava, Minister of co-operative, social justice panchayat in Madhya Pradesh and pointed out the miserable state of toilets in schools and colleges.
I conducted workshops in schools/colleges, trained the villagers about the basics of hygiene and sanitation, I demonstrated to them how to get started on the path to cleanliness, says Pankaj.
And he says after his travel across India, “Putting a status on Face book/Twitter, cribbing about how dirty our country is, won’t serve any purpose. It’s the groundwork that matters-we have to go through the pain and sacrifice in order to bring the change”
Amazing step sir, hats off to you.
