Students join in to save city’s heritage

Do you love the monuments of Delhi and hate the way they have been defaced? Now, you can take responsibility and clean them.

Do you love the monuments of Delhi and hate the way they have been defaced? Now, you can take responsibility and clean them.

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The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), responsible for preservation of monuments of national importance across the country, has hit upon an idea to harness the potential of students to protect heritage.

“Each school or college can adopt a monument in their neighbourhood,” said K K Muhammed, chief of ASI, Delhi circle. “While students can do the general cleaning, the ASI staff will do the technical/chemical cleaning.”

The ‘Adopt a Heritage’ movement kicked off in Delhi with volunteers doing some work at Qutub Minar on Friday.

More than 500 student volunteers from various colleges of Delhi came together with 15 international volunteers from six countries to do some cleaning after a day's orientation programme on Thursday.

Kota Nakai, a Japanese volunteer, said, “It has been a great sharing experience right since yesterday’s orientation session.”

The movement is a joint effort by the Delhi circle of ASI, and Universal Peace Federation (UPF)-Asian Leadership Training (ALT), and the National Service Scheme (NSS).

Although it is a first of its kind effort in Delhi, the ASI has carried out a similar experiment successfully in Madhya Pradesh in 2005.

“Don’t think this is symbolic gesture,” said Meyi Jamir, a second-year DU student. “We can always approach people across India and tell them how they can contribute individually to maintain and preserve our heritage.”