56th State School Arts Festival: ‘Green warriors’ on a mission

Try walking into one of the State School Arts Festival venues with a plastic cover or bottle. Chances are you will be stopped by a young boy or girl wearing a green overcoat and cap, who will then gently prod you to let them fix a sticker on your plastic item at a cost of Rs.10, which will be refunded when you exit the venue.

This group of students in green overcoats, posted at every venue, are the green protocol volunteers of the festival. The students, drawn from the National Service Scheme units of various schools in the district, have been given the responsibility of keeping the venues clean and creating awareness among the visitors on dumping of plastic waste.

“Most of the visitors happily agree when we tell them about the stickers. But some do not listen and even get angry sometimes,” says Nithin Krishna from Government HSS, Neduveli.

On Wednesday, at one of the venues, two volunteers approached a middle-aged man walking in with a plastic cover to tell him about the stickers. The man refused to listen to them, telling them that he worked at that school.

The green volunteers also walk around with steel kettles providing drinking water to participants and others in the crowd.

Around noon time, they go to each of the competitors sitting in different parts of the venue to tell them that transport has been arranged to the ‘Oottupura’ for lunch.

Most of the girls go home in the evening, but the boys have to stick around till late into the night.