GREATER NOIDA, India, Sept 20, 2024 — HCLFoundation, the CSR arm of HCLTech in India, celebrated World Cleanup Day, through its flagship programme My Clean City, with great vigor at Greater Noida Sports Complex today. In December 2023, the United Nations unanimously ratified the resolution to declare 20th September as World Cleanup Day on its official Calendar in a bid to promote lasting behaviour change with respect to waste management.

My Clean City by HCLFoundation has been working extensively on end-to-end waste management across Noida and Greater Noida. Launched in 2018, the programme is committed to improving solid and liquid waste management system and processes. Focus areas include capacity building of relevant stakeholders, intensive behaviour change campaigns, awareness drives and deploying technological solutions.

One of the programme’ s significant impacts can be seen in improvement of Noida’s ranking in Swachh Survekshan. From ranking 324 in 2019 to becoming the cleanest city in Uttar Pradesh and 11th across India now, Noida has come a long way. In Swachh Surveksan 2023, Noida also received Water+ certification and 5-star rating in Garbage Free City category.

Building upon this success, My Clean City has now expanded to Greater Noida city with the objective of replicating the achievements and extending the benefits to a larger population. The program has so far reached out to more than 600,000 individuals spread across 77 urban villages and 100 residential welfare associations / association of apartments in the two cities.

The World Cleanup Day event at the Zonal Sports Complex in Greater Noida witnessed active participation of 1500 citizens including school, college students and HCLTech volunteers. The event commenced with a high energy packed Zumba session to build excitement and camaraderie amongst the participants, which was followed by a skit presentation by members of the Clean City Volunteer club on the importance of waste management. The highlight of the event was a plogging drive through which participants collected a mammoth 826 Kg of solid waste from around the venue. The collected waste will be transported to a designated spot assigned by the Authority. Sanitation workers across My Clean City’s project sites were felicitated for their continued contribution in keeping the cities clean. The event culminated with an enthralling band performance.

Quote from Shri Indu Prakash Singh, General Manager, Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority: “Our ongoing partnership with HCLFoundation is aimed at making the city clean and sustainable. Community driven cleanliness drives such as this have resulted in positive behavior change towards waste reduction and management. Today I am thrilled to see the participation of our city’s residents, especially children and youth, in this mega-drive and endorsing sustainability.”

Quote from Mr. Alok Varma, Project Director – Samuday & My Clean City, HCLFoundation: “I am thrilled to witness My Clean City by HCLFoundation achieve another milestone through the World Clean Up Day celebrations. Our efforts in executing this mega clean up drive by engaging the community members have been met with great enthusiasm. As responsible citizens, we must take small steps every day to create impact and build a sustainable future together. We at HCLFoundation, along with our committed partners, will continue on our mission of clean, green and waste free cities. “

Notably, prior to the main event, a series of small-scale events were also carried out across Noida and Greater Noida to generate awareness and build momentum for World Cleanup Day. 817 students across 8 schools in Noida and Greater Noida were sensitized on the importance of cleanliness and hygiene through rallies and plogging drives. 520 citizens across the cities were also engaged via segregation games, textile waste management workshops and plogging drives.