The Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA), in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEFCC) launched the ‘Meri LiFE, Mera Swachh Shehar’ campaign on 15th May 2023 for the period of 3 weeks till World Environment Day 2023 on 5^th June, 2023. The campaign focused on empowering Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) to set up ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ (RRR) Centres as a one-stop solution for citizens, institutions, commercial enterprises etc. to deposit unused or used plastic items, clothes, footwear, books, and toys. State wise details of the RRR Centres are available in public domain and can be accessed at http://sbmurban.org/rrr-centers.

‘Meri LIFE, Mera Swachh Shehar’ is not a scheme, it is a public outreach and mass engagement campaign being implemented by ULBs under SBM-U 2.0. No separate organizations have been formed by Government of India for this campaign.

The campaign is aimed to spread awareness regarding Mission LiFE and to nudge behaviour change of citizens to minimize waste generation, promote resource conservation and contribute to a cleaner and greener environment by adopting ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle’ (RRR) in their everyday life. By integrating these practices into the urban sanitation ecosystem, the vision is to create a circular economy that minimizes waste, maximizes resource utilization and ensures well-being of both present and future generations.

To ensure mobilization of citizen, measures like door-to-door awareness drives, social media campaigns as well as influencer engagements were undertaken. MoHUA also released campaign guidelines for ULBs, which can be accessed at http://sbmurban.org/storage/app/media/ Meri-LiFE-Mera-Swachh-Shehar-SOP-for-States-and-Cities-12th-May-2023.pdf

This information was given by the Minister of State for Housing & Urban Affairs, Shri Kaushal Kishore, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

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RJ