Pongala Campaign Strategy

Attukal Pongala 2019

Attukal Pongala is a 10-day festival celebrated at the , , , , during which there is a huge gathering of millions of women on the ninth day. This is the lighting of the Pongala hearth (called Pandarayaduppu) placed inside the temple by the chief priest. The festival is marked as the largest annual gathering of 2.5 million women by the Guinness World Records in 2009. This is the earliest Pongala festival in Kerala. This temple is also known by the name of women. Mostly Attukal Pongala falls in the month of March or April. Trivandrum Municipal Corporation successfully implemented green protocol for the third time with the help of the Health Department and Green Army International.

The need of Green Pongala

About 4 years back the amount of waste collected at the end of Attukal Pongala used to measure around 350 tons. Corporation took steps to spread messages of Green Protocol to the devotees and food distributers more effectively with the help of the Green Army. In 2016 Corporation brought this measure down to about 170 tons. Corporation continued to give out Green Protocol messages and warnings throughout the year. And the measure came down to 85 tons in 2017 and 75 tons in 2018. After the years of reduction in waste, Presently, this year, in 2019 the waste has reduced as much as 65 Tons. The numbers show the reason and need for Green Protocol implementation for festivals. It could be understood that festivals or huge gatherings of people anywhere can bring about a huge amount of wastes in which the mixing of food wastes and other materials makes handling of wastes difficult or literally impossible. Green Protocol is a much easier method to reduce wastes. But not limited to just Festivals the result shows the importance of following Green Protocol on a daily basis as well.

1. Campaign Campaigning is mainly focused on Devotees participating for Pongala and Organisations that distribute food for devotees.

Devotees Devotees are one of the major and important categories of people in Attukal Pongala waste management.

Shops Posters that give out messages about Green Pongala was used as a campaigning technique. The area selected for the campaign included places that had maximum crowds such as Connemara Market and Trivandrum Central Railway Station. Volunteers also pasted our campaign posters at Chalai market and Eastfort.

The posters spread message such as,

 Bring their own Plates and Cups for Pongala,  Use of Non-Woven Poly Propylene Bags is prohibited in Trivandrum District. Hence the use of prohibited carry bags is punishable,

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 Avoid using items such as Flex, Thermocol, or Plastic decorations. Instead, use only Environment-Friendly materials.  After Pongala, collect the used bricks from the road and keep it at a convenient place on Footpath.

The posters that were used for campaigning can be found in the link below. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Ujb1hiaxc8epKh8j_oz-CwEWyJk4EMop?usp=sharing

Social media Campaigning through Social Media is a new idea implemented this year.

 First Method: Making Trolls relating to Green Pongala. Trolls were an effective way to catch the attention of people and make them understand the biggest things in a very simple way. Criteria for Trolls were to share it in social media with a green army tagline. The troll with maximum likes and shares was awarded.  Second Method: The idea was to take Selfie Video of devotees who were intending to take part in Pongala. The criteria for the video were to talk about how they are going to implement Green Pongala that year and the video should be less than a minute. The idea was successfully implemented through Facebook. As a part of this many celebrities participated in the campaign. Videos with most likes and shares were awarded.

Winning Troll

School Another campaign strategy was to campaign among the school students and through them to spread the message into individual homes more effectively. Awareness about green protocol implementation and the importance of a Green Pongala were explained in assembly by our Green army mentors. 20 Schools were visited by the mentors. Mentors gave awareness about green pongala to 400 students. Green Army Mentors. awareness programme on Green Protocol. http://tiny.cc/kgdx4y

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Organisation Request letter form Mayor about green pongala was also distributed by our volunteers in different wards. On 11th Feb. door to door campaign was done in Ward. This year we included ward councilors for campaigning as well. On 15th Feb. volunteers along with ward, councilors did campaigning in wards such as Vanchiyoor, Fort, Thampanoor, Sreekandeswaram, and Kalady. A total of 22 wards was giving awareness about Green Pongala this year.

2. Training and Capacity Building Training of Volunteers Attukal Pongala green protocol implementation was started with an orientation held in Trivandrum Municipal Corporation on 9th Feb. 76 new volunteers participated in this orientation. On 13th Feb., a Mega Orientation about green protocol implementation, crisis management, behaviour of volunteers led by Nikhilesh and Vasanth was done. The highlight of this event was that Mayor himself interacted with the volunteers and talked to them about the importance of a Green Pongala. Around 250 volunteers participated in the sessions. The sessions were taken parallelly by Nikhilesh and Vasanth inside the Corporation premises. On 17th Feb. a volunteer meeting was held at Corporation office to divide the volunteers into eight zones and gave guidelines on how to do the survey and assessments for Pongala. On 19th Feb. one day before Pongala, volunteers were sent from their respective Hubs for Survey and Data collection from food offering trust, Society, Pourasamithi, etc. 458 volunteers participated for the survey. 387 volunteers on the Pongala Day, 20th Feb. assessed each of the food distributing parties.

Documentation Each team consisted of four to seven members. In which one was assigned to fill the forms, another to take photos and videos of the survey, another one to interact with distributors, and another one to find the route and identify the stalls. It was made a point to take photographs of the violators along their route. It was found that the easiest method to group and sort the photos was to make each team name the photos with the location and send them as an email to the respective Hub In charge with Team Code as Subject. Volunteer registration and attendance were taken on the respective days, 19th and 20th by the hub in charges

Recognition Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation announced awards for those distributors who show best practices in implementing Green Pongala during Attukal Pongala. Team for Thanal entered all the survey and evaluation data to a soft copy, sorted it, analysed it, and shortlisted the best distributors. 15 Distributors were shortlisted based on their adherence to Green Protocol by Green Army volunteers. First four organisations came under the Gold category who were awarded and given a cash prize of 3000 rupees, next four organisations came under the Silver category who were awarded and given a cash prize of 2000 rupees and the last seven organisations came under the Bronze category were awarded and given a cash prize 1000 rupees each.

Winner’s list can be found in this link : https://drive.google.com/file/d/13ipr_rGJafipFMbPti8n-xoiD-dyyMLq/view?usp=sharing

Route Planning of routes was the next thing. Active areas were divided into 8 Zones/Hubs which included Killipalam, Eastfort, Vanchiyoor, Vazuthacaud, Kamalaeswaram, Palayam, Secretariat, and Pettah.

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The Zone in charges were Nikhilesh, Sooraj, Sujith, Sanitta, Ajay, Lal, Sajin, and Akhila. Zone/Hub wise map was created and individual routes for each team were identified and plotted. The zones were planned purely based on the accessibility of the volunteers. Also, routes were identified on the basis of roads rather than dividing it on ward basis.

Zones

1. Secretariat  Route 1 Statue – Cantoment road – Nabard – HRC Office – Vanrose Jn – Housing board ss Kovil road – Manjalikulam road – Gnadhari amman Kovil – Govt press – Statue BSNL Office

 Route 2 Statue – Spencer jn – AKG center – St Joseph’s school – left towards rajadhani – Right road to Uppalam – College – Pulimood Statue

 Route3 Sreekumar theatre – Bus stand – Model School – Panavila – Bakery Jn – Statue

 Route 4 Thampanoor – Thycaud – Music college – kovil road – Model school – Housing board-Chenkalchoola – Panavila – Bakery – Statue

2. Vanchiyoor  Route 1 Vanchiyoor court junction - Rishimangalam - GeneralHospital - Pattor - vanchiyoor court

 Route 2 Vanchiyoor court junction - kaithamukku - kaithamukku post office - vanchiyoor court

 Route 3 Kaithamukku - chettikulangara - Ayurveda collage - danya remya theatre – kunnupuram road mathrbhumiroad - vanchiyoor court

 Route 4 Kaitha mukku - sreekandeshwaram – overbridge - vanchiyoor court

 Route 5 Vanchiyoor court - thakaraparambu - flyover - vanchiyoor court

 Route 6 Vanchiyoor court - sreevaraham pond – vanchiyoor court

3. Palayam  Route 1 Corporation – PMG – Bartonhill – Thekkumudu jn – Miranda Jn – Vadayakkad – Palayam -Corporation

 Route 2 Corporation – Chandrasekharnair stadium – MLA hostel – General Hospital –

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Eye hospital - Thampuranmukku jn – kunnukuzhi bridge – PMG – Corporation

 Route 3 Corporation – Palayam – Spencer – Vanrose jn – bakery – jubilee – Nandavanam – Museum Corporation

 Route 4 Bakery – Valsala nursing home – Althara jn – Manaveeyam – Corporation

 Route 5 Corporation – vellayambalam – Tennis club – Mulavan Devasam board – Nanathancode – YMR jn – Chadiyara – Devasamboard – Style plus – Rajbhavan

 Route 6 Corporation – PMG – Mascot Hotel – Plamood – Law college – Nalanda Jn – Nanthancode

4. Vazhuthacaud  Route 1 (A) Sri Mulam Club - Cotton Hill Girls HSS - Edapazhanji Jn. - Alakapuri Auditorium

 Route 1 (B) Sri Mulam Club - Cotton Hill Girls HSS - Edapazhanji Jn. - Jagathy Sree Temple

 Route 2 (A) Azad Hotel Signal Jn. - DPI Jn. - Jagathy Jn.

 Route 2 (B) Annie Mascrene Square - DPI Jn. - Jagathy Jn.

 Route 3 Mettukada Jn. - TMP Associates - Chempupanippura Jn. - Kala Store (Kochar Rd) - Saanthi Kavadam

 Route 4 Annie Mascrene Square - Mettukada Jn. - Saanthi Kavadam - Kannettumukku Jn. - Jagathy Jn.

 Route 5 Annie Mascrene Square - Vellayambalam Jn. - Kowdiar Park

 Route 6 Vellayambalam Jn. - Sasthamangalam Jn. - Sri Krishna Mission (SRK) Hosp. Jn. - Kochar Maha Ganapathi Temple - Dr. Pradeep Kidangoor Child Clinic - Alakapuri Auditorium

 Route 7 Sasthamangalam Jn. - Pipinmoodu Jn. - Special Armed Police Parade Ground

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 Route 8 Sasthamangalam Jn. - Kesavpuram Jn. - Maruthamkuzhi Jn.

 Route 9 Women’s College - Panavila Jn – Sastha Kovil

5. Pettah  Route 1 Pettah jn – Burma bazar road – Melamcode kavaradi – Chamalkada – Naalumukku jn

 Route 2 Pettah jn –Upasana clinic road – thenga para – Sheevali Nagar – Kaithamukku – Rajarajeshwari – Naalmukku Jn

 Route 3 Pettah jn – Pallimukku jn – Koumubhi jn – Mutharamman kovil – Pettah School – Ambalathumukku – Madankovil raod – Pattoor pump

 Route 4 Pettah jn – kanjiravilakam temple – Shivkovil Road – Appupankavil road – Palkulangara – Kaithamukku

 Route 5 Pettah Jn – New bridge – Velakudi lane – Kallumood – Arashumood – Pumphouse(Anayara)

6.  Route 1 Kamaleswaram – Trivandrum road – Kamaleswaram

 Route 2 Trivandrum vizhinjam road – manacaud - Trivandrum vizhinjam road – Manacud fish market

 Route 3 MLA road – manacaud - Trivandrum vizhinjam road –Thaikapalli jn

 Route 4 Trivandrum vizhinjam road – Kamaleswaram - Aryankuzhi – Mancaud Jn

7. Killipalam 1  Route 1 Manacaud jn – Manacud Valiyapally bus stop

 Route 2 Manacud Valiyapally bus stop – Kochiravila jn

 Route 3

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Manacaud Bus stop – Attukal bus stop

 Route 4 Kuriyathi bus stop – Attukal road - Ammankovil jn

 Route 5 Attukal bus stop - Attukal road – MSK nagar - Attukal

 Route 6 Attukal bus stop - Attukal road – Chiramukku Jn

 Route 7 Kumari sadan MRWA 185 – Manacud – TC 21/1040 Nedumcaud road

 Route 8 Padanav Ln – Yamuna nagar 4th street

 Route 9 1275 Attakulangara – killipalam – Ammankovil jn

 Route 10 Post office jn – Manacaud –Trivandrum

 Route 11 Trivnadrum Vizhinjam road – Trivandrum

 Route 12 Trivnadrum Vizhinjam road – ARA 203 TC 22/841 Attukal

 Route 13 Panavila road – – Kalipamkulam jn

 Route 14 Kochiravila – Thaliyal – Kalady – Manacaud

 Route 15 Ganga Nagar 1st cross road – puthen kotta road – puthenkotta jn

 Route 16 Puthen kotta road – Attukal bridge – Attukal temple

 Route 17 Attukal temple road – killipalam bridge – PRS hospital

 Route 18 Attukal bridge – Attukal temple – Killipalam – Kalady Bund road

 Route 19 2716 nedumcaud road – kalady New jn

 Route 20 Karaman Bus stop – Thaliyal road – Kalady bus stop

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8. Killipalam 2  Route 1 Killipalam – Chalai bazar raod – Eastfort

 Route 2 Killipalam jn – Pazhayasalai – Chenthitta jn – Chentitta Madan kovil

 Route 3 Chenthitta jn – Powerhouse road – Eastfort

 Route 4 Powerhouse road – Ajantha theatre road –

 Route 5 Attakulangara – Killipalam - manhatama Gandhi road – PRS Hospital

 Route 6 Pumping Station road – Aryasala – Eastfort bus station

 Route 7 Kairali complex – fort post office – Vazhapally jn – Pzhavangadi temple – Kairalicomplex

 Route 8 TC 37/946 Street RT Fort – Eanchakkal Bus stop

 Route 9 Eanchakkal Bus stop – Vanchipoor – fund road – Nalumukk jn

 Route 10 Attakulangara – Eanchakkal raod – New Bypass – chenthitta jn

Route Maps can be found in this link, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1e3rIRMjGRwkl0iCA73Ky5_kBsyaKfIqg?usp=sharing

News Paper Articles about Green Pongala, https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ijkKAM1yZGlFWdKANkjBwcroY4K3yolA?usp=sharing

A consolidated video of the successful #GreenProtocol implementation by our #GreenArmy Volunteers during Attukal Pongala, http://tiny.cc/y1dx4y

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Attukal Pongala 2020 Proposal

Timeline:

Day Activities Expectations PHASE ONE Poster Making, Flyer Making, Planning AP – 40 Campaign processes, ID cards for Prepare 500 posters for hanging purposes. Volunteers. Calling Ward Councilors for Preferably meeting at Corporation else AP – 38 campaigning. makes phone calls. Green Protocol Implementation, Types of plastics, Single-use items (Paala Plates or other biodegradable items), Paper cups and Campaign-Orientation AP – 35 Non-Woven Bags, Crisis Management, (include Councillors) Behaviour of Volunteers, Team Work. Introducing Ward Councillors and Green Army Volunteer to other volunteers. Poster Hanging and Awareness Sharing Concentration on devotees and food AP – 34 (5 Hubs) with ward councilors. distributers. Poster Hanging and Awareness Sharing Concentration on devotees and food AP – 32 (5 Hubs) with ward councilors. distributers. Finish Poster Hanging and Awareness Concentration on devotees and food AP – 30 Sharing (5 Hubs) with ward councilors. distributers. PHASE TWO Each Hub should have one Hub In-charge AP – 8 Assigning Hub In charges. and one Active Volunteer of that month. Taking Hard copies of the map to explain to AP – 7 Route & Map Formation volunteers for the event. Green Protocol Implementation, Types of plastics, Single-use items (Paala Plates or other biodegradable items), Crisis Management, Behaviour of Volunteers, Event Day-Orientation AP - 2 Team Work. (include Hub In charges) Introducing Hub in charges to its volunteers and In charge will explain the routes and procedures for the event. Do a trial with Zello app as well. All volunteers gather at respective Hub points. Hub in charge take the attendance AP Attukal Pongala Day and give out the forms. And give out last minute directions.

*AP – Attukal Pongala Day

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Findings:

 Two sets of Orientation must be given. One for the Campaigning process. Second for the Event Survey.  There is a better chance of students coming for volunteering if it’s a working day and when they are assured that they get attendance for the day.  It should be made sure that those volunteers coming on the Pongala day must be trained before the event day. There won’t be enough space or circumstances to teach them from the basis at the Hubs.  We do not need any overcrowding volunteers. So, making sure the count of required volunteers and including reserve volunteers in each of the team is necessary for the Event day.  No need to focus on trying to make the Campaign volunteers come for the Event day. Instead, take it as two sets of volunteer groups. One set for campaigning and second set for Event Evaluation.  Food for volunteers is one of the most important things to take care of. Each should be advised to have food and drinks from where ever they find food stalls and not to wait for the perfect time to have food. Food and water must be given priority and should be taken as early as possible.

Route Plotting:

 Each Hub must be taken at a point that is on the main road and is easily accessible by bus.  No Hub should have more than 8 routes or utmost 10 if only the routes are small.  No route must be greater than 15 mins of walking distance (exception for those using 2 wheelers).  Hard copies of each individual route must be taken. Explained during orientation to respective teams. And given to the Team Leader on the Event Day.

Campaign Orientation:

 Campaigning will be done on ward basis. The route will be made by the ward councilors Suggestions.  Including ward councilors and having a separate meeting for the councilors is required.  All poster hanging and awareness sharing must be done including ward councilors.

Event Day Orientation:

 The evaluation will be done on road route basis. The route would be made by the Hub In charges.  According to the routes, each route must have one or more teams to do the evaluation. Each team should have 5 participants including a team leader.  It must be made sure that a minimum of 3 among the 5 participants will arrive on the event day. And the remaining 2 will be our reserve for each team.  But it is of utmost importance that these volunteers are selected only after making sure they will be coming for the event. All 5 members of each team are expected to come for the event.  There should be a code to identify each team.  Team Code: ( Hub No: Route No: Team No: )  Thus, the Total count of “Team Codes” multiplied by 5 gives the required number of volunteers for that Hub. Hence finding the required volunteers for each of the hubs will let Page 10 of 14

us know how many total volunteers we actually need for the event. This list should be the outcome of the orientation.  Volunteers with 2 wheelers must be chosen for outskirt routes of Eastfort where stalls will be far away from each other.  All those who have not registered with Corporation can register then and there if they wish to. Else volunteers note the location and make their own evaluation and leave the place.

Forms:

 Attendance Form : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1X30P3gX-IE5eSF_7rHp4Jzml9sqTD7OL

 Registration with Evaluation Form : https://drive.google.com/open?id=1VMQhlH0ncloLK28eZ3O0W97GnvXLKKqoYU8JFvpPwyY

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Annexure

Photos of Pongala Day Survey

Surveyor’s On Duty

Green Protocol Violators

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Surveyor’s On Duty

Selfie with Surveyors

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Feedbacks of Surveyors

Niveditha P Gopan:

A very good experience. A great opportunity to interact with people. Have got a chance to aware people of green protocol and its importance. Get to know people are more aware of green protocol than expected.

Muhammed Fazil:

It was such an exquisite honour for us to take part in the volunteership program. The team spirit and social commitment bestowed by each team member were to be specified. It was such a wonderful experience.

Arjun R Krishnan:

Got an idea on an average waste generation after Pongala. Had a good time with NSS friends.A very good platform for NSS and other friends to participate in socially responsible activities. Very much glad to each and everyone behind this organising committee for giving me a chance in this initiative.

Abhiram S Syam

We tried our maximum to avoid plastic, paper wastes by convincing the green protocol rules to the suppliers. The food suppliers need to take more responsibilities for cleanliness.. the important problem faced today is the surroundings of cooking areas. Kindly let them know these facts from the authorities too.. we had done everything from our part. Thank you...

Karthik S Gokul:

It was a good experience for us. Many people cooperated with us. It was an ecofriendly programme by ensuring food safety. We would like to thank the coordinators for giving us a great opportunity to take part in the project. We would like to appreciate all of them for their magnificent effort.

Sarang:

It was a very good experience..... Received a lot of good response from people . Looking forward to new activities...

Susmira K M:

It was a nice experience for us.good response from the people. but I think there is a lot of use of plastic.. by this awareness I think we have influenced many.

Althaf A:

It was a really wonderful experience....was able to interact with people. looking forward to new activities. ... thankyou for giving us such a wonderful opportunity

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