In 2014, a group of six people in Bhopal, India took it upon themselves to start cleaning up the city, one spot at a time. Every Sunday they would choose a spot in the city that needed a makeover and spend five hours cleaning and decorating the area. Their activities caught on and the group of six turned into a group of 200 that now goes by the name, Bhopal I-Clean Team.
The original founders, who connected with each other on a local Facebook page, first got the idea from a similar spot-fixing venture in Bengaluru called The Ugly Indian.
Each week, the team decides on a spot to fix, which entails cleaning and tidying up the area and painting the surrounding surfaces with the indigenous tribal art of the ancient Warli tribe. The traditional art is characterised by white rhythmic patterns that customarily depict scenes of social life.
The team initially targeted more public spaces that people would notice but now they have turned their attention to derelict inner city spaces. The project is a collaborative effort that is partly funded by the members, partly out of their own pockets and partly through their “Raddi” campaign, which generates money by collecting scraps to sell to scrap dealers. So far, the team has revamped 111 spots in Bhopal.
