Swachhata Campaign 6.0: ICAR Holds Nearly 4,000 Clean Drives

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and its 114 institutes, Regional Centres, Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes and Krishi Vigyan Kendras are taking part in the month-long Swachhata Special Campaign 6.0, which runs from 2 to 31 October 2026. The Department of Agricultural Research and Education, which oversees ICAR, launched the campaign on 2 October 2026 with drives at its establishments across the country.

How it began

Officials of ICAR headquarters joined the opening drive at the National Agricultural Science Complex, Pusa, in New Delhi, where a floral tribute was also paid to Mahatma Gandhi on his birth anniversary.

What the campaign has delivered

The money came from selling electronic and non-electronic scrap, and pending files and matters are being cleared alongside.

The activities

• Cleanliness drives and Shramdaan in campuses, villages, roads and public spaces
• Special Gram Sabhas and Swachhata Sabhas on sanitation, hygiene and waste management
• Plogging, distribution of dustbins and beautification recorded through before-and-after photographs
• Plantation and greening of Cleanliness Target Units, including work under Ek Ped Maa Ke Naam
• Recognition of Safai Mitras, sanitation workers and volunteers

Institutes in focus

At ICAR-Central Coastal Agricultural Research Institute in Goa, Union Minister for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare and Rural Development Shivraj Singh Chouhan felicitated Safai Mitras with shawls, bouquets and gifts in a Shramik Samman programme. The institute also catalogued scrap for disposal, including 200 kg of MCB panels and 100 kg of fencing wire.

ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, observed Swachh Bharat Diwas on 2 October 2026 on the theme Swachhta Mein Sahbhag - Swachh Bharat, Viksit Bharat. Secretary of the Department of Agricultural Research and Education and Director General of ICAR, Dr. Mangi Lal Jat, asked for cleanliness to be treated as a year-round, team-based activity, and prizes were given to winners of a painting competition held by the Post Graduate School Students Union.

At ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Sri Vijaya Puram, biological waste management covered 213 animals, among them 105 goats, with shed wash water and livestock urine reused to irrigate fodder plots and dung sent to the vermicompost unit. The institute in Umiam, Meghalaya, worked on electronic waste, this year a focus of the campaign, sending items to authorised recyclers, while others took up vermicomposting of water hyacinth and Waste to Art under the Reduce, Reuse and Recycle idea.