Students sweep the school compound and scrub the grilles. (Below) Kindergarten students dust their tables. (Saradindu Chaudhury)

Clouds of dust blew in the corridors as students ran about urgently carrying brooms, mops, mugs and buckets. Many had covered their mouths and noses with hankies and others wore gloves. Children’s Day 2014 was like no other Children’s Day before at Hariyana Vidya Mandir. As per a government mandate, the students were to clean up the school that day for Bal Swachhata Mission.

Students of all classes contributed in every way they could. “My students have been asking me every 10 minutes when they’d be allowed to clean the class,” laughed the upper kindergarten teacher Troyee Mukherjee as she saw Sohan Saha rubbing his table with enough vigour to scrape the polish off. “I’ve got my sister’s old T-shirt to clean the class,” grinned Sohan as his classmate Shaorya Chowhan suddenly jumped up on the newly cleaned table to dust the adjacent wall.

A board with pictures of birds, hung high at the rear end of the class, was soon heard wobbling. The tots had been hitting their rags at it violently. Mukherjee asked them to quit and turned to the blackboard to see the over-enthusiastic kids rub off even the “Happy Children’s day” message on it.

The older students worked hard too. Most had little or no past experience in cleaning up. “At home, I just clean up once a month, that too on my mother’s prodding. But I’m proud to be cleaning my school as the Prime Minister wishes us to. Modiji inspires me,” smiled Gaurav Sharma, polishing the auditorium door diligently.

The school premises had been divided between the morning and the day shift and then further among different classes for the clean-up. Class XI of the day shift had got the staff room. “We first dusted it, then swept the floor and now we shall mop it,” said Saheli Paul, in between requesting the teachers to step out.

Soon her classmate Debanjan Nag had new-found respect for domestic helps. “I never knew moping the floor was so difficult. The mashi at home must really slog it out,” he panted and headed to the biology lab to fill his bucket with fresh water.

Anirban Dutta, a physics teacher ousted from the staff room, tried to peep in and was almost hit by Shyam Gupta, who was walking out with a chair held above his head. “Now we shall deep clean this chair,” he said, lowering it to the ground. Dutta did not mind. “I’m happy to see them so energetic about the clean-up. We’ll be allotting five marks in their final score for participation in this drive,” he said.

Then there was Class X, where Tanvi Patodia made posters and Sayani Chakraborty made a scrap book on the Swachh Bharat campaign. And Tanisha Jain played on the projector two videos that she had received on Whatsapp on cleanliness.

Tanmoy Ghosh of Class XII said that attendance that day was in fact higher than on usual days. “This is fun so we have turned up despite the pressure of exams. And after the clean-up, teachers will present a cultural programme for us like on regular Children’s Days,” he smiled, before sweeping the assembly area.

In the bargain, the school’s regular cleaners breezed through their day at work. “How will I clean today? The students have taken away my broom,” laughed Chiranjee Balmiki, who is in charge of the ground floor’s cleanliness. “Since it’s my job, I’ll do a round of cleaning after school hours but clearly, there will be very little dirt left today.”

Principal Nandini Sen hoped that the initiative leads to year-long awareness. “I hope it makes them more responsible even outside their homes and schools,” she signed off.