Youth group 'The Commoners' breaks the internet with its #TrashTagChallenge

“You don’t get anything clean without getting something else dirty” once said a wise man. To attain cleanliness someone has to dirty his/her hands and pick up the trash. Doing so is a bunch of young, energetic individuals who call themselves “The Commoners”.

‘The Commoners’, a social upliftment movement started in the year 2015 in Hailakandi with a very few members and today they stand strong, a family of 50 members who proudly identify themselves as The Commoners. Its initiative is to bring various commoners who want to volunteer in bringing some positive change in society.

The Commoners’ recently accepted the #trashtag challenge which is breaking the internet with netizens all over the world taking part in it. In the #trashtag challenge, one has to take a photo of an area that needs some cleaning or maintenance, then click another one after doing something about it, and post it with #trashtag on social media. After doing so, the person/group needs to nominate two more people or group to take up this challenge.

A young team of 12 members from the Commoners’ group cleared up a place in the Ambikapatty area in Silchar. “We were nominated to take up the challenge by Swachh  Silchar team last Sunday, who started the drive first in the city,” said Rohan Biswas, the President of the group.

Apart from the cleanliness drive, The Commoners’ group takes a regular initiative to educate the people living in tea gardens located in the rural areas of the valley. Their initiatives pay special attention to the health sector, environment, women empowerment.

The group often conducts book donation drives, cloth donations, food distribution and many such activities for the betterment of the society. They have also taken up career counselling for students studying in rural areas. Focusing on health awareness, the group has successfully taught women of the tea gardens about anemia, problems related to pregnancies, care for child and mother.

With three branches scattered across the valley, in Karimganj, Hailakandi and Silchar, they also have plans to start voters awareness camps before the elections. The group has many goals and as their name suggests, its a mission to unite the commoners, the people of the society to work for it together.

They have nominated Student Union of Assam University and Silchar Medical College and Hospital to carry forward the movement. Soon they will be seen taking up the #trashtag challenge to the Karimganj and Hailakandi.