Dignity drive: He scours city for discarded flags

MUMBAI: Post Independence Day, one comes across several discarded national flags made of paper and plastic. Most of us simply walk past them, but Masjid resident Mangesh Fadale makes it a point to stop. Fadale has, in fact, made it his mission to collect all abandoned flags before the BMC sweeper's broom touches them the morning after. This Independence Day alone, he has picked up more than 1,500 flags.
Fadale, a 25-year-old BCom from Elphinston College, started this social work on the Republic Day of 2004.In 2003, while returning home, Fadale found some flags lying in a gutter. "I collected them on an impulse, and began to wonder about the condition of lakhs of flags that are sold on every street corner on Independence and Republic days. I then read the Flag Code of India - 2002," said Fadale, recalling the trigger for his unusual mission. Since the past five years, on each Independence Day and Republic Day, Fadale collects abandoned flags from the streets and disposes them according to Section 5 of the Flag Code of India - 2002. "I burn the paper flags with due respect. My main grudge is against plastic flags, which cannot be burnt or buried. I try to clean them and send them to Adivasi schools in my native place. I think the government should ban their production," he said.
Every Independence and Republic Day, Mangesh sets off at 7 pm to Colaba and collects discarded flags all the way up to Dadar till 7 am, the next day. He segregates the flags into four: usable paper and plastic flags and unusable paper and plastic flags. Mangesh covers residential areas, schools and government establishments in his 12-hour duty.
"My only motto is to make people aware of the importance of the Indian national flag. The best place to start are schools and colleges. People should celebrate days of national importance by all means, but they should not disrespect the flag," said the staunch admirer of the national flag.
Fadale writes an occasional column for vernacular newspapers and keeps himself busy by organising various social activities such as AIDS and election awareness drives in his village and in Mumbai.