(Image source from: IndiaAhead)

While walking via lanes of Indian cities one thing for sure to find if not cleanliness is stains of paan spoiling the walls, roads, and advertisements on billboards. 

You can consistently encounter people who are bound to make the best utilization of those 5 minutes at the red light to spit all around you.

In order to make India an unstained country, a team of eight girls from Ramnarain Ruia College, Matunga, Mumbai inspired by the Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan, set out to find an environment-friendly solution to wipe off stubborn paan stains from public spaces which made them get recognized on an international platform.

CM @Dev_Fadnavis meets and congratulates the team of students from Ruia College, Matunga, who bagged the Gold Medal and prizes at the International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) 2018 competition held in Boston, USA last week. @iGEM @iGEMRuiaMumbai pic.twitter.com/r5SxUbLovY

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) November 12, 2018

The students discovered microbes and enzymes that turn the red paan color into "a harmless colorless product".

Sanika Ambre, one of the students, said they plan to use these enzymes in a gel form to rid spaces of stains.

The team won the prestigious gold medal at the Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) 2018 held in Boston, the United States for their exceptional discovery. It was also the only undergraduate college among the 300 global teams to get a prize for best integrated human practices.

Shrutika Sawant, one of the final-year BSc microbiology students from the team told TOI, "We met paan vendors to understand the ingredient in the paan that gives the color. We realized that catechu and slake lime are responsible for the red-brown color. We also met some cleaners to understand the practical difficulties in washing off paan stains. We interacted with industries to find out about chemicals used as cleaning agents."

During their extensive research, the girls who hail from Ramnarain met various station masters, paan vendors and railway managers. They discovered that on an average 10 liters of acid is used every month to clean paan stains at Soon station alone.

Smaller stations do away with this tiring job with three to four cleaners, big stations have to outsource it to a cleansing agency who would ensure that every nick and corner of the station is spick and span.

With the help of articles, the students found out that 60,000 liters of water were being wasted in scrubbing off blotches. The product developed by these girls will require much less water.

The team was felicitated for its innovative idea by Maharashtra CM, Devendra Fadnavis.

The team received a grant of Rs 10 lakh to take part in the event. The students conducted anti-spitting drives with the title '#paan se pareshaan' to raise awareness and plan to continue with it. They are now looking forward to getting economic aid to take their project forward.

The team included Aishwarya Rajurkar, Anjali Vaidya, Komal Parab, Nishtha Pange, Maithili Sawant and Mitali Patil.

By Sowmya