Gandhi Jayanthi was observed this year with a never before mission Swatchh Bharat (Clean India Campaign) by PM Narendra Modi leading from the front on October 2. It was a moving experience. PM exhorted the young Indians: Devote two hours every week for cleaning your surroundings :: Do not litter and do not allow others to litter,
If each citizen can stop throwing litter outside and spitting in public, then the battle against unclean environment can be won. Parents and other adults should inculcate socially re ractices and healthy personal habits as a gurantee for a future clean India. Go to a govt office and you alls because of Pan stains and spit marks. There is a joke:: a tourist asked his host "Why do You Indians spit blood ? Why is your govt not doing any thing to give treatment to the people?".Most men, including the well educated, have no hesitation to urinate in public against the walls and trees as a matter of right. Open defecation by those without access to toilts is understandable. But many with private toilets throw the excreta of their children on to the roads. Purity inside is important, but pollution outside is immaterial.That is the attitude of many. A colleague of mine in a school of social work never forgot to brush his teeth after lunch, but he never flushed the WC after use. So cleanliness is also an attitudinal problem.
Millions of workers who clean our roads, parks and lavatories across the country have been experiencing very undesirable working and living conditions. Manual scavenging of night soil continues which is an inhuman practice. Despite the Supreme Court order no action has been taken by the govt. Most of these workers are Dalits. Indian Railways is the worst offender in causing the worst form of unclean environment.
Swatchh Bharat Mission needs a carrot and stick approach as many democracies have been doing successfuly.A purely voluntary approach has serious limitations.
If each citizen can stop throwing litter outside and spitting in public, then the battle against unclean environment can be won. Parents and other adults should inculcate socially re ractices and healthy personal habits as a gurantee for a future clean India. Go to a govt office and you alls because of Pan stains and spit marks. There is a joke:: a tourist asked his host "Why do You Indians spit blood ? Why is your govt not doing any thing to give treatment to the people?".Most men, including the well educated, have no hesitation to urinate in public against the walls and trees as a matter of right. Open defecation by those without access to toilts is understandable. But many with private toilets throw the excreta of their children on to the roads. Purity inside is important, but pollution outside is immaterial.That is the attitude of many. A colleague of mine in a school of social work never forgot to brush his teeth after lunch, but he never flushed the WC after use. So cleanliness is also an attitudinal problem.
Millions of workers who clean our roads, parks and lavatories across the country have been experiencing very undesirable working and living conditions. Manual scavenging of night soil continues which is an inhuman practice. Despite the Supreme Court order no action has been taken by the govt. Most of these workers are Dalits. Indian Railways is the worst offender in causing the worst form of unclean environment.
Swatchh Bharat Mission needs a carrot and stick approach as many democracies have been doing successfuly.A purely voluntary approach has serious limitations.
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