Envisaging a Spic-and-Span India

If someone asks me the best place to study human behaviour, my answer will always be: An Indian railway station! It is a place where you would always find huge exoduses and equally huge arrivals, at any given hour, be it early morning or late at night. Railway stations are truly the spots of Mumbai, which never sleep. As a regular commuter of the local trains, I observe diverse colours of human foibles. Some observations teach me important lessons in life; some are thought-provoking incidents, while some give ugly glimpses of human nature. Every morning after successfully accomplishing the Herculean task of getting a seat in the cubbyhole-like First Class compartment, starts my litany of observations. The most ignoble sight which I come across every morning in the passing train is that of people walking along the railway tracks, carrying bottles or buckets in their hand to attend nature’s call. It goes without saying that these people are residents of a nearby impoverished area, which we call as ‘slums’, a preponderant feature of Mumbai. These slums house innumerable people cramped like in a Holocaust. Where it is so difficult to make both ends meet, how can a person living in such an area think of better sanitation facilities? As per latest reports, even Mount Everest is sinking under the weight of human excreta, how can one expect hygiene in these hubs of squalidness?  While my mind is filled with disgust when I see the state of those people, at the same time I feel sorry for the sordidness which is still prevalent in a developing country like India. Today this picture is certainly deplorable when we compare it with the ancient Indus Valley Civilization, which had water supply and sanitation devices that were the first and best of their kind.

Mr. Arun Jaitley, in his recent Union Budget announced that around 6 crore toilets will be built in India under the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This budget allocation, I believe, is vital than any other, as I am of the opinion that social development of a country comes prior to its economic development. This particular provision in the budget gave me a sense of confidence that finally (and hopefully) those beleaguered people that I see every morning would be soon able to ‘relieve’ themselves in a correct manner! In some villages too, people do not still understand the importance of having toilets at home and therefore are vulnerable to many diseases. Vidya Balan’s advertisement of “Jahan soch waha shauchalay”, stating the need to have toilets at every home, surely attempts to open every ignorant villager’s eye.

Till the time comes when the sanitation facilities in India can be availed by everyone, the dread of epidemics or newer diseases will always brood over us. Why just open defecation, aren’t we surrounded by haphazardly thrown heaps of garbage? Not to forget, the menace of stray dogs that add to our environmental woes! The reader might think that I am too critical of the state of railway stations in Mumbai, but sadly they are the implied dumping grounds for many commuters. And when I say ‘commuters’, I do not target people of a specific strata or status, or people travelling by a particular class. After all, they all are citizens of India, rich or poor.

I remember this amusing incident of my junior college days, when I had gone ice-cream savouring with my friends. Each one of us bought an ice-cream cone of varied flavours and was enjoying it till we reached the railway station. I wanted to throw away my ice-cream wrapper but I couldn't find a dustbin nearby. When I expressed my ‘predicament’ to my friend, her answer was just like any other Indian. She said, “Throw it on the railway tracks, simple!” I was taken aback by her reply. I wondered if educated people like my friend had such a mindset, then expecting civic sense from barely educated or illiterate people would be an over-expectation.

There was another train incident, when a lady sitting opposite to me, was about to throw orange peels outside the window. When she saw me looking at her, she immediately stuffed them in her bag. I wish if every person who litters around were this conscious. The lady in the train must have thought that she would owe me a justification if I saw her throwing garbage out of the window. Similarly, any person who throws waste carelessly in the surroundings owes a big penalty towards the society and the environment. Then such people have no right to bemoan the dilatory railways during rains, as people of such frivolous behavior are responsible for the clogging of railway tracks during monsoon. The problem with us so-called educated Indians is that we often revile the municipal authorities for not keeping the surroundings clean, but we fail to retrospect where we err to keep our environment clean. When Indians go abroad, they abide by all the rules there and dare not litter on the roads, but when in India, they find nothing wrong in degrading the environment. When I was in school, we often used to throw pencil shavings or crumpled papers on the floor. Seeing this in almost every class, our principal pointed out once, “School is your second home. Do you throw around waste like that at home? No. Then how can you litter your second home like that?” All Indians need to think in the way our principal had suggested then.

Another environmental malaise which exists in society is that of spitters. The epitome of flouting is when people spit on the board itself which says, “Yahaan thookna mana hai” or at some places I have seen the word ‘mana’ scraped from the sentence, making it look “Yahaan thookna hai”. Seriously, how lunatic one can get! Often, at the railway stations, the garbage bins which are meant for ‘garbage’ are converted to spittoons with people spitting more and throwing less garbage in it. These so-called ‘dustbins’ are covered all in red, with paan stains on it. Same follows in case of people who pee in the open, despite the similar ‘mana hai’ hoardings.

Then there are stray dogs to cause further discomfort to the pedestrians. In the newspapers we read cases of people being attacked by packs of stray dogs. Of course, there are certain ‘mercenaries’ in the society who have a big share in mollycoddling the dogs by feeding them biscuits and food, something which can suffice the hunger of one poor person at least. The result of such ‘kindness’ is again, degradation of surroundings. Food wastage is another common problem in India, where people absolutely have no regard for food. One would wonder if such people eat to live or live to eat. The quantum of food which is wasted in India is beyond imagination. One fails to realize the value of food for the hungry indigent. Truly, the rift in the mentality of Indians is very high to fill the gap of sense and sensibility, and of right and wrong.

The only broom which is capable of cleaning the minds to have a green and clean environment is education. And by education, I do not mean merely introducing the subject Environmental Studies in schools and colleges, but making people aware, educating them about the need of maintaining clean surroundings. Inculcating civic sense is important. Imagine, if every individual becomes environmentally conscious, we need not worry about diseases like malaria, dengue or jaundice.

Technology too can play a huge role towards a clean environment. Recently I read about the maiden voyage of ‘Bio-Bus’ in England. This bus runs on biomethane, which is generated through the treatment of human and food waste. The article said that the bus can travel up to 186 miles on one tank of crap, besides having 88% less greenhouse emissions. It is an example of innovation + technology = clean environment. In India, there are many villages which have installed biogas plants as an effective step towards waste management and power generation. As shown in one of the episodes of Satyameva Jayate, there can be other scientifically innovative ways too, to generate ‘wealth out of waste’. Companies, who are required to spend 2% of their net profits towards CSR, can surely work in this area of development. Sudha Murty, chairman of Infosys Foundation, explained the significance of pay toilets in one of her vignettes. She is helping out rural areas by building 10,000 public toilets and several hundred toilets in the city of Bengaluru. This is a wonderful way of expressing gratitude to the society, by doing something for the society. Many companies have followed suit towards betterment of the society.

I believe we can achieve the pinnacle of cleanliness and hygiene if each individual strives to do as simple acts like throwing garbage in the dustbin and not around it, not treating the surroundings like open air toilets, eating and cooking food keeping the appetite in mind, so on and so forth. As citizens of India, if we follow Mahatma Gandhi’s principles towards cleanliness, we would definitely be called ‘developed’ from the global point of view. It would not only result in realizing the present Government’s dream of Swachh and Nirmal Bharat, but also a disease-free and habitable environment for every human being.