Since August, the country has seen many well-known persons being tagged for the
highly popularised Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. This is done by none other than our
Prime Minister himself. At the outset, I want to say with all humility that this piece
is not a criticism but only a humble suggestion to change the way the programme is
being approached.
This Abhiyan is no doubt a significant step for a country like India which has
not a good image as far as cleanliness is concerned. Even New Delhi lacks properly
developed urban civic infrastructure and presence of dustbins at key places. This
forces one to throw garbage at will at any place. Infact, we as an Indian have not
been sensitized about the idea of keeping our environment clean. But, we have a
good sense of keeping our homes clean. This suggests that it is not intrinsic in us to
be unclean. It is only that we do not regard outdoors as significant enough to keep it
clean. So, there is a sense of “duality” in our behaviour and the need is to
synchronise it with the behaviour we show towards our own homes.
In this light, I think Prime Minister would do well to motivate and start
tagging the most basic unit of our system i.e the Gram Panchayats. This is
necessary and useful because of two reasons:
Firstly, people at the basic level get highly motivated when a person of the
stature of Prime Minister asks for their support. Young groups can be nominated to
lead a Panchayat and spread the idea of cleanliness and its significance. This, in my
view, will have a larger impact because in that case it may become a countrywide
Abhiyan slowly and gradually. It is not necessary to do it all at a time. But, few
Panchayats in different states are to be nominated in first phase. This may motivate
others as well to take up the job. This can be one of the best examples of bottom-top
approach.
At the same time, the idea that popular faces will spread the idea of clean
India is not sustainable. It may get reduced to a short term hullabaloo which may
die its natural death. This idea is perhaps not desirable. It can be seen from the till
date nominations of all the big faces. They are nowhere seen except during
promotion of their films. It is true they attract people, but it is equally true they
attract only for serving their interests. They took up the work of cleaning effort for
one day just because they are nominated by the Prime Minister and it is important
to give due respect to this office of the country. It cannot be said with certainty that
they are motivated enough to take up this work.
Secondly, the idea is to change the habit of the citizens and to generate a
sense of responsibility that it is as important to keep the outdoors clean as their own
residences. Since, it is citizen based abhiyan, it is important to start at the basic level
only. The aim should be to hit at the core of their hearts regarding the significance of
clean neighbourhood, clean village, clean city and ultimately clean country.
Till the time the idea of cleanliness does not get delivered to the minds of
people, the programme is destined to fail. Only symbolic gestures of holding a
broom and cleaning some small areas with hundreds of people surrounding and
media ready to click pictures will not serve the purpose. Also, cleanliness should be
understood as more than just litter cleaning exercise. Success requires a clear
strategy and small steps and that needs to come from the side of citizens and not
any big names per se.
It is not over yet. This is just the beginning. The Prime Minister may do
well to change his strategy of calling big names and time has come to tag the entire
country so that the broom sweeps this nation in its entirety to be rightly called
“Clean India”.
