‘Swachh Bharat has become a people’s movement’

It has brought about behavioural change, empowered women and broken caste barriers, says the Secretary to the Drinking Water and Sanitation Ministry

In his office, Parameswaran Iyer keeps a countdown calendar to October 2, 2019, the deadline for all of India to become ‘open-defecation free’. On Tuesday, the countdown dipped to ‘365 days left’. Despite some aberrations, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan-Gramin has taken massive strides towards its goal. But Mr. Iyer knows that his biggest test will come after the countdown reaches zero: sustaining the gains will be the toughest challenge, he says. Excerpts:

You’re completing four years of the Swachh Bharat programme. What do you think has been its single biggest achievement? And what was the biggest challenge?

First, the fact that this programme has really caught on as a jan andolan . It has become a ‘people’s movement’. It has captured the imagination of the country. It has addressed centuries-old practices on open defecation, and it has had major health and economic impact. A recent World Health Organisation (WHO) report has said that by the time Swachh Bharat ends in 2019, more than 3,00,000 lives would have been saved.

We have got the numbers: 24 States have become open-defecation free. The number of toilets built is 8.6 crore. Sanitation coverage has gone up from 39% when we started four years ago to over 93% today. What is even more significant is that, according to the most recent independent survey, as part of a World Bank-supported project, the usage of the toilets is 93%.

That really shows that this whole behavioural change programme that is at the heart of Swachh Bharat — there is evidence that it is really working. Behavioural change at scale — I think that was the biggest challenge.

So you are saying that it is not just about building the infrastructure, the toilets.

We are very clear that this programme is primarily about changing behaviour. Now, obviously you need the infrastructure. We are trying to separate human contact with excreta and the most cost-efficient way of doing that is by providing a toilet. They have to be built, and there has been a remarkable increase in the number of toilets. But we are more interested in toilet usage.

We deploy tools at two levels. One is [through] mass media, the other [through] interpersonal communication. We have been working on developing an army of foot soldiers called swachhagrahi s, grass-root level motivators trained in community approaches and they go out to trigger behavioural change. They get their communities to accept responsibility and accountability. That ground game, that interpersonal communication, is important not just to achieve Open Defecation Free (ODF) status, but also to sustain it.

You now have 24 States which have been declared ODF, which means that the infrastructure game is supposedly over. They have constructed the toilets...

And they’re being used.

How about behavioural change? Do you continue to work on that in these States?

You have touched upon a very important point: sustaining the gains of ODF. This is one of the biggest differences between this programme and the previous ones. We have a parallel programme called ODF Sustainability — and we have not lost contact with States that have become ODF. There is continued engagement. There is also focus on ‘ODF plus’, which is about solid and liquid waste management and swachhata in general.

I was recently in Rajasthan and visited several villages where — yes, there is greater awareness, there is momentum. But not everyone has toilets and there are toilets which are incomplete. A few are being used for storage or they don’t have a water connection. Even with a working toilet, half the family goes out to the fields. And this is a State that was declared ODF a year ago. What would you say about this kind of ground reality that disputes your figures?

Let me just take you through the process of declaration [of a State as] ODF. It’s quite rigorous. First, there is self declaration by the village in an open aam sabha. Then there is verification by an agency from the district level or block level. Then, the State government sometimes does sample verification and so do we. So, the process is fairly robust, and then we have got this national rural annual survey.

If there are specific cases in Rajasthan, they need to be addressed. Whenever we get a case where someone reports to us that somewhere there is a problem on the ground, or a toilet is not constructed, or someone is still going out to the open — they may be isolated cases — we refer it to the State.

These are not really isolated cases. Is it possible that to meet the Prime Minister’s deadline, you are moving too fast to make ODF declarations? Maybe we need to accept that behavioural change takes longer than infrastructure construction?

All the feedback we get from our colleagues on the ground says that one of the reasons this programme is so successful is because of the energy, the enthusiasm of the campaign. The fact that it [has been done] in campaign mode is what brings everyone together. The earlier approach was: ‘drip, drip, drip’. You don’t get anywhere with a ‘drip, drip’ method. You have got to build up momentum.

If you talk to the collectors, all the people who were the pioneers for their districts, whether it is in Bengal or whether it’s in Rajasthan, all of them said, “If you don’t do this in campaign mode, if you don’t get everyone in the district together, all segments, elected representatives, women, swachhagrahi s, sarpanchs, it is very difficult to do it over an extended period of time. You cannot sustain the enthusiasm.”

So in a year’s time, you are hoping to have worked yourself out of a job?

We have reached 93% coverage and eventually, we are going to get to 100%, and I think well before the October 2019 deadline set by the Prime Minister.

I think it is really important now to focus upon sustaining the ODF status. In some ways, this is even more challenging than achieving it in campaign mode, because this is something that has to be done on a continuous basis. People have got to understand that sustaining the gains is going to take time, it has got to get ingrained.

Let us focus on the infrastructure again. Above the ground is the toilet. Underneath lies the twin pit, which is a concept you have been promoting. Many people in rural India still prefer a septic tank or build faulty twin pits with liquid flowing into both. What do you think can be done to improve the awareness about the twin-pit toilets?

This is something we have been focussing on and we have got to focus even more. We are convinced that this twin-pit model, which can be used in most parts of rural India, [can] actually create a treatment plant in itself. The big problem with septic tanks is the disposal of the sludge. Sludge management is not a problem when you talk of the twin pit. Now of course, that needs to be propagated better, so we are now trying to market it as a colour TV, not as a black and white TV. We have got some of our Swachh Bharat ambassadors like Amitabh Bachchan and Akshay Kumar doing promotion. Masons are being trained. We have got a big collaboration with the Ministry of Skill Development.

These twin pits are designed to last for how many years?

Typically, for a family of four or five, five to six years.

Assuming that someone built a twin-pit toilet in the very first year of Swachh Bharat, the first emptying has to happen in 2020. What do you think is going to happen then?

This is part of the training and the awareness campaign, that when one of your pits fills up, in five to six years, this is what you need to do. You need to divert it to the second pit. When the first pit is closed for more than a year, then you can take out the compost. It is harmless, pathogen-free, and it is a great organic fertiliser.

There is better communication about twin pits now. But many of the toilets built in the early stages of the campaign did not use twin pits. What happens in five years when you open them up, find that you have not built them properly and have a pit full of sludge?

Part of the training we are [providing] is about retrofitting. Wherever there are deficiencies in construction, in some cases where there are single pits, you can retrofit them to second pits.

There is also the traditional ‘solid waste management strategy’ in this country, which is that particular castes are expected to clean excreta. Have you succeeded in eradicating that in the ODF States?

In a rural context, just to put it in perspective, the focus has been on conversion of insanitary toilets — dry latrines — to sanitary ones. And work has been going on on for the last three years and the reports we have received from the States are that this conversion is complete... We are also continuously monitoring this... but reports indicate that that has been taken care of in rural India.

So you are saying that if a State has been declared ODF, it means that this conversion has taken place?

Yes.

Even where Swachh Bharat has brought in sanitary toilets, if they have septic tanks or improperly built twin pits, they need to be cleaned. And it is often the former manual scavengers who are now being expected to do that. Of course, now they get paid for it. Do you think that is a move up, or…

I don’t know about specific cases. I have to tell you that one of the big outcomes of the Swachh Bharat Mission is that communities have come together. We think that the programme has actually broken these caste barriers.

The other question many people ask me is: who cleans these toilets? Households clean their toilets. These are simple toilets, it’s a rural pan, you don’t need much water and they maintain it themselves.

So we think that in many ways, this programme has not only empowered women and girls, it has actually brought communities together.

So would you see October 2, 2019 as the end of a journey or a milestone?

There’s no end to any journey in that sense. I would say it [would be] fulfilment in many ways. We would become an Open-Defecation Free India, and, of course, we would need to continue to sustain it.

Sanitation coverage has gone up from 39% when we started four years ago to over 93% today

Source: The Hindu, 3/10/2018

Surat railway station cleanest: survey

The survey was conducted in January-February this year and passengers were asked questions on 40 cleanliness parameters.

Surat has the cleanest railway station in the country, followed by Rajkot and Bilaspur (Chhattisgarh), according to an Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) survey, released on Thursday.

However, the railway station in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency Varanasi is ranked poorly in terms of cleanliness; it stood at 65 among the 75 A-1 railway stations (those earning revenue more than Rs. 50 crore) surveyed. The survey that was conducted based on feedback from around 1.34 lakh passengers is a part of Mr. Modi’s pet project ‘Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan’.

“The idea is to make the entire rail network clean, including stations, tracks and other railway premises. We decided to do a survey to bring out the present situation…This is a beginning to bring all the stations at par. We will also launch major [passenger] awareness programme,” Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu said while releasing the Preliminary Report on Assessment of Cleanliness Standards of Major Railway Stations.

The survey was conducted at 407 railway stations, which included 75 A-1 stations and 332 A category stations. Around 40 per cent of all the stations surveyed fared ‘average’ in terms of cleanliness.

Among the A-category stations (those with revenue between Rs. 6 crore and Rs. 50 crore), Beas (Punjab) followed by Gandhidham (Gujarat), Vasco Da Gama (Goa), Jamnagar (Gujarat), Kumbakonam (Tamil Nadu) and Nasik Road (Maharashtra) were among the cleanest railway stations.

The survey was conducted in January-February this year and passengers were asked questions on 40 cleanliness parameters.

IRCTC will soon submit the final report to the Railway Ministry that will include responses from railway staff and non-railway service providers.

Keywords: IRCTC, Surat, Rajkot, Bilaspur, Varanasi railway station, Swacch Bharat Abhiya

Source: The Hindu, 19-03-2016

What makes Mysuru India’s cleanest city? All you need to know

Mysuru in Karnataka has topped the list of the cleanest cities in India for the second year in a row.

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Cities	Rank (2016)	Rank (2014)
Mysuru	1	1
Chandigarh	2	10
Tiruchirappalli	3	3
Delhi-NDMC	4	7
Visakhapatnam	5	44
Surat	6	12
Rajkot	7	32
Gangtok	8	16
Pimpri Chinchwad	9	9
Greater Mumbai	10	2

Mysuru in Karnataka has topped the list of the cleanest cities in India for the second year in a row.

It was followed by Chandigarh, Tiruchirapalli, New Delhi Municipal Council area and Visakhapatnam, said a report following a nationwide survey -- “Swachh Survekshan 2016” under the ‘Swachh Bharat’ Mission.

“The survey is not done to demoralise any city or place of the country. It aims at generating a healthy competition among them,” Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu told reporters while releasing the survey report here. It aims at popularising the ‘Swachh Bharat’ Mission, “and to bring competitive spirit among people to keep their cities clean”, the minister added.

Read more: Swachh rankings: Mysuru is India’s cleanest city, Dhanbad filthiest

1) What made Kanataka’s Mysuru India’s cleanest city?

Mysuru scored well on all sanitation parameters. This included making adequate provisions for individual, community and public toilets, a good track record in door- to- door garbage collection, overall cleanliness level of the city, proper processing and disposal of garbage, an effective communication strategy to bring about behavior change and engaging citizens in cleanliness drive.

2) When was the survey conducted?

Between January 5 and January 20. A team of 110 assessors was deployed on the ground to conduct the survey.

3) What is the total population of the 73 cities?

12.47 crore or a third of India’s total urban population.

4) How were the cities chosen?

Cities were measured on two counts. First, their performance on key sanitation components such as constructing individual, public and community toilets, providing adequate solid waste management facilities and launching effective communication strategy. Second, the cities were measured on three counts. Service level status collected from municipalities (1000 marks), physical observation by assessors (500 marks) and getting citizen’s feedback on cleanliness in their respective cities (500 marks). Mysuru, for instance scored 1749 and topped the list, Dhanbad scored 464 and languished at the bottom.

5) What is the regional spread of the cities?

28 cities were from northern states, 15 from south, 15 from the west, 7 from east and 8 from north-east.

6) Geographically, how did the cities fare?

Cities from south and west fared better than those from north and east.

7) What happens to cities that consistently fare well in cleanliness survey that is conducted every year?

Of the Rs 62,009 crore earmarked for Swachh Bharat Mission till 2019, such cities will be given an incentive of 10 % from the Centre share of Rs 14,623 crore.

8) As of now where do Indian cities stand on various sanitation parameters ?

According to Census 2011

18.6% : urban households do not have toilets within the premises.

6%: use community toilets

12.6 %: defecate in the open.

24%: solid waste gets processed of the over 1.7 lakh metric tonne generated per day.

Source: Hindustan Times, 16-02-2016

71% in survey say Swachh Bharat a flop in cities

Dipak Dash

New Delhi





In what could be a wake-up call for the Centre to fix weaknesses in the Swachh Bharat initiative, nearly 71% respondents in an online poll conducted by a social media group feel cleanliness in their cities and towns has not improved much in the past one year and want a greater municipal-citizen connect.The online poll on “local circles“, which has over 3 lakh participants, provides a strong feedback that municipalities need a big technology and skill upgrade and must improve actual delivery of sanitation services at the ground level. Involving citi zens in the cleanliness drives as well as in advocacy will also help, the poll indicates.
Swachh Bharat mission was launched by PM Modi on October 2 last year.
The poll has brought to light the gap in capacity of municipal bodies, primarily responsible for collection, transportation and treatment of waste in urban areas. According to the poll, 94% respondents felt civic bodies need major upgrade in skills, processes, equipment system and leadership. Some 96% felt municipal and city leaders should connect with citizens for the success of the mission. An online survey , which found 71% of respondents feel that PM Narendra Modi's ambitious Swachh Bharat Mission has been a flop in urban India, will help in planning the next course of action, a senior government official said on Thursday .
“Efforts are being made to sensitize the municipal authorities and we have been monitoring the progress. It's atime-taking programme. We are providing technical and financial assistance to urban local bodies to implement the scheme,“ the official added.
According to latest government data, 1.42 lakh tonne of solid waste was generated per day in urban areas in July and only 15.33 % of it was processed, indicating how under-equipped municipal bodies are. They also face a problem in terms of lack of a dedicated municipal cadre that can bring economists, public policy graduates, environmentalists and engineers into city administrations.
While one of the key com ponents of the mission in ur ban areas is to create more public toilets, over three fourth of respondents in the online poll said the availabil ity of lavatories hasn't in creased in the one year. More than 70% of the respondents also pointed out how local municipal bodies are not seriously engaged in the scheme and driving the “cleanliness civic sense“ initiatives on the ground.
Considering that cities are competing with each other to get the Smart City tag, 88% of the respondents said that municipal bodies that implement Swachh Bharat mission effectively should be considered as the key parameter for this scheme.
Even an analysis of the cities and towns that have been shortlisted for three major urban development scheme shows how the common underlying concern is ensuring sanitation under all these programmes. Most of the urban areas have poor ranking as far as their Swachh Bharat rankings are concerned.
For the full report, log on to http:www.timesofindia.com

Source: The Times of India, 18-09-2015

Swachh Bharat ranks show it is time for cities to come clean

The report of the Union urban development ministry on the levels of cleanliness, or the lack of it, in 476 Indian cities makes the case for Swachh Bharat even stronger.

It also lends solidity to the theory that the public spirit of the people is much weaker in cities and towns than in rural areas because the sense of belonging is all but absent in most. In an implied sense that is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had talked about on August 15 last year, leading to the launch of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan.

Though the government has clarified that the rankings were based on the findings before the Swachh Bharat mission was launched, from next year the mission will be a weighted component in any survey the establishment undertakes.

The criteria adopted for the rankings have been the extent of open defecation, solid waste management, water treatment, etc. A striking feature of the report is that while the part of Delhi that falls under the New Delhi Municipal Council ranks 16th, Delhi is at 397th place.

This is something that should set the alarm bells ringing for the Arvind Kejriwal government. However, the most striking part of the report is that seven of the 10 cleanest cities are from the south, and Bengaluru, despite its precipitate decline over the past 10 years, has performed the best among the capitals. Only one city, Etawah, from Uttar Pradesh features among the top 100.

However, Lucknow, Agra, Kanpur and Allahabad have been put on the 100 smart cities list.

The budget this year had announced full tax exemption for contributions to the Swachh Bharat Kosh. Moreover, it also talked about building 60 million toilets, though no timeframe was given for this.

More than Rs 90 crore was spent on campaign advertising in 2014-15. But nothing will work unless states become partners in cleaning our cities. And making our cities livable cannot be an exercise in isolation divorced from other developmental activities.

Now, a National Award for rag pickers

The national award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, will be given to three best rag pickers and three associations.

Now, rag pickers’ services will be recognised by the government which has decided to give national award for their contribution to keep India clean.

“There are millions of rag pickers in the country. This informal sector has saved the country. They are doing a good job and I have decided to recognise their efforts. We will grant national award,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar said at an event on waste management in New Delhi.

The national award, with a cash prize of Rs. 1.5 lakh, will be given to three best rag pickers and three associations involved in innovation of best practices, he added.

Stating that rag pickers are helping to some extent in handling waste, the Minister pitched for setting up of a credible agency like Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) that can guide municipal bodies to take measures to address waste management in a scientific way.

“At present, agencies that handle solid waste are working on contractual basis and this has failed miserably. Handling waste cannot always be a profitable business. We have suggested that the Urban Ministry build a credible agency like DMRC that can give scientific guidance,” he said.

The Minister also mentioned that there are adequate funds for waste management. “What is lacking is scientific guidance to handle different kinds of waste,” he said.

Expressing concern over the large quantity of untreated waste and sewage in the country, Javadekar said that current rules have been revised to ensure every village of over 5,000 population has a waste treatment plant.

The country generates 62 million tonnes of waste annually. “This is expected to increase to 165 million tonnes by 2030 and 450 million tonnes by 2050,” he said adding that the worrying fact is that 68 per cent of waste and sewage is not treated in the country at present.

He said the new draft norms on waste management, which aim to put in place a strong mechanism to address concerns related to different kinds of waste, would be implemented from August-end after seeking public comments.

Keywords: rag pickers, Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar, Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, waste management

XLRI - Xavier School of Management has created World Record for the largest hand washing relay

Report by India Education bureau, Jamshedpur:XLRI - Xavier School of Management, one of India’s premier B-School, has created World Record for the largest hand washing relay. Guinness World Records has officially confirmed the record. 

 

The initiative, ‘Banega Swachh India’ campaign was conducted by the Marketing Association of XLRI (MAXI) with support of leading hygiene product brand Dettol at the 36th MAXI Fair held at XLRI Campus in Jamshedpur in January, 2915 and was a part of MAXI’s awareness drive to spread the message of ‘Clean India’, carrying forward Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.

 

The relay saw a participation of over 991 participants including members of XLRI as well as residents of Jamshedpur. The Guinness World Record authorities in London accredited this endeavour by XLRI students for the most number of participants in a hand washing relay in February after a scrutiny of the submitted evidences. XLRI has beaten the record formerly created in Sri Lanka by 650 participants.

 

Prithwish Datta, Secretary, MAXI thanked the citizens of Jamshedpur on behalf of the institute and ensured that the students of XLRI will continue their efforts of raising awareness about socially relevant issues taking forward the long standing tradition of this B school with a difference.

 

Fr. E. Abraham, Director, XLRI remarked, “We congratulate our Team MAXI for creating this record. This was a noble initiative entirely conceptualized by our students to spread awareness for Clean India Movement.”

 

“Following the Jesuit spirit of 'Magis', XLRI has always worked for the Greater Good of the Society and has strived to instil this spirit in the students. We are happy to see our students coming forward with such social initiatives,” he added. 

RELATED KEYWORDS: XLRI | Xavier School of Management |

Don't pee in public, now walls can throw it back

Berlin: PTI





In a bid to teach drunken revellers a lesson, people in a night club locality in Hamburg have coated their walls with a special paint that bounces back urine on the urinator.The hydrophobic (waterrepellent) paint, if urinated upon, makes the urine bounce off the wall and back at the urinators' feet who relieve themselves in the public.
Walls in the St Pauli nightclub district have been painted with a super-hydrophobic coating and given accompanying signs, which read, `Do not pee here. We pee back!', media reports said. Residents of the St Pauli neighbourhood, sick of starting their day with the biting stench of urine, have begun coating their walls with the paint. The high-tech coating guarantees the urine bounces on to the urinator.
The special `superhyperhydrophobic' coating goes by the trade-name `Ultra-Ever-Dry' and was originally developed in 2012 by the US company Resource Energy Group. It can be used to coat cars and fabrics, but also wood and brick. The paint costs $446 a gallon (3.7 litres). About $700 is required to cover six square meters with urine-repelling paint.

Swachh Bharat may add 1% extra service tax to 5-star bills

New Delhi: TIMES NEWS NETWORK





The government has identified five “high-end services“, bills in fourand five-star hotels for one, which will attract additional service tax to fund PM Modi's Swachh Bharat campaign, leaving a slightly bigger dent in your pocket.Sources, however, indicated that against an “enabling provision“ of levying up to 2% cess over the 14% service tax, the government is expected to notify an additional 1% levy. The Centre aims to mop up around Rs 14,000 crore annually for the Swachh Bharat Kosh, which includes the 1% cess on the five services, apart from a levy of Rs 200 a tonne on coal.Details on the other four services were not available.
The move to impose service tax is expected to fetch the government around Rs 2,000 crore a year, while the coal levy is expected to generate around Rs 6,000 crore. Further, public sector companies are being asked to chip in with a part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) contribution to the fund. On Monday, TOI was the first to report about state-run banks being asked to contribute for the campaign that was flagged off by Modi on October 2.
While increasing the service tax from 12% to 14%, the government had proposed the cess, but had clarified that it would be imposed only on select items and would be applicable from the day it was notified. The twin moves have come in for criticism as it is seen to be impacting household budgets but the government has argued that the move is a transition towards the rollout of Goods and Services Tax. The Centre is targeting to launch the ambitious tax reform from April next ye

India is dirty because Indians are clean

Indrajit Hazra





The Litter Truth: The Indian Litterbug is proud of being filthy; He'll dirty New Delhi but never New York

Like Nature, India abhors a vacuum. Which is a prettier way of saying that India and Nature have had a longstanding joint venture that celebrates filling and trimming spaces with muck and filth that folks in other less rank cultures and countries seem to have such a problem with. It explains why there is no mention of Vedic-era flush toilet technology. It also explains why when three members of the Rolling Stones urinated in public in 1965 making headlines after being fined by the police, Indians wondered what the hullabaloo was all about.Along with the proliferation of beggars, invasions of privacy and lack of silence, we are inoculated against public dirtiness by being literally inside the garbage dump. Having our streets and roads being extensions of garbage tips and urinals strike us as being as noxious to us as it's scandalous for a lady to be topless at Las Salinas beach in Ibiza.
There's been an explanation passed down generations to explain why we're so filthy: India is so dirty because Indians are so clean. For outsiders, that sounds zen-Upanishadic. But what it's supposed to mean is that our homes are moderately neat--if we don't live in a chawl or a home that resembles a chawl with tubelights, that is -and the world outside can go to the dogs. This explanation is usually accompanied by a description of how other cultures are totally apathetic towards personal hygiene -`How do you think the Arabs and the French invented the perfume?' `Have you seen British teeth?' `The Swiss actually smell of cheese.' `I was once trapped in an elevator in America...' Essentially , there's some theory about the worse your personal hygiene the better your public cleanliness.Which makes no sense at all for us who take a dip in the very public-cum-personal Ganga or local tubewell to cleanse our squeaky bits including our souls.
This theory , of course, is wet gunkoozing rubbish. We are a filthy nation because we're quite proud of being filthy. It's a way of declaring we're not namby-pamby and stricken with a fet ish for the antiseptic. We're capable of walking past a hill-sized heap piled with cabbage corpses mixed with detritus with smatterings of used sanitary napkins and dark fluids that look like leftover sewer, without gagging. We aren't coy about throwing out kitchen waste straight out of the windows `out there'.(A lot of us don't even do the chucking; our cooks and maids `with little sense of public decorum' doing the needful.) Cleanliness, to us, bears an elitist tag--despite the nice try by yet another Gujarati to tell the country otherwise.Roads and streets in Indian metropolitan cities--you really don't want to talk about the small towns, trust me--are zones that simply connect people from one point to another. These are no flyzipped zones, where if the pavements have rivulets of piss running down the gutter or bear all demonitions of litter, this is, well, India. Why do you think we like travelling abroad? We can walk about in public spaces that aren't as `colourful, full of aromas and life' (read: visually filthy , smelly and chaotic) without having to be marked out as being un-Indian. It's simply more pleasant to step out in Toronto or Sydney than in Delhi or Mumbai--unless you're a very , very rich ragpicker.
There's only one way we litterati, garbage-chuckers, public peebodies and spit-mongerers can stop what comes so naturally to us in our happy , filthy surroundings: By having our roads and streets become super clean. Even the dirtiest scumbag will find it tough to mess up pavements made of genuine slabs (rather than of glued-on tar and cement chowder), filthify walls with paan and worsen stains that don't grow lab fungi, and trash public loos that don't give us a sneak peak of narak right here in our Maha Bharat.
Because no one wants to throw a wrapper, to spit, to pee or chuck rubbish in an already-sparkling clean place. Not even proudly filthy people like us who gladly litter Kolkata but never Zurich.

Jan 21 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)

Who's responsible for the filthy Indian

Vikramjit Singh





This piece is not about Shakti Kapoor. My muses tend to be way classier. Like Raza Murad.In the 28 years of my life, I've gone from being a baby to a toddler to a boy to a man who wonders why the `h' is silent in `honest'. I've gone from keeping toffee wrappers in my pant pockets to throwing coffee cups on the pavement. But there's one thing that has remained the same: the towel has stayed on the bathroom floor, much to the chagrin of the women in my life, especially my maid. Not to be confused with Shiney Ahuja's maid. And I know I'm not the only one.
Yes, we Indian men are litterbugs. But none of it is our fault. To begin with, it's our moms' fault. Out of all the overwhelming love in their hearts, they picked up the towel the first time we left it on the floor. Later, we just threw in the towel and moved on to more life-altering things like trigonometry . And our dads, also Indian men by sheer coincidence, never cared about towels. They were too busy working hard to put food on the table. Even if they never actually helped out in putting food on the table.
Let's face it, we love creating a mess and letting our moms do the cleaning up. Look at Rahul Gandhi's career and you'll see what I mean. In sharp contrast, there's Narendra Modi's `Swachh Bhaarat' drive. You think he could've done it while living with his mom? No way! Chances are, if the old lady got wind of it even now, she'd be like `Haaye how can mera baccha carry a broom?!' Yes, there are tissues, half-eaten burgers, pizza boxes and empty Coke bottles just round every corner. But that, again, is not our fault. As is fashionable to suggest these days, it's Manmohan Singh's fault. Why did he have to allow liberalization that brought these western fast-food chains that spoilt Indian culture, Indian roads and Indian crows' digestive systems?
But that's not even the worst of it. The other day , during my morning run, I saw a used condom in the middle of a flyover. At this point, to be fair, my reaction leaped from the usual `Tsk tsk, litter in a public place' to `WHY ON A FLYOVER DUDE? WHY NOT A ROOM? WHO ARE YOU? BATMAN?' I wish I knew this earlier, but this love for littering doesn't really make us the smoothest of men.Can you ever imagine an Indian James Bond? “Shaken, not stirred“, he says, as he orders a drink that's not a martini. Sud denly , someone fires a shot. “Everybody get down“, he says from under the table, with a leg of butter chicken. He crawls out, throwing the half chewed piece of chicken on an unsuspecting stranger.
He looks for a gun in his car, but finds only one year old mall parking tickets. He revs up the car, but gets stuck in traffic. Stressed, he chews his paan masala and in a cool flourish, spits out the red juice in a trajectory that Harbhajan Singh would be proud of.
Yup, can't imagine.
Which is probably why religion was the best idea in this country . Because, at least, in the few square yards that people worship in, they keep it clean, lest they invite the wrath of Kali, or the rath of Advani, depending on who they are.
There's no easy way to say this, but what we need is a Ajit Ninan revolution. We need to clean up everything filthy, from our homes to Virat Kohli's mouth. And if our moms were a part of the problem, our girlfriendswiveslovers will be a part of the solution. In a nationwide survey conducted by a top research agency that I just made up, 82% of Indian bachelors clean their rooms only when expecting a female guest. Our moms love us unconditionally, but our girlfriends have a scorpion tattooed on their lower back. If you don't behave yourself, they'll sting. And the next time you don't screw the toothpaste cap properly, you know who will be. So, brothers, good luck getting clean and getting lucky, in no particular order.
I, for one, have quashed all hopes of attracting a suitable mate after this piece. Because every girl now knows I leave the towel on the bathroom floor. But WAIT...on the flip side, their dads are sure to be on my side.
The writer is a Delhi-based standup comic

Gandhi amidst Swachh Bharat Abhiyan?

Monday 1 December 2014

by Dev Pathak
Beneath the shadow of the grand announcement of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan,coinciding with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, there is a hotbed of questions. They deserve due deliberation in public forums, political as well as apolitical. For, the Abhiyan’s connection with Gandhi shakes awake some of the old debates and some new ones. The questions seeking for public deliberation are three-fold and interspersed with critical observations.
Firstly, what is the connection of the Abhiyan with Mahatma Gandhi? One can call it a non-issue by suggesting that the date on which it starts is annually celebrated as the birth anniversary of Gandhi; hence the Abhiyan is related to Gandhi. A more nuanced response, perhaps, could relate the motto of theAbhiyan with the Gandhian idealisation of cleanliness.
This is indeed a meaningful point, which yields another crucial question: what was the epistemological significance and sociological imagination behind Gandhi’s engagement with dirt and actions for cleanliness? As we are aware, primarily from nuggets of Gandhi’s writings and manifold analyses by Gandhian scholars, that his approach to dirt was not for mere tokenism. It was primarily to critically engage with the notion of purity and pollution. Based on these binary oppositions of purity and pollution, a key characteristic of the caste system, social stratas have been organised in India. Gandhi’s urge with his actions and message was to overcome the binaries and redefine human engagement with not only dirt but also whole approach to work, profession, and specialisation, and so on so forth. The binaries are at the core of the sheme of social stratification in which some works defile while other ennoble By altering it, Gandhi envisaged the formation of a society in which everybody could clean everybody’s dirt. It was an imagination of a society, sociologically debatable and ideally embraceable, in which cleaning dirt does not amount to defiling; and hence neither disposition of caste nor of class should define a work.
With this brief note, it is significant to explore whether the nature and scope of the recent Abhiyan has an iota of Gandhian philosophy and action inherent in it. The Abhiyan is vague and misleading about its epistemological and sociological significance.
Secondly, we are aware that Gandhi’s actions and messages regarding cleanliness emerged from his prolonged debate with motley of inspiring forces. They were located in India as well as beyond. We are familiar with Gandhi’s engagement with the humanistic ideology in the part of the West which scholars have called the ‘other Europe’. In other words, Gandhi’s drive for cleanliness, encapsulating his evangelic actions and philosophical engagement with the idea of dirt, departed from both, the modern-rationalist thinking as well as the socio-cultural status quo in India. For him, there was another justification for the cleanliness than the modern rationalist one or the caste-based idea of purity against pollution. It was to unite with those who dealt with dirt and defiled themselves in the social perspective. It was, simply, to suggest that those who clean are superior to those who preach about cleaning, show off token-ritual cleanliness, and sidestep the cleaner as defiled. This was how Gandhi made confident claims of changing the social structures, not by some formula invocation or token actions for photo-ops. It was cleaning as a normative, socio-cultural and consistent, action beyond dominant rationality of modernity and thereof classes or tradition and thereof caste.
One can dare asking: how does the Abhiyan in question challenge the dominant rationality of our time? Needless to say, the dominant rationality of our time is premised upon the Non-resident Indians’ and global South Asians’ imaginations. It also has in the backdrop a particular notion of development, which harps on sheen and shine concealing the murky truth. In short, could theAbhiyan bring about a radical transformation in the social structure, which perpetuates strange cognitive binaries of our time: the urban poor proliferate dirt and the rich think of cleaning it!
If the dichotomy of the poor and rich looks too banal, one can reformulate it as: the powerless are dirtying and the powerful (elite) are cleaning!
The third very significant point involved in the backdrop of the Abhiyan in question is related to the popular perception of Gandhi. This subsumes a long history in which Gandhi has been dubbed as- a textual entity in the prison of academics available for the ruminations and consumption of the academic elites, a symbolic entity  in the prison of industries (including the Khadi Gramodyog) available for the consumption of all and sundry with purchasing power. One could come up with several other forms of Gandhi, reinvented day in and day out. There has been consistent engagement with Gandhi in popular Hindi cinema, modern theatrical performances, and recently in contemporary visual art. They all lead to the formation of thick subjective narratives with due inherent complexity. Gandhi thereby becomes a historical icon to debate with, a popular icon to be entertained by, and also a muse for many in creative domains. This enables us to love, to hate and also to be agnostic about Gandhi.
And hence it becomes difficult to invoke an all-encompassing pro-Gandhi conscience just by making an image of Gandhi with marigold flowers at the hotspots in Delhi on the occasion of the birth anniversary. As a matter of argument, it seems a hollow ritual without any meaning whatsoever even when the chief of a nation goes to offer floral tribute to Gandhi at Rajghat. Also, it does not cut across the checkered conscience of a nation when grand invocations are made in the national dailies.
For, Gandhi is not a monolithic category in the popular conscience; the latter is built upon several strands, some from textual Gandhi, some from symbolic (mis)appropriation of Gandhi, and some from popular cinematic renditions of Gandhi. In this wake, one wonder as to how an Abhiyan associated with Gandhi, if at all, takes care of the subjective complexity of a nation. If it does not, it would remain a mere propaganda technic harming the ideas, values, and actions that Gandhi embodied.
Moreover, it would be yet another ritual event which does not sync with the critical conscience of the masses, inspiring more indifference and apathy.
The author teaches Social Anthropology and researches on performance culture at the South Asian University, a university of SAARC nations, in New Delhi.