Swachh Bharat Abhiyan – approach for change

The ‘Swachh Bharat Abhyian’ described to be beyond politics and inspired by patriotism launched the ‘Clean India’ Mission on 2nd October 2014. Our Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi nominated nine different personalities following the format of a tree attracting many, particularly youngsters and educationists. The benefits of this scheme witnessed more than 3 million government employees, school children and college students’ participation. In India, this mission turned out to be the biggest cleanliness scheme.

Coming to my journey, I would like to share my experience regarding this campaign:

I was travelling in the train to Allahabad for the purpose of an International Conference. Sitting in the S1 coach, the train started at 9 AM from Bangalore and a young engineer from Bangalore was seated nearby. He was travelling to Nagpur to attend his sister’s marriage and had bought Non-veg meal from the (IRCTC) staff in the train. After his meal, he asked the meal supplier regarding dustbin to dispose the waste but got a response to just throw it out of the window. This led to a heated argument after which the engineer stated that he won’t pay the money if he is not given a dustbin to dispose the waste.

But the meal supplier collected the waste from the engineer and threw it out of the window in the platform of Chennai central after which he asked his money. The engineer complained of the bad service in the second class unlike the service available in the AC coach and received a reply that he should have travelled in AC Coach rather than the second class.

There is no scope of ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’ being followed in this aspect.

After the International Conference in the University of Allahabad, I visited Banaras for worshiping the God Kasi Viswanath Temple. The ‘Ganga Aarthi’ which is performed daily at 6 AM in the belt of Ganga River was watched by many people from across the country and even from the foreign countries.

While I settled down for worshipping the God of Ganga, a south Indian family sat opposite me and having their snacks. But they dumped the waste right there and left without disposing it. After a while, a young female foreigner who kept clicking photographs of the Ganga Arthi and the place kept searching for a place to rest. But on not finding any, she herself took the waste thrown by people and searched for a garbage disposal bin. She found one after questioning many and disposed the garbage she collected and returned back to the Ganga Arthi.

Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India) - it’s a better idea, but it is not a one day mission. Even Tamil Nadu who introduced a Hindi advertisement for the first time in all channels translated it into Tamil after 10days as many are unable to understand a Hindi advertisement in Tamil Nadu.

Have a look at these examples to know more:

Public have the right to ask someone NOT TO SMOKE IN PUBLIC if they are seen smoking in train, bus, park, cinema theatre, or any public place. Welcomed by the public, this initiative has created awareness and has narrowed the public smoking down to very few places.

Another example, ‘Arivoli Iyakkam’ - Education given to Adult and Old age people is an “Education revolution”. In this scheme, people could write their name and signature in their native language and also in English.

Similarly, Child-to-Child approach (elder children teach and take care of younger brother/sister/friends) was used in more than 60 developing countries with 15 languages. Additionally, this method is encouraged and used in World Bank, UNICEF, UNESCO and others where the sole aim is for social and community development.

With nobody questioning about the crimes or any other issue, public is not realizing their responsibility as a citizen of India. Hence, the approach should begin from the root level – starting with educated people teaching the uneducated as People -to- People (P2P) approach will bring in better intervention for the success of Clean India Mission. Legal act to be formulated would be more effective for ‘Future Clean India Mission’.

A. Mahendran

Assistant Professor-School of Development Policy and Practice

Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD)

Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu.