Who will clean political garbage?

Political Delhi is in the throes of ‘garbage’ politics thanks to the slugfest between Prime Minister Modi and Chief Minister Kejriwal over Centre’s authority vis-à-vis State powers. Resulting in Delhites virtually living amidst 1,00,000 tonnes putrid trash piled up over 10 days due to unpaid wages to striking sanitary workers last week. Point made, both BJP and AAP workers picked up jaddus to score brownie points.

So much for Mera Swachh Bharat Mahan! That India is filthy needs no reiteration. Scandalously, our streets and roads are extensions of garbage bins and urinals. Open defecation, urinating against walls, spewing paan and tobacco on freshly painted exteriors, piled-up garbage, overflowing sewage, open drains, burgeoning filth, cow dung, slums, poor living on the street, stray dogs, monkeys and pigs, stinking, rancid air and pollution et al --- they’re in your face wherever one goes.

An example: According to a Central Pollution Control Board, urban India generates about 100 million tonnes of solid waste annually, three lakh tonnes every day in cities with a municipal body and 20 million tonnes in another 30% of urban landscape outside cities. While 27 million tonnes is dumped in landfills outside cities, 14 million tonnes is left to rot. Notwithstanding, the Supreme Court warning, the country is sitting on a “plastic time bomb.”

Moreover, 48 billion litres of sewage is generated every day by 498 tier-I cities and 26 billion litres dumped into rivers daily. The Ganges is now almost 3,000 times over the limit suggested by the WHO as ‘safe’. Replete with toxic industrial waste, domestic refuse, detergent and human waste (55% of Varanasi’s population has no toilets), millions defecate in the Holy River daily, clean their teeth, drink and use it for cooking, resulting in faecal contamination giving rise to many illnesses including diarrhoea, which is the second-largest killer of children under five, causing about 1.5 million deaths annually. There is a 71% increase in malaria cases in the last five years.

Besides, a study by the National Cancer Registry Programme found that levels of cancer in the country were highest amongst people living around industrial towns and the Ganges basin due to poisonous metals and toxins. Topped by the Union Capital being notorious for giving a visitor a taste of its infamous Delhi Belly! Raising a moot point: Is cleaning only the responsibility of sweepers? Don’t we have any role to keep our environs dirt free? Or is it just limited to let the garbage pile up in some one else’s backyard, not my problem.

Mind you, it has nothing to do with being rich or poor, living in urban or rural countryside but about hygiene, sanitation, dirt-free and sparkling. Undeniably, we are happy in our filthy surroundings and congenital litterbugs. It is futile to get angry or shifty about the lack of cleanliness and hygiene which hits one in the eye everywhere. We don’t bat an eyelid in spitting, peeing, littering wherever and whenever we like.

Choking fumes and piles of putrid waste, a constant bombardment of honking horns of cars, trucks and screeching buses assault the aam aadmi in megalopolis and villages. Alongside loudspeakers tom-tom political propaganda juxtaposed with religious sermons from temples and mosques, advocating the righteous path to salvation.

While WHO guidelines for noise in urban areas is around 50 decibels as anything above 85 db accelerates ear damage, most Indian cities boast of 118db thanks to kamikaze motorbikes and cars which weave dangerously through traffic. Notably, this deafening noise epidemic is adversely affecting people’s health: hearing complaints, sleep disturbance, cardio-vascular issues, deteriorating work and school performances adding layers to the nationwide milieu of stress and environmental degradation.

Criticize anyone, they shoot back, “You calling me unhygienic and dirty go live abroad where people believe in public cleanliness but their personal hygiene is pathetic. Why do you think the French invented perfume? Get in to a lift with a Britisher he reeks of stale perfume, Middle Easterners smell of meat.” Look at the absurd paradox: Indians are clean but India is dirty.

How and why? Primarily the explanation passed down generations is to keep your home and environment clean and throw your garbage in the neighbour’s backyard! Yet, all wily nily take a dip in the dirty Yamuna-Ganga to cleanse their souls.

A recent survey of households found that in 92 per cent cases the innocuous chopping boards and knives were contaminated; 51 per cent did not wash vegetables before cooking, 45 per cent did not wash fruit before eating; only 44 per cent cleaned and disinfected their child's lunch box every day and another 44 per cent children washed their hands after playing. Shockingly, the kitchen dusters were the most heavily contaminated item in a household.

Less said the better of our trains, coaches are choked with all kinds of litter, bathroom commodes are blocked with all kinds of stuff, flushes rendered dysfunctional and wash-basins out of use. Governments too naturally reflect the same traits. Go to any Government office or hospital the story is the same. Our public health authorities have sounded the bugle of a scary situation a zillion times. But it is like water off a duck’s back. Alas, Modi’s ‘Swachh Bharat’ movement has yet to take off and has been reduced to Jaddu-Holding Selfie moment.

Shockingly, there is complete lack of environmental awareness due to the deeply destructive attitude and neglect by the Government along-with the community’s apathy. Most telling in the sea of stinking waste which saturates towns and villages, polluting the ground, air and waterways. Burning of waste constitutes one of the largest sources of air pollution in cities. In Mumbai it is the cause of about 20 per cent of air pollution.

A large part of the problem is our netagan who consider laws as laissez-faire ornaments to be trotted before a visiting foreign dignitary. Most of the time laws collect dust as politicians in “lal batti cars with gun wielding commandoes” set the dishonest corrupt tone, sending a loud message: we rule by law.

What next? One way to halt our litterati, garbage-chuckers, public pee-ers, spit and paan mongerers is strict enforcement of laws. A la squeaky clean Singapore where if you throw a wrapper, can or chewing gum one has to pay a heavy fine or serve a jail term.

Clearly, if the country is not to become the world’s biggest sewer, Government complacency and indifference needs to give way to a strategic plan of action. If India really wants to develop, it will have to find ways to back up laws with quality action, not shoddy tokenism, photo ops and selfies. If we want to use our finest resource, we have to start taking our citizens seriously and treating them like worthwhile investments.

Remember, it is easier to put an Indian in space than clean up local filth, notwithstanding Modi’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Time to sound the bugle of change, else if there were a Nobel Prize for dirt and debris, India would win it hands down.” What gives?

By Poonam I Kaushish