Need to de-stigmatise act of cleaning

It is for the first time, perhaps, that the whole nation is moving in unison, when it is neither at war, nor is it facing an emergency. But unknown to ourselves, we are in the midst of a nationwide movement that was long overdue.

From the President’s office onwards, there is this never-too-late effort to make things clean. Saying this is not meant to belittle it. It underscores the need to make it sustained, sustainable and indeed, part of every-day life. It should not begin and end with a bunch of ceremonies amidst media glare.

This caution comes from our past record, personal habits, social mores, habits and our traditions. As individuals, we may bathe twice a day and keep clean, but do not bother about keeping things clean around us. As families, the task of keeping clean is left to the servants and to the women. Forget cleaning, even picking up one’s plate after a meal by the men folk is looked upon as loss of respect in our homes.

As citizens, we are oblivious of the dirt around us and, thanks to caste system; we assign the task of cleaning to a particular set of people. Without them we are handicapped.

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi gave a call for “Swachh Bharat”, there were many sniggers – there still are. Many are irked by the compulsion and many others see it as little more than a publicity gimmick. But the fact is that even the opposition parties and states ruled by different parties have thought it right to join in.

Modi has linked the clean India drive with toilets and for good measure – and for political and moral effect – linked it to Mahatma Gandhi. Long before he became the mahatma, while still in South Africa, Gandhi had launched the campaign in his ashrams, to stress that the seemingly menial work was of great import in nation-building.

In invoking the Mahatma, he may have offended his Sangh Parivar mentors who are already upset with his advocacy of toilets over temples. But give him the credit when he says his movement is above politics.

His call came, ironically on the eve of the Mangalyan entering the Martian orbit. He asked people to “clean your ground, the Mother Earth before looking up into the space.” He chortled: “if India can reach Mars, why can’t it have clean streets?”

"We crib about our cities not being clean, compared with Singapore, Dubai and London. If everyone takes a pledge not to dirty our cities, none can come here and litter them.” With Diwali coming soon, he said families start cleaning the house around Diwali every year. "Why cannot this approach be adopted and extended to keeping localities clean? We clean our houses before guests come. Similarly, the country should be clean to welcome guests.

Why a people who boast of an ancient civilisation, having kept clean in the era of Indus Valley Civilisation, need this chiding from the top is a question on which we need to reflect.

The chiding did come from the top because public cleanliness has for too long been someone else’s problem. It is essential to put the onus back on the citizen and voluntarism.

The noise was intended to draw in all Indians to the cleanliness drive: everyone was expected to devote two hours a week to cleaning their surroundings. Modi invited nine celebrities to join in. There was of course a lot of public display, with Kamalahaasan shedding greasepaint and Sachin Tendulkar taking the broom instead of cricket bat. But does cleanliness begin and end with celebrity-led events?

The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has succeeded in increasing public awareness of the importance of sanitation. The image of Modi and other VIPs taking time off to wield the broom might be of some effect in some areas for some time. Period. But to ensure mass participation in a cleanliness drive that would keep India perpetually clean, public policy must go far beyond symbolism.

We need to correct the very definition of ‘swachh’. It should be working for a filth-free nation. Our cities alone generate 47 million tonnes of waste annually, which works out to 130,000 tonnes daily. How does it get stored when, if at all, collected, and how it is disposed, and where, are among the many points we need to ponder over.

Our habits must change. Even if there is a public place for garbage collection, people tend to throw their garbage bags (plastic, which cannot themselves be disposed or degraded) on the streets, outside these facilities. Waste management is a gigantic task and should be done in a planned, daily routine.

The government may not be able to do everything, but voluntarism cannot be a substitute for strengthening civic infrastructure. Along with a lack of a sense of public hygiene, there is woeful lack of infrastructure. Besides inculcating that civic sense, civic bodies need to be strengthened and financed.

At the organisational level, there is the need to make cleanliness part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR). Factories need to be licenced on the basis of what kind of working environment they provide, how clean they keep themselves and how they dispose of their waste.

In the government, the need is even more acute. A rare and commendable example has emerged. The Hindu newspaper has reported about Dr Ajai Shankar Pandey, a senior IAS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre, currently posted as Additional Divisional Commissioner in Meerut. No idealist youngster (and one may add, an upper caste Hindu acting contrary to traditional caste norms), Dr Pandey has been cleaning his own office since 1994. He has led by example wherever he has worked in the last two decades. We need more officers like him.

With this official’s example before us, we can get back to Gandhiji. He had to berate his wife Kasturba to make her clean the family toilet and sweep the floor. A century-plus hence, there is greater need to de-stigmatise the act of cleaning, to make people realise that by cleaning, they do not lower themselves in the eyes of the society.

Gandhi’s idea, reinforced by Modi should be made to work. But this is easier said than done because of the centuries-old customs. Modi is not the first leader to do it and judging by the past lip-service paid by the society, nor will he the last one. But strive we must if India is to find its place in the comity of nations.