Events & Issues
6 October 2014, New
Delhi
Clean India Campaign
LONG OVERDUE REVOLUTION
By Dr S Saraswathi
(Former Director,
ICSSR, New Delhi)
The nation was given a dose of an exciting experience on
Gandhi Jayanthi to watch Prime Minister Narendra Modi launching the Swachh
Bharat Abhiyan in the Valmiki Basti in Delhi
by sweeping the place with a broomstick. The place was chosen for its
association with Gandhiji, who had stayed there. It gave a new seriousness to
the campaign that is going on at a smaller scale in many places in memory of Gandhi,
but without keenness in steady follow up.
Whether the theme and event chosen this year to mark Bapuji’s
birth anniversary is just a political stunt or a mimicry of Aam Admi Party’s
broomstick symbol or sheer attention-catching and attention-retaining tactics –
is not worthy of a discussion. The country doubtless needs a massive cleaning
mechanism and effective operation. The sooner it starts the better.
Clean India Campaign has become a national voluntary programme
undertaken with an oath. It is no longer a symbolic gesture, but a time-bound
action programme. Specific undertakings are to devote at least 100 hours a
year, i.e. two hours per week to voluntary work for cleanliness; and to
initiate a quest for cleanliness with self, family, locality, village, and
workplace.
The oath states: “I believe that the countries of the world
that appear clean are so because their citizens don’t indulge in littering nor
do they allow it to happen. With this firm belief, I will propagate the message
of Swachh Bharat Mission in villages and towns”. To bring about a behavioural
change is at the centre of this campaign.
The Mission
includes eradication of open defecation, conversion of dry and insanitary
toilets into flush toilets, abolition of manual scavenging, and creating
awareness among people to the importance of sanitation for public health and
well being.
The campaign will go on for five years and culminate on the
150th birthday of Gandhiji. All ministries and departments are to
send daily reports of their activities under this programme. Hopefully, the
nation by the 2019 would have imbibed the habit of personal and environmental
cleanliness as an inborn trait!
Gandhiji once stated: “Unless we alter the conditions in our
cities, rid ourselves of our dirty habits and have improved our latrines, Swaraj
can have no value for us”. Pointing out that Plague and Cholera are stamped out
quickly in other countries but not in India, he put the blame for this
entirely on dirty habits of the people. He believed that neither the
indifference of the then government nor poverty could be given as excuses when
people’s way of living was most unhygienic.
The cleaning campaign must cover land, water, and mountains
which are natural resources but contaminated by human intervention and misuse. It
must spread to all villages, towns, and cities now struggling with mountains of
natural and man-made waste materials. All lanes, streets, roads, and highways
must undergo the cleanliness drive without discrimination. Residential areas,
markets, office complexes, temples, hotels, hospitals, beaches, and entertainment
places, and so on need thorough clean up in every sense of the term. A total
cleaning revolution is long overdue.
Presently, Clean India Campaign has a decisive role to play
in economic growth and development of the country also. Sustainable development is built on
pollution-free environment. Its importance is not restricted to health and
hygiene of the local people. To encourage visitors from abroad and to increase
our ties and contacts with other countries, it is necessary first to present a
clean India.
A study highlighted a couple of years ago that factors such
as poor hygiene and sanitation, ineffective solid waste management, lack of
hygienically maintained public amenities as impediments in promoting tourism in
India.
These factors are linked with keeping our surroundings free
of garbage. Litter-free roads and
streets cannot be achieved without proper garbage removal and waste management
systems.
Clean India Campaign does not mean shifting litter from one place
to another. In cities where restrictions are enforced in disposing off domestic
garbage, road users are inclined to keep their roads clean by throwing the
litter on streets and street dwellers on lanes and so on. Garbage bins overflow
throughout the day. Clean India Campaign must introduce sound waste removal and
management techniques. These include several issues such as personal hygiene,
pest control, laundering arrangement, garbage segregation and removal, and
waste recycling and disposal.
In recent days, the problem of schools without toilet
facility is receiving some attention. A World Bank Report noted a few months
ago that nearly 600 million people in India defecate in the open. Along
with this, the problem of manual scavenging is continuing despite a prohibitory
Central legislation.
There are a few countries that impose fine for littering. In
the UK,
maximum fine of 2,500 pounds are levied for persistent littering. Local
authorities have the power to impose fine on the spot up to 100 pound for this
offence. Environmental Protection Act, 1990, Clean Neighbourhoods and
Environment Act, 2005 provide guidelines for maintaining environmental quality
and checking unclean behaviour.
“Litter-bug” is a term commonly used in Canada to refer
to those dirtying the surrounding. Littering is considered as an anti-social
behaviour -- a concept absolutely strange to average Indian citizen.
Singapore has earned reputation for its
cleanliness despite attracting people from all parts of the world – clean and
unclean. Litter Law in this international centre is a curiosity for Indian
visitors used to a state of perfect freedom to litter and spit in their
homeland.
Under this law adopted in 1968, discarding cigarette butts,
match sticks, bus tickets, etc. in public places is a punishable offence in Singapore. Litter bugs may be fined up to $1,000 for
first offence and up to $5,000 for repeat offences. Cleanliness is given prime
importance that heavy fine and imposition of community work, and counseling are
imposed.
Under community work inflicted by Corrective Work Order,
litter bugs are required to clean a public place for a few hours wearing a
special bright jacket. Smoking in public places and selling chewing gums are
prohibited.
There is no anti-litter central law in India. The
Railways has by rules prohibited activities affecting cleanliness and hygiene
in railway premises. Littering, cooking,
washing utensils and clothes, bathing, defecating, etc. are punishable with
fine going up to Rs.500. Vendors have to keep trash cans in their carts.
Uttarakhand adopted the Anti-Littering and Anti-Spitting
Act, 2012 which prescribes fine for violation of the Act. Occupants of lands
and buildings are responsible to keep their places clean. Fine may go up to Rs 5,000
per day of offence and additional Rs.500 for continuance of the offence.
The worst obstacle to Swachh Bharat is people’s
indifference. Every individual citizen feels that he/she can do nothing to
tackle this Himalayan problem whereas collectively, they can succeed provided
the Mission is
carried on as an industry of multifarious components. ---INFA
(Copyright,
India News & Feature Alliance)
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