Political Diary
New Delhi, 13 June 2015
The Dirty Indian
WHO WILL CLEAN
POLITICAL GARBAGE?
Poonam I Kaushish
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 100,000 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 3000 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? ---- INFA
(Copyright,
India News and Feature Alliance)
|