"If Modi can clean Banaras, he can clean India", says my wife. Can't be more true, I felt. I hear Modi is pushing hard the Swachh Bharat campaign all over India. And Benaras happens to be his constituency. And Banaras is very dirty. Combining all three facts, Banaras would be an ideal place for him (or let's say 'his government', although nobody generally says so) to set an example for the campaign. Probably too ideal and challenging. It's been more than a year now since he took office. But I saw not much of a trace of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan in Banaras during my visit past 2 days. The ghaat where Modi turned a sweeper for the cameras - assi ghaat - is also dirty, although a bit less I guess than others. But I need to see a before-after analysis of that place to know whether anything has changed there. May be it was just a more convenient place to launch a political campaign, being in a slightly less crowded area of the holy city and one of the less popular spots among visitors. And the state government has every incentive to make sure the campaign fails so that Modi fails. Dirty politics of cleanliness!
As I went around the city, I could see heaps and heaps of garbage, comprising all kinds of things, in every little distance. Somebody has to pick them up, the municipal corporation is not doing it in time for sure. But these heaps are such dirty rotten smelly ugly spots, we in India should rethink this whole mechanism of collecting and disposing garbage in cities. I've seen this in all major cities in India - people or agents collect garbage from various places and dump it in heaps at specific points in the city, generally roadsides. It lies there, rotting and stinking for as long as it takes, i.e., until the municipality truck comes to pick it up. Such open dumps, although temporary are both unhygienic and ugly. And the stuff tends to get scattered over a larger area than intended, as people further throw stuff there, carelessly without aiming it right. The mix of biodegradable and non-biodegradable junk makes it complex. And the former leads to stench in no time. Then cows and buffaloes flock there and try their luck to find out if there's anything edible for them, and create a further mess as they poke into the heap. And they can't be blamed if they also lay around some shit in the process. Dogs and crows also come by to explore any non-veg options they might hit upon. And flies, mosquitoes and lot of other insects have fun too. And go micro, and there are organisms always at work. All that nature happening in the open is not something to be proud of. But it seems culturally we don't really care, coz individually a lot of Indians, may be a majority of us, don't really mind throwing stuff around and moving on, a few do with some guilt, a few ensure no one's watching. It's not about people of certain class alone. The rich are as careless as the poor. The educated are as pathetic in this aspect as the not-so-learned simpletons.
May be an initiative like Swachh Bharat can pull the right triggers to bring a change in mindsets. It's not happened effectively so far. May be a lot is left on the culturally screwed people i.e., us, to realize and change and start doing things differently. But the problem here is, although one can possibly see the incentive in collectively behaving differently, one wouldn't do it unless he/she sees a few others around also doing it, and a sense of collective action developing, albeit gradually. However the few who don't show any inclination to change can really disturb the will of others to keep going if the defaulters are considerably powerful people in their social standing. And in India, the powerful are particularly more arrogant and stubborn in being compliant. And many of them are filthy and careless outside their homes, both in thought and actions. I am sure the leaders who are designing movements like Swachh Bharat are themselves gobbling crores of rupees sanctioned for it. If municipalities do their job, we don't even need such movements. If people really cared, rather cared enough, India would have been Swachh anyway. So it seems to me, that we don't care enough. Cleanliness of our public places is probably not a very high priority for us. And that's why we don't care much while spitting on roads and walls, throwing that platic bottle or tin can or plastic bag out of the car window, throwing stuff here and there and not caring to look for dustbins, etc. Anything said about the need for change will not be effective as this carelessness about cleanliness is deep rooted in our culture of today. We need cultural change. It's not on Modi or his government or a few people to do it. It needs some basic values to change. How can we bring a cultural change of this kind?
