Clean India - still a distant dream

It has been almost 10 months since the "Swachh Bharat Abhiyan" (clean India movement) was announced by Indian Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi with a lot of fanfare and media coverage. I visited India in October 2014 immediately after the announcement of this ambitious project by the PM, the previous governments also tried similar projects but with very limited success. I loved this idea because I also think that India needs to take this type of movement very seriously. Clean surroundings are one of the basic things that any country aspiring to be a superpower must try to achieve. This is my second India visit after the announcement of this program, but I fail to see any appreciable difference. Now before any Modi bhakts attack me for being unfair to the central government without giving them sufficient time to implement this idea, let me clarify that I didn't expect to see a super clean India during this visit which is within the first year of the announcement of this scheme. I understand that convincing Indians to keep public places clean is not that easy and will take some time and effort, but I am talking about "some noticeable differences," like trash cans on roadsides or more toilets, etc. I visited the PM's own constituency, Varanasi, while in the past few years, there has been a lot of good work done in this city by an IAS officer called Pranjal Yadav, who is now transferred to some different post by the state government, I failed to see any noticeable difference this time. I really felt bad that the state govt transferred this efficient officer without allowing him to transform this city with the help of a very powerful MP who happens to be the Indian prime minister, but this is part of Indian politics where efficient officers always get transferred. I should also mention that I didn't travel to Ganga Ghats this time because of the crowd and traffic congestion, so, I don't know what is the situation over there. According to the Hindu calendar, this is the month of 'Shravan,' many festivals come during this month and a lot of devotees gather in these so-called holy cities which puts a lot of strain on its infrastructure. Very few cities are equipped to handle such a huge inflow of humans and vehicles. Very often their infrastructure crumbles and there is a lot of inconvenience to residents. I experienced this personally this time, I was shocked to see that the entire half of a major highway like GT road was reserved for 'kawarias' (people who walk from Allahabad to Varanasi barefoot carrying Ganga water on their shoulders). Let me tell you that GT road is not some ordinary road, but it is a national highway (interstate), and the only major road connecting these two major cities. So, for this entire month on this interstate highway both sides have to use only one side, that too without any divider, one can only imagine the risk factor of traveling on GT road during this month. I saw some damaged vehicles because of accidents lying on the road side which is expected in such risky driving conditions. This is not for a day or two, but it will be like this for more than a month! I couldn't believe that the state government and other lawmakers couldn't come up with some viable alternative other than blocking the entire side of a busy highway for almost a month.

Actually, clean India cannot be the government's responsibility alone, no doubt that they have to provide the required infrastructure for which they are not doing a very good job, but this movement should be pushed by residents of India, after all, they will be the ultimate beneficiaries of clean India. Their quality of life will be improved tremendously if this project is a success. I noticed that very few people are really bothered about making this movement a real success. Most of them show a very casual and careless attitude towards it, they are not willing to contribute anything positive towards this task and then complain that "nothing can be changed in this country." I always try to question this attitude but with very limited success, my question to them was, "If you are not willing to change who do you expect to change things for you?" I agree that the government is not doing its job properly, but people are also not making it easy for the government by not cooperating. On Varanasi station, I saw a cleaning person cleaning the platform and people immediately spitting or throwing wrappers behind his back. Because of this, the platforms still stink, plus animals like bulls, cows, or dogs freely roam not only on roads but also on train platforms of Varanasi! This needs to change if Indians are at all serious about making India clean. My first impression about how this program is progressing almost a year after its launch is not that good, I hope this changes in the near future. I hope the government works aggressively to develop proper infrastructure that makes it easy for people to dispose of all types of waste properly. I hope people also cooperate with the government with hygienic and responsible public behavior. Currently, clean India looks like a distant dream, but I don't think it is an impossible dream. The present government is claiming to work very aggressively and sincerely on many important projects, so, I hope this is on top of their priority list. Clean India is a necessity for all Indians, and unless all of us collectively work towards it, it will remain a distant dream. Let's change India, let's create a clean India.

Thanks for reading and please share your views on this topic.

[Copyright: Vinay Thakur. Please contact the author for re-posting or publishing]