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Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Clean India


No matter where we live in India, it is not unusual to find garbage littered in streets and piled up at every corner. The misery is alleviated with dogs and scavengers hovering over the piles of refuse to make their own select ion.  In smaller villages and towns the overflowing drains and refuse attract, pigs and stray animals which mar the beauty of the place.  The problem gets compounded as there are no toilets and people deface in the open which leaves the place filled with stench. Khushwant Singh the eminent writer, once on return from a trip abroad wrote in his column’ With malice towards one and all’ that the moment his taxi moved out of the Mumbai International Airport, he was greeted with the familiar sight of scores of people defacing in open. He remarked’ at last I am home’!
“Civilisation is the distance that man has placed between himself and his own excreta.”

Cleanliness not only improves the quality of surroundings and makes them more pleasant, but helps in attaining efficiencies also. The rising private airlines’ Indigo’ is known for its ‘on time flights’ and insists all passengers to pass on the trash to the onboard flight attendants , before they disembark to ensure no time is lost in the cleaning the aircraft when it lands at next destination.
Our rivers like Ganga and Yamuna have become so polluted that the water in plains is considered unfit to drink or take bath in! The constant inlet of streams of polluting industrial wastes, city garbage and other pollutants have deprived them of existence of marine life. This is a stark contrast to cities like Stockholm, Paris and most other places where one can see fishing enthusiasts looking for trout or salmon right in the city center by the riverbed!

While most of us who live in decent dwellings, do our utmost to keep the house and the garden clean but when it comes to maintaining the same level of cleanliness at public roads and parks we often forget this! It is not uncommon to see people throwing the used cans or wrappers straight out of the window of a car or carelessly tossing it on the roadside! The manners we learnt at home and school to keep the environment clean are easily forgotten! How can a handful of sweepers keep the big city clean if we do not throw the garbage in the assigned bins! This results in choking the drains during the monsoon months, and overflowing roads resulting in traffic jams!
In the Singapore Night Safari the otters have been trained to demonstrate how to put the trash in the right bins so that people can learn from animals an important message of how to recycle the trash(Link : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2tLBD69N3UQ)

In early 1970’s the ‘Chipko Andolan’( Hugging the trees) was set into motion in the Garwahl hills to protect the trees from felling! Today we can see the disastrous results of rampant deforestation in form of repetitive landslides in Uttrakhand and floods in J& K leading to huge loss of life and property. Only if we had not been greedy to cut trees indiscriminately and littered the hills with plastics , we could have avoided these tragedies!

Time is running out and the new leadership has once again brought the need to keep the keep our surroundings clean in the initiative of ‘Swach Bharat’ to keep our surroundings clean! We should help in this endeavor as ‘Cleanliness is next to godliness’ and it is our duty to leave the mother earth intact for the future generations to see its beauty forever! We can do our bit by not littering the streets and request others if we see them doing so to make a ‘Clean and Green India’

PS:1.  This post is my contribution to Clean India Campaign of IndianTopBlogs.                (http://www.indiantopblogs.com/2014/10/diwali-and-clean-india.html )
2. Image and link kind courtesy Google and You Tube

25 comments:

  1. Cleanliness is one of the most important values that we need to learn and re-learn. I am glad that the new Government has made it a priority. But it really does begin with us. Good post!

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    1. Very true Rachna! It begins with each one of us to keep the place where we live and the surroundings clean:)

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  2. Absolutely true. Well said. In fact we observe this contradiction in the behavioral traits inside and outside one's house, every single day. It sicks me out when I see people spitting out of the window of the Mercedes they travel in. I mean; they surely do not deserve to be financially as good, if they cannot be as good, ethically and morally. But they are, and that is the fact.

    The root cause is the absence (not lack) of self-discipline. To refrain from doing something, is by and large considered to be an insult to yourself. For example, stopping for a red signal. Jumping it is considered to be heroic. Same goes with garbage.

    There is a need for people to turn into quasi-cops. A good citizen should convince a bad citizen from not doing a bad thing. Just like throwing garbage. And when anyone who throws garbage on the road, or elsewhere, is circled instantly by 10 other people telling him to pick it back and throw where it belongs, it will generate a sense of forced responsibility into such people and that, will really catapult the success of Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan.

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    1. In today's world unfortunately having money and flaunting it has nothing to do with basics of upbringing! Often you will see people at the bottom wrung of the society more sensitive and easy to communicate than how brow when it comes to learning and putting things into practice! Sigh:( Thanks for reading and adding more value to my humble post!

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  3. At least this Govt has made an effort on this issue.
    Is it really an issue to be handled by the Govt? Isnt it time we,the people learnt and implemented basic civic sense?

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    1. We should thank the government to at least press the right buttons to give a wake up call! Only hope the tempo is maintained!

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  4. Such a basic simple thought. Wonder why no one stressed on it. And this can succeed only if we all participate. The government on its own needs to reform the way our municipal corporations work. Lot of corruption in MCD, MCG etc...

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    1. Agree with all your observations Alka! we have a long road to travel!

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  5. Kudos to our PM for inspiring everyone for this initiative.
    We need change. A clean India is most welcome.
    Glad you shared your views. Agree with your points, Rahulji.

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    1. I think all sensible people will agree to initiatives on cleanliness! We need to now walk the talk:)Thanks Anita, for reading!

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  6. The other day the auto guy spit on the road and I requested him not to, only to be rebuked that the road did not belong to me alone! I think I cant see some light if people did not change their attitudes.I am doing my bit, but it is not enough.

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    1. It will remain a challenge, Padmaja as the years of apathy and unconcern at all levels will take time to bring about the change! Atleast you did the right thing:)

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  7. So true - all our spaces would be better if they were cleaner.

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  8. When we were children, public place was not so clean. But I maybe think after Olympics or expositions or big conventions those place became clean gradually. Under government's or municipality's rallying cry, everyone united to succeed meetings and cleanliness was one of important things for success,I think maybe.
    Have a nice day!

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    1. Japan is a role model nation and there is a lot to learn from there!

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  9. I have stopped long back throwing things on road and keep discouraging other doing thus... to do my bit on keeping out surrounding and nature clean. It’s not weather or climate change, the cleanliness keep away most of the disease. Nice write up

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    1. Only if the realization come to each individual we could become a clean country!

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  10. Knowing you as a blogger would have just expected things that way when it comes to you,Ashwini! I hope more people see and learn from you:)

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  11. Cleanliness is one of the most important things we need to learn and in some cases re-learn. And by cleanliness I mean both physical and mental.

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    1. Absolutely right, Rachna! A big thanks for reading all my previous posts:)

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  12. The problem arises because most of us refuse to think beyond me, myself, my surroundings. Beyond that realm, we turn a blind eye and think its a problem someone else is supposed to take care of.

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    1. Precisely the reason for the existing state of affairs, Purba! Hope things get better!

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  13. Video is really really cute with a beautiful message. I wish we can keep our surroundings clean. Tell them, if you keep your neighborhood clean then your property value will increase. I think results will be better.

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    1. Thanks Saru!I hope your messag is understood well by more people:) BTW am happy you liked the video.... The real show is really nice!

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