Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'To ensure cleanliness strengthen civic infrastructure' that was published in Newsband

To ensure cleanliness strengthen civic infrastructure

In launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission, on Gandhi Jayanthi day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi sought to highlight the importance his administration attached to both sanitation and Mahatma Gandhi. The seemingly demeaning, menial work was of great importance in nation-building. Modi’s move has increased public awareness of the importance of sanitation. The imagery of the Prime Minister taking time off to wield the broom in central Delhi inspired many in other places to follow the footsteps of PM.

But the fact is that if India’s villages and towns are to be dirt-free, what is required is not the involvement of each and every citizen for two hours every week in the clean-up. There is a need to strengthen civic infrastructure. For ensuring cleanliness and hygiene and improving solid waste management, India’s civic bodies will need to be at the centre of the Clean India Campaign.

Our government will have to come forward with innovative ideas, stern legislation, building infrastructure like public toilets and making already installed sewerage treatment plants work. Cleaning India needs active participation from public as well as from the government.

In India, Godliness might be there, but there is very little cleanliness in this country of too many Gods. But just brooms will not sweep away this complex problem. The drive would and should include proper disposal methods like dumping grounds/ incineration/ recycling etc. and the administrative machinery to effectively implement the process.

This cleanliness drive did raise civic awareness among the population who have simply gone immune to all the trash around them. However what is really needed are trash cans everywhere, prompt clearing of these, recycling bins for every household, recycling stations, low or zero water urinals, street sweeping machines, messages to continually educate the public for some time etc.

Decentralized segregation and composting of organic waste and recycling of plastic by industry are necessary. Local bodies are always short of cash and beg for money before state governments. If the government really wants the country to be clean then the needs to local bodies should be promptly fulfilled.  

What we need are trucks with vacuum cleaning brushes on the sides so that the dust on the roads is physically removed and this must be done at a time when there is little traffic. Our metros not only need inner city trains but also the entire sanitation infrastructure that keeps cities clean: waste segregation by residents into totally rubbish bins, re-cycling bins, waste collectors in trucks that lift these bins, empty them and take them to waste collection centres. Our roads must slope slightly to the sides so that water goes into the drains. And the drains themselves must be empty at all times, especially before monsoon. Modi's message is good but as a government he has a large task ahead of him.

The job of the PM is to run the state - and not clean roads. If he is anxious to have a clean country - and we all are - his job is to ensure that the persons who are supposed to do the job actually do the job. Let him get the safai karmacharis to do the work they should: look into their problems and solve them.