Of all the ideas that Narendra Modi has thrown up since becoming prime minister, the Swacha Bharat Abhiyan launched on Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday is easily his most imaginative and dare one say, ambitious. Imaginative in the manner in which it has tapped into a concern which has been astonishingly ignored for much too long; ambitious because to ‘clean’ a country of the size of India will require a super-human effort. Let’s be honest: we spit on the street, we defecate in the open, we urinate on walls. We don’t have enough public toilets, we don’t have enough laws that would deter citizens from dirtying our streets. Maybe, we are just too populous, maybe we just aren’t conscious of public hygiene. Or maybe in a country where millions still don’t have a roof over their head, how do you make toilets a priority?
Which is why the prime minister’s idea of a national mission to spread the message of sanitation is to be lauded. It is only when the challenge is taken up on a war-footing can there be real change on the ground. The worry is that, like so many government driven programmes, this too will be reduced to a photo-op of a minister with broom in hand. Which is why only a public private partnership will sustain this initiative. Why can’t the top 500 Indian companies, for starters, each take up one city to fund a clean up drive, set targets, and be rewarded with tax breaks if they achieve those goals? Why can’t resident welfare societies be incentivised to push for cleaning up in their neighbourhoods? We need to create enough stakeholders in this campaign for it to be truly successful.
There are two places where this drive can start. The first is Shastri Bhavan, home to all our top bureaucrats. A distinct smell of urine is in the air when one walks down its corridors: the toilets here are frightfully unclean. The other is Varanasi, the prime minister’s home constituency. The holy city is also amongst the filthiest. If cleanliness is next to godliness, then the prime minister should start with ensuring a clean up of Varanasi’s streets. And the holy river that flows through it.
One final observation. Like charity, cleanliness must begin at home. Maybe like the great Mahatma, we could begin by cleaning up our toilets ourselves? Or atleast treating those who do with some dignity?
