The one best thing that Modi has given us after becoming the PM of India is the “Swach Bharat (Clean India)” mantra. It was about time that someone raised this issue about the big elephant in the room. Everybody knew that India is filthy in large pockets. But everybody was skirting the filth and leading their lives as if nothing was wrong with our streets/mohallahs. Now, courtesy our PM this has become a talking issue for all. Even the corporate sector is chipping in with their brand and muscle power. There are many things wrong with India, and we need to take up all those issues, but this issue about the filthy neighborhoods was the worst, and I am happy that this is being addressed by the Swach Bharat Abhiyan.
It’s been 67 years after independence and one would believe that a country had enough time to have some basic things under its control. Basic things like garbage collection and handling, waste management, effluent treatment and release. Call it the apathy of the government or the apathy of the people we are in this mess. We have left things to the government to straighten up for a long time. And by reinvoking the guru mantra of Swach Bharat, our PM, has implicitly, given us the charge to take things in our own hands and correct the situation. We can’t ignore this problem anymore. We already have great people initiatives like the “Ugly Indian”. Their moto is “Muh band Kaam chalu”. That is stop giving lectures to people about how they should manage waste…blah…blah, but if you feel that something wrong then make it right yourself. Redo a dirty place in such a way that it sparkles and people feel guilty dirtying that place again. And it has been known to work almost all the time.
God knows that there are 100s of places around my house that I would want to redo if there is a group who’d want to get dirty. Most of the times we can’t form groups of like minded people who can get down to take up such projects. But the least that anyone can do is to act like a responsible citizen and do your bit to keep your environment clean. I am already doing these things in my house:
1. We don’t throw away the wet waste we produce. We compost it and use it in our our garden.
2. When we are out of the house and we have a wrapper or plastic bottle or anything to discard after consuming the stuff in it we look for a garbage bin nearby and dispose it there. If we do not find a garbage bin then we put it in our pockets and bring it home and dispose it off. Throwing it out in a dump/gutter is not an option.
3. We seggregate our plastic containers(shampoo bottles, water bottles, etc), cardboards, newspaper and dispose them off ourselves. If it is any consolation we get paid too doing that 🙂
Well, those are the baby steps we are taking. We can, and we need to do more.
Just in the tenor of this post Strepsils has started the #AbMontuBolega Campaign. In keeping with the spirit of Swach Bharat, Strepcils has picked up the gauntlet and created its own campaign of #AbMontuBolega. I salute this spirit. You can learn more about it here.
You can also connect with Strepsils on their Facebook and Twitter pages for this campaign.
Lord of the Rant 