Will YoU ?

As usual I was on the jogging track along the Mainz River just to kill my free time. As I was walking, admiring the beautiful river along side and the sunset on the farther bank of the river, a family of four along with their pet dog crossed me. Just few steps ahead, the dog stopped to relieve himself from nature’s call. I was surprised, not on the dog’s shit but afterward the man pulled a poly-cover on his hand and collected the dog’s poo and delivered it into the nearby dustbin. Its strange for us Indians as even I will not feel comfortable doing that, so I can’t ask you - will you do that to keep our country clean?

I remember few years back, there was a news in some paper that Chandigarh administration (one of the best in India) was also thinking about charting a rule like that but now I don’t know why that didn’t materialize, may be those Indian inhibitions came in the way. I am not writing this for this dog’s shit but for the overall cleanliness of India, and I thought of writing this after watching Satyamev Jayate – Every Drop counts.

To all the foreign lands I have been, one thing was common – Cleanliness and their love for the nature preservation. I have no hesitation in claiming that we are the dirtiest people on planet. We have grown up being told how important it is to be clean, in the past it was mandatory to take bath before entering the kitchen. But that’s all where it ends, it ends within the four walls of our house; look around and you would know that we never understood the word cleanliness. Outside our house we assume the whole place to be a dustbin; and not only us, our government and all the administrations and industries treat our rivers as a waste dumping zone. Where on earth you will find the sewage lines converging into rivers without any treatment system; in which country you see the industrial waste running into their holy river or in which part of the world people poo in open?

The best places of the big cities I visited are their river banks – as it was in Seoul, Frankfurt, Paris, Zurich name any; infact these rivers enhance the beauty of the already beautiful cities. And look at our Indian rivers, Ganga the holy river seems to be a sewage drain except only in Rishikesh and Yamuna’s pathetic status within the capital city is known to everybody. Only few days back I watched Satyamev Jayate on Youtube and got to know that there is no Yamuna in Delhi, all its water has been diverted to two canals way-before entering Delhi and the river flowing through the capital city is hundred percent Industrial waste and sewage water. I couldn’t believe it at first, but that’s our India.

Its not only about water, we don’t even have a proper waste disposal systems. All our residential waste - plastics, food, electrical, glass we dispose off as one, which means there is no recycling. Everywhere in India you can see the ban on plastics (That’s another thing no where it’s implemented), but I will say why to ban it? It’s a useful thing, use it and then dispose it in proper manner. There is a huge dearth of waste management system in India, and a big lack of cleanliness friendly public.

Despite all the progress we seem to be making elsewhere, this is one area where things are getting bad with every passing day. Either blame the Government or civic administrations or your neighbors but, it is we, the people, who need to introspect. There is no dearth of ideas and suggestions, but now is the time for action whatever you can take at individual level or a group. Stand out and make a difference, let yourself be proud of you.