We need to take the clean India  slogan to common man whose contribution to stench and filth on the streets is quite significant

In 1925, Gandhi had written that a lavatory must be as clean as a drawing room and he proclaimed that he had learned this in the West. He had rightly observed that the cause of  many of our diseases is the condition of our lavatories and our bad habit of disposing of excreta anywhere and everywhere. Why did it take so long to understand this basic philosophy of Gandhi’s life is certainly intriguing. But then, better late than never.

In the Swachch Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India campaign) of our Prime Minister may lie answers to many of our woes. It is only befitting to Gandhi that we launched it on October 2, his birthday. While the campaign may find its cynical critiques, the fact is that it may ultimately lead to change of ways of Indians, a large majority of which spits and shits indiscriminately. Not that efforts were not made earlier. Just that they did not reach the people with the right impact.

Celebrating World Environment Day every year has the same objective. But it does not have the desired effect because it addresses the classes. Moreover, it is largely ritualistic and lacks popular appeal. But even this has created some awareness. The present clean India campaign appears to be different as of now. From closed confines of elitist seminars to the down-to-earth approach of hitting the streets with brooms, the  Swachch Bharat Abhiyan aims to strike a different chord. It attempts to reach the grassroots and involve the masses.

Etiquette and manners related to sanitation and hygiene were perhaps things we failed to learn from the West. Although we imbibed many elements of their lifestyle, most of those were undesirable. For instance, aping the rugged unshaven cowboyish ruffian spitting anywhere and everywhere in a popular Hollywood action movie. Or the semi-clad vamp yelling the unprintables.

Where the seminars have not been able to create the degree of awareness about hygiene and sanitation up to the desired level, let us hope the present campaign does. We need to take the clean India slogan to the common man whose contribution to stench and filth on the streets is quite significant. And he does it with a nonchalance, ignorantly. If we can make him aware of the impact of his actions to the environment, society and his own life, he perhaps would learn where he has been going wrong.

Hygiene is a matter of attitude, and attitude change is possible only with awareness. And mind you, experience tells that awareness works. Things have change in the past few years. The vendor in the AC compartments of long-distance trains, who used to give peanuts to customers in a paper packet, now gives an additional packet and tells that the peanut shells should be put in that and thrown outside rather than  being allowed to be strewn all over the berth. So he realises his responsibilities.

The present campaign may also work. Rather it may revolutionise the ways of India. Let us make the clean India campaign work. It may be slow to pick up but then as Mark Twain had said, soap and education are not as sudden as a massacre, but they are more deadly in the long run.

 The writer is a professor, Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad (Jharkhand). He can be reached at ppathak.ism@gmail.com