India lives in villages; so, the spirit of economic strength rests on the agronomy of villages. This was the report of Gandhiji to his political guru Gopal Krishna Gokhale after completing his tour of entire India.
Yes, we all do agree to the fact that more than 70 per cent population of India live in villages. With the advancement of science, technology and research works on one hand and progress of economy due to globalisation, day by day rural India is changing to semi-urban economy.
If the entire Indian economy is going to depend upon the economy of villages, we should not forget to have a pollution free village environment. The reports of mass media including our personal experiences reveal that village environment is getting increasingly polluted like metro and mega cities of today.
The current pandemic Covid-19 has made us understand that pollution is the root cause of all evils and accounts for the outbreak of most health hazards. So, it is clarion call of the day is to make our villages pollution free.
Now, the villages have unclean roads, dirty water bodies, garbage dumps, cow dung pits, wastages of agriculture products, dirty drainage system etc.
A large portion of rural India has no proper drinking water facilities. Both humans and pets are taking bath and drinking water from common ponds available in the villages.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to regulate cleanliness activities of village areas, keep village drains and roads clean; entrust the village panchayats to lift daily garbages of road; keep villages ponds, public parks, public places clean; create awareness at Panchayat level in regular intervals on cleanliness; provide safety latrines and bathrooms to every individual family of villages and have a policy of zero tolerance for the law breakers.
Once Satya Sai Baba said, “A person might be an expert in any field of knowledge or a master many material skills but without inner cleanliness, his brain is a desert waste.” So, we should educate people for the inner and outer cleanliness. It is not a matter of one-day show. Each member of the society should be a role model for the others.
Cleanliness is next to Godliness. The cleanliness of village is the barometer of the progress of India, its culture and economy as a whole.
Thus, we have to take a pledge to make our village neat and clean so that it will be the greatest services to the nation.
(The writer is PGT-Economics, KendriyaVidyalaya No.1, Bhubaneswar)
