Public has to push Swaccha Bharat Abhiyaan
The symbolic significance of launching the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan on October 2 needs no reiteration. But it is also hoped that there will be no question marks on the substance and sustainability of this campaign, and that it will be taken to its logical conclusion: A clean India by 2019, just in time to commemorate the 150th birth anniversary of the Mahatma. For this, the efforts of the Government and Prime Minister Narendra Modi's exhortations alone will not be enough. The public has to step up and do its bit — not just on October 2 but every day afterwards. That 67 years after Independence, India has failed its Father, who had famously compared cleanliness to godliness, in delivering upon his vision, is unfortunate and inescapable. We may like to shop in tall towers and flaunt our first world toys but we cannot shut our eyes to the filth on our streets or ignore the stench from our open garbages. We may boast about our economic growth rate and pat ourselves on the back with an emerging super-power label but that will not change the fact that India is still home to an inexcusably large number of people who defecate in the open and, for which, many other countries still view us with third world disdain. Against this backdrop, it is particularly apt that the Swachch Bharat Abhiyaan is one of the flagship campaigns of Mr Modi who has been voted to power on the basis of his development platform. The Prime Minister's commitment to this campaign shows that he is acutely aware that development is not just about more malls or many factories but equally about clean cities and clean rivers too (among others). To put it simply, a dirty country cannot realistically be a fully developed country. In this context, it is no coincidence that cleaning up the Ganga is Mr Modi's other flagship scheme, or, for that matter, reviving the Sabarmati river has been one of his biggest achievements as Chief Minister of Gujarat.
The immediate benefits that such a campaign for cleanliness and sanitation accrues to the nation notwithstanding, there is also a case to be made for a civilisational awakening here. India today maybe the world's open defecation capital but this was not always the case: For example, the ancient Indus valley civilisation, which included large parts of north India and much of modern-day Pakistan, is known to have had some of the most advanced sanitation systems of its time. Archaelogists have confirmed that every home had a flush toilet-like system and they were all connected to an extensive sewage network. Similarly, the Western media in recent times has falsely blamed “some ancient Hindu texts” for encouraging open defecation when, in fact, such texts contain clear instructions on matters of hygiene and sanitation — some of which, for instance, are based what the West much later discovered as the germ theory. Unfortunately, much of that ancient wisdom has not handed been handed down properly.