Cleaning Up a Nation

Deterrence and mass participation are critical to ensuring the broader success of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, says Rajesh Narain Gupta, Managing Partner, SNG & Partners.

With only 45 per cent of the rural Indian population having access to a toilet, more than half of the 800 million people residing in the rural hinterlands of the country defecate in public places. According to a 2015 report of the National Sample Survey Office (NSSH), the number is significantly higher in urban areas, around 88 per cent. With a view to address this problem, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) has been initiated as the flagship cleanliness drive of the Government of India, with a view to clean the streets, roads and infrastructural amenities of the country. Covering more than 4,000 cities and towns, the campaign has been launched to make India open defecation free (ODF) by 2nd October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

Broadly divided into Swachh Bharat Mission for rural areas and for cities and towns, the ambitious plan would involve the construction of 12 crore toilets at an estimated cost of Rs 1.96 lakh crore.

Deterrence Mechanism
In a country where open defecation, especially in the rural areas, is a common practice and people are loathe to adhere to government-imposed sanitation and garbage disposal practices, a credible deterrence mechanism can prove to be the much-needed catalyst in the successful implementation of the Swachh Bharat Campaign guidelines. This can be achieved by amending the Municipal Corporation Act in all states of India or passing new legislations to give wide-ranging power to civic officials to impose fines and penalties to prevent widespread instances of littering and garbage disposal.

The problem can also be largely addressed by making spitting, defacing public property, urinating, etc., a penal offence. Any person or institution challenging the imposition and the collection of the fine as land revenue should be allowed to appeal to the Municipal Commissioner or the Authority constituted for the purpose of settling the disputes. The disputes need to be resolved within specified time-frames and stipulated guidelines.

Heavy penalties should also be imposed on people misusing and dirtying civic amenities which, in turn, will ensure that public spaces are kept clean to a larger extent.

Key challenges
The lack of a full-time, dedicated human resource base for executing the sanitation directives of the Swachh Bharat Campaign remains a key challenge area for the government. The paucity of trained personnel and frontline workers, especially at the community level and in the interiors of the country, with the requisite skills and the technical expertise to create mass awareness about the national campaigns is proving to be a huge roadblock in its on-the-ground implementation.

With a view to addressing this problem, the governments at the Centre and states, civic authorities and local administrative bodies need to synergise their operational efficacies by tapping into the vast resource pool of retired personnel. Hiring and recruitment laws need to be suitably redrafted for harnessing the latent talent and valuable experience of retired military personnel, government servants and existing office bearers of cooperative societies in cities like Mumbai.

Several government agencies need to coordinate for the creation of a centralised database for the screening of potential retired candidates who could then be identified and short-listed as possible recruits for the position of civil inspectors. They should be given proper training and be empowered with statutory powers to carry random checks and impose fines on people indulging in throwing garbage, spitting, urinating etc.

An easy solution lies in engaging lakhs of retired personnel to act as Civil Inspectors and to voluntary man the public areas. Keeping a check on the nuisance of public defecation and littering will prove to be a huge deterrent for the public from defecating and littering in public. It would also ensure that the dream of a garbage-free India and rid of open defecation woes which is a key element of the Clean India movement narrative, does not remain a distant reality.

Mass movement
If the Swachh Bharat Campaign has to become a mass cleanliness movement, emphasis will have to be placed on training youngsters in the finer nuances of sanitation and cleanliness. Topics related to hygiene, sewage disposal and public health should compulsorily be included in school curricula to sensitise children to the importance of germ-free and healthy living. Not merely depending on rote learning, schools should encourage children to participate in projects highligh-ting the importance of public cleanliness and health risks arising out of open defecation. These projects can also form the basis for future innovative sanitation solutions which can be implemented on a cost-effective basis in rural and urban areas through public-private participation. Skits and drama competitions, organised by schools, can go a long way in creating awareness on crucial issues of relieving in public and the impending health risks thereafter. Children are quick learners and easily adapters of innovative cleanliness techniques and can be of great help in imparting lessons in hygiene and cleanliness to the elderly. Tiny tots can be great facilitators in ushering in an environment of public cleanliness and community health.

In order to ensure that the Clean India Movement does not merely remain relegated to the labyrinth of oft-announced government schemes, and becomes a national mission for cleanliness, it needs to be approached from a holistic perspective. All the stake-holders in the national cleanliness movement need to synergise their efforts, resources and expertise to bring about a paradigm change in the manner in which cleanliness and sanitation issues have been traditionally addressed in the country. Not merely resting on celebrity endorsements and spending on advertisement campaigns, emphasis should be placed on bringing about an attitudinal change as regards our perceptions of public defecation and sanitation. Greater community outreach, emphasis on public sanitation education in school and college curricula, a credible deterrent approach and understanding the fact that we, as citizens of India, are key players in this mass cleanliness movement can go a long way in bringing into reality the finer tenets of the Swachh Bharat campaign.

About The Author
Rajesh Narain Gupta is Managing Partner at SNG & Partners.