Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan ?

A year ago, "Swachcha Bharat Abhiyan" was a hot topic. Celebrities were holding brooms, and we saw their pictures in Newspapers. Do not know how much they cleaned the road. We do not expect cleaning roads by them, but surely they tried to convey a message to the public that they should take an active part in cleaning their locality. The government did its own favorite work - an extra tax on public expenses. A "Swachchata cess" was imposed on tax-paying public. Nowadays, we do not find it discussed anywhere. And not much has changed.

The mindset of the public is still the same as it was then. May the person is from less lower-income group or from the big businessman community, their habits are still the same as it was a year ago. If he liked cleanliness, then he still likes it. If he did not care about it then, he still does not care.

Though the municipal corporation had provided small colorful dustbins in a good number, and small vendors made use of them but the main problem is the behavior of some people, which is simply offensive. Even if the government gives good and clean roads, these people do not care. One of the very bad habits in Bihar and Jharkhand is spitting. Use of Paan, Khaini (Raw tobacco with lime), and gutkha is abundant here, and it results in spitting. Some of the people who care spit at places meant for it, while some others just seek corners and roadsides. One can see such disgusting corners in the stair halls of public buildings. In despair, authorities at some buildings have placed ceramic tiles with images of different gods to prevent the spitting, but perhaps it is not the foolproof way. So in many buildings, they have put flower pots with sand to spit in them. But what is most annoying is that a few number of people are habitual dirt spreaders. A few days ago, when I was returning from a morning walk from the dam side park in front of CMPDI, I saw three friends talking in the vegetable market there. They were in the age group of 35-40 years. This vegetable market has been made pucca and wider by the government because it is also an approach road to the Dam side park, which is under renovation. It is also cleaned regularly. What I saw was that one of them was munching 'Paan' spit in the open in the middle of the road in front of the whole public in the market, while he could have turned his head and spit in the roadside drain. Nobody dared to say a word to him, and in fact, nobody cared. That person had no guilty feelings. Everything remained as if nothing had happened. These three friends were grown-ups and seemed like small businessmen.

Even some people in the high-income group do not care much about the locality just outside their boundary wall. An example is in my neighborhood. This big businessman has his house on Kanke Road beside a temple. It is a posh area. The plot is in acres, and a beautiful garden has been maintained like in movies. But it is not visible to the public on the road because of a 6-foot boundary wall. The boundary wall is unplastered and not painted. The rainwater from many seasons has made the color of the surface poor. Even the iron gate is not colored, and it remains closed all the time. Clearly, it has been done not to attract public attention. OK, it is good for him to think about his safety, but what I am talking about is that he does not care to maintain the cleanliness just outside his boundary wall. Three years ago the Kanke Road was widened with divider and lights and it is regularly cleaned by the agency, but the servant of this businessman daily brings the dogs out of the gate makes them to poo on the clean road just in front of his boundary wall. The temple is only 50 feet away from this dirty made spot, but even the priest has no objection because the businessman is one of the patrons.
So, to make the "Swachh Bharat Abhyan" successful, only creating the hype will not help, but penalizing such bad-mannered persons is also necessary, irrespective of their status. But the sad part is that in our society, status matters a lot.

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