Why is ‘Swachh Bharat’ the last thing on the minds of 269 million Indians?

This Gandhi Jayanti, while Prime Minister Modi was launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan from India Gate, my inspired mom, started her own version, a household ‘safai abhiyaan’. Everyone was given summary instructions, under the new rules, shoes were to be placed only in the racks, socks had to be put in the laundry bin only, old magazines and papers were to be kept in the designated piles and anything not in use for over a month had to be discarded immediately. In the end, invoking Modiji’s name and borrowing from his acronym fetish declared: ‘Hereon, everyone is to follow PEEP’.

Before our expression could turn from surprise to curiosity, she expanded on what exactly was PEEP.

‘Place for Everything and Everything in Place’

While Modiji invoked Gandhiji to clean up India, my mom invoked Modiji to turn the annual pre-Diwali cleaning into a monthly feature.

That was that.

From The Hindu, 6th Oct, 2014

Much to the Prime Minister’s credit, his infectious activism has galvanized the nation into a mass movement against unclean surroundings. Thanks to him that an issue as important and yet most overlooked like cleanliness has been brought to the fore. A ‘Swachh Bharat’ is not only an aesthetically appealing idea but also one that can provide significant economic and social benefits. According to the World Health Organization statistic’s cited by the Prime Minister during his address, lack of cleanliness results in a loss of 6500 rupees to every Indian; on account of loss of employment due to illness caused by unhygienic surroundings and further medical expenses accrued on treatment. Further, according to a 2006 World Bank report, India suffered an economic loss of $53.8 billion, approximately 6.4 per cent of the GDP that year on account of poor sanitation, compare this to the 3.1 per cent of the GDP that we spent on Education during the same year^. The compelling economic loss is accompanied by a more horrific human tragedy, globally 1800 children under the age of 5 die every day due to water, sanitation and hygiene issues. This is equivalent to 60 busloads of children falling in a gorge every single day.  By all means then ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan’ though belated, is a step in the right direction.

However, such a program, no matter how widespread in its appeal, or how many people take the pledges for a cleaner India, shall be restricted to the affluent and educated quarters of the country.  Within this section of the society, exist people who have been long awaken to and often even propagating the idea of a cleaner India, they shall continue their habits irrespective of whether the campaign is endorsed by Salman Khan or Priyanka Chopra. Then, there is the other section which has always been somewhat aware of the need to maintain cleaner environs but has never bothered to take it seriously, this section of people will definitely lap up the movement and embrace it with newfound alacrity. Anyways, Swachh Bharat will be a movement limited to the educated and the rich, whether through some amount of coaxing, guilt stirring or a sense of genuine concern. This seemingly general observation will sound preposterous and somewhat brusque in the absence of any theory explaining my exclusion of the 269 million of Indian poor from the Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan. I have no intention to disappoint.

A few months ago, my peripatetic self was jumping from Vellore to Bangalore at a rate of anywhere between twice or even thrice a week. Scheme of thing, as it were, did not afford the luxury of travelling on a reserved ticket and we quite often travelled in the overcrowded unreserved coach, what Mr. Tharoor would have most gleefully approved of as cattle class. While the government is mulling over laying vast bullet train network across the country, situation of the poor travelling by regional trains continues to be deplorable, negotiating their feet by the inches, hanging by a handle or squatting by the miasmic toilets of the Indian Railways. People littering the train or throwing everything from banana peels to coffee cups out on the tracks is a sight not unseen. Generally, when I am not in my arm-chair liberal, laissez-faire mode, sometimes politely and at others scornfully try to educate the people about how imprudent it is to litter around, and how they should always throw waste in a waste bin. However, due to some epiphany, this time I did not assume my condescending self, rather wondered, how bourgeois, given the situation, would such a didactic behavior have been? Why on Earth would a man working the fields, earning not more than 50 rupees a day worry about the environment, doesn’t he have bigger issues in life? What is he going to eat for dinner or whether his kids will be able to have their breakfast in the morning?  While this indeed is the reality, but for those not convinced with the rhetoric, there is a psychological basis to this observation; namely, the Maslow’s Law of Hierarchy of Needs. According to Maslow, there are five human needs that go from basic physiological needs at the bottom of the hierarchal pyramid to self actualization at the top. People move from one level to the other when their needs at the previous level are satisfied. So, if someone, whose basic needs like food, clothing and shelter were unmet how could he, be expected to concern himself with higher needs like a clean environment, education etc. This is precisely why missions like ‘Swachh Bharat’ cannot be successful in poverty stricken areas of the country; therefore, we must, before anything else, wage a war against poverty in the country. Is it not true that we, who are sitting in urban areas gloat about the Indian politician’s mindless regurgitation of the ‘Roti, Kapda aur Makaan’ cliché  at the hustings even after 60 years of independence, well, at least these politicians recognize the needs of the poor, acting on them is a different issue altogether. It is important for us as citizens to take up the fundamental issues that plague our society rather than trying to mimic discussions on sophisticated issues that are best suited to a public discourse of the west. The reality for us is “Roti, Kapda aur Makaan” for few more years, and the good news is that there is nothing wrong in accepting the reality and acting upon it. Missions like Swachh Bharat, though well-intentioned will fail to benefit the biggest victims of filthy surroundings, the poor, unless we focus on the more fundamental issue of poverty alleviation.

Prateek Sibal

Delhi