CLEANLINESS AND GODLINESS

CLEANLINESS is next to Godliness”, said Mahatma Gandhi, emphasising the importance of cleanliness.

- Kiran Karnik

Irrespective of whether he was quoting an old proverb or formulating a new one, his belief in this is borne out by his own personal commitment to the concept. His deep concern about this is evidenced in another statement: he is reputed to have said, with understandable exaggeration, that “Sanitation is more important than independence”.

In keeping with the importance of this, the government launched a Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India Mission) in 2014. It aimed primarily at ending open defecation. Appropriately, the image used for branding was a pair of round-rimmed spectacles, an immediately-recognised reminder of Gandhi. In conjunction with a massive toilet-construction programme, data points to great progress in ending open defecation.

VIEWPOINT OF DIGNITY

This – though very important from the viewpoints of dignity, hygiene, and health – is but one aspect of a much larger problem of cleanliness. Its physical manifestation is often sensed by our olfactory system, changing from a gentle smell to an overpowering stench, even before it presents itself in visual form as a heap of rotting garbage.

All over urban India – and sometimes even in villages – one comes across such piles of garbage. Sometimes, it is scattered all over a large area or along a roadside; more often, there seem to be a few popular locations to dump whatever is not wanted. It is rare, of course, that these favoured spots coincide with specially made garbage dumps, if and where they do exist. In keeping with socialism, prescribed in the Constitution, there is an attempt to spread the garbage equitably and as geographically-inclusively (widely) as possible!