Mission 2019: Banega Swachh India?

Two years ago, Modi kicked off a cleanliness drive in a spectacular way. Showing the contrast between world cities and Gurgaon, MG BANGA suggests ways in which the mission can be accomplished by 2019.

- MG Banga

On 2nd October 2014, an extraordinary sight was seen on television, broad-cast by almost every news channel across India. Over 80 million people stood perplexed by the vision they saw before them. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, broom in hand, was vigorously sweeping the dust offthe filthy streets of Delhi. It was the beginning of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, making India clean and ridding the country of open defecation. “Har sapna sach karega India, banega Swachh India” (Every dream will come true, India will become clean) read the front pages of newspapers the next day.

Is it really possible that India can be cleaned up by 2019?

Having travelled across all five continents, be it affluent cities like Florida and London, not-so-wealthy towns like Bucaramanga (Colombia) and Marrakesh (Morocco), one finds differences in quality of infrastructure, yet one attribute which is common to all is cleanliness. In every village, town, city, visited, the thought that comes to mind is: “I wish India were this clean.”

Gurgaon, popularly known as Millennium City, is host to about 250 Fortune 500 companies. Its close proximity to the capital gives it immense significance. Having more than 30 shopping malls, seven golf courses and luxury shops, the city has everything except a functioning citywide drainage and sewer system, public sidewalks, good constructed roads or even an efficient garbage collection and disposal system. The Millennium City is placed at a shameful 466th out of 476 cities, right at the bottom of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan rankings of the cleanest (and dirtiest) towns and cities in India.