The stink hasn’t died down

Minister for Rural Development Jairam Ramesh seems to have raised the hackles of self-appointed guardians of places of religious worship. For the latter, of course, cleanliness or purity, perhaps is merely a good idea. However, Jairam Ramesh thinks that cleanliness should be physically perceived as being next to Godliness.

That his statement — even in 21st century modern India, there is poor public hygiene — has set off street protests speaks volumes of our indifference as a society towards clean living.

His early training as a journalist may have made him an irrepressible alliterative wordsmith. Nevertheless, his statement is incontrovertibly true on the basis of facts on the ground. Compare the number of public toilets in any township/village with the number of places of worship. In almost any temple, while the inside courtyards may be kept clean by women wielding broomsticks, the high perimeter walls outside present the ugly face of poor sanitation. Even if temples do have toilets, there would not be enough for festival days.

Appalling state of affairs

The appalling state of sanitation and hygiene in public places, such as railway tracks, on beaches, river beds, bus-stands — in fact, in every place where crowd gathers — is only too well known. Women who have to travel are the worst victims of this callousness.

A vigorous government sponsored campaign for good sanitation has been long overdue. While issues such as HIV, AIDS, got enormous funding for public awareness, sanitation has never been a top priority for any of the political parties in India for the last six decades. Although we pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi on his birthday, no one seems to recall his obsession with sanitation.

Obsession with sanitation

In Joseph Lelyveld’s recent controversial book titled Great Soul - Mahatma Gandhi and His struggle with India, Gandhiji’s obsession with sanitation and hygiene has been graphically brought out and, indeed, it is a pity, we as his countrymen, let him die as a deeply disillusioned man on this score. It is good to remember that Gandhiji was less interested in abstractions while fighting obvious social evils such as poor public hygiene. “It was the socialoppression of India and its filth — the sight of people blithely squattingin public places to move their bowels and then just as blithely , leaving their turds behind for human scavengers to remove — that accounted forMahatma-to-be’s reforming zeal” wrote Lelyveld. One more paragraph from the book reveals that the mindset of our brothers in politics has not changed in a century.

“Gandhi returned to India in 1896. Soon after his arrival in Rajkot there was an outbreak of plague in Bombay. Put on a sanitation committee, he made the inspection of latrines his special task. In the homes of the wealthy and even in a Hindu temple they were dark and stinking and reeking with filth and worms.” He then went into the untouchables’ quarter: “the first visit in my life to such a locality” he acknowledged. Only one member of the committee was ready to go with him. Untouchables…. relieved themselves in the open. But to his surprise they kept their hovels where they lived cleaner than the more substantial homes of their social betters. Henceforth sanitation and hygiene were at or near the top of his reform agenda”.

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