Swachh Bharat campaign: What Varanasi can learn from Kyoto
Talk to a number of Banarasis and you will realise that they are simply unaware of the official systems for sanitation or garbage disposal, if there are any, which there don’t seem to be, judging by the filth in the city.
Interviewing one employee at the Varanasi Nagar Nigam, I learnt that the system of garbage disposal consists of the following steps: the household throws the garbage on the street. The sweeper comes along and collects in his wheelbarrow all the garbage thrown out on the street. He wheels all this garbage to the big dumpster.
Finally, a municipal truck gathers the garbage from the dumpster and empties it into a larger dump. Where are these dumps? The locations are not fixed, my informant tells me: the truck drivers can decide, as long as they choose a spot "outside" the city.
And what are the locations of the dumpsters where the sweepers are to dispose the garbage that they collect? There is one dumpster per ward, my informant tells me. That means that the sweeper may have to walk over a kilometre with his full wheelbarrow.
An impractical system, is this not? No wonder the sweepers and truck drivers don’t "cooperate," and no wonder Banaras looks like one big dump.
PM Modi has chosen Kyoto as a model to "smarten" Varanasi. For the new Swachh Bharat campaign as well, which he launched on Gandhi’s birthday, there is much we can learn from Kyoto.
As most of us know, Japan is a very clean place. There are efficient, working systems for sanitation and garbage disposal in homes and public places. There is recycling everywhere in cities, which is a step ahead from even much of the US and Europe.
But more than that, the Japanese have an inherent ethics of cleanliness. They learn to value and practice cleanliness from birth. This ethics does not just mean the discipline to not litter, spit, urinate or otherwise spoil. It also means practicing a lifestyle that minimises waste.
Other everyday practices, such as the rule that has by now become instinct for the Japanese, of removing shoes before entering indoor spaces, even the most modern spaces, demonstrate their internalised prioritisation of hygiene.
In order for the Swachh Bharat campaign to work, government systems must be reformed and implemented, so that they no longer fail the citizens. Above the basic systems as well, there are many more actions that the government should take, such as banning plastic bags and promoting environmentally friendly practices.
But more than that, the citizenry must be gradually educated to develop in themselves and their children, an ethics of cleanliness. Telling someone who does not value a clean space over a dirty one, to pick up a broom, is meaningless. This education should reawaken desirable values and practices that were perhaps natural to us in the past but are becoming increasingly hidden or lost. It should develop in us a new understanding of modernity, in which modernity is not associated with waste and is not in conflict with "traditional" actions like removing shoes indoors.
This ethics of cleanliness will therefore involve reimagining what it means to be a modern Indian and be transformative. It will have to be taught through actions, words and images, in every school, family and neighbourhood – and is a topic for much further discussion.