Swachh Bharat Mission – A Socio-Cultural Audit

 

Swachh Bharat Mission – A Socio-Cultural Audit

We are in the ninth year of the Swachh Bharat Mission – clean India mission - launched by PM Narendra Modi on October 2, 2014, 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. It was a laudable initiative and it is also a matter of gratification to note that the Mission could

deliver not only by way of facilities but also in generating much needed awareness about cleanliness among the people. But we are still to go a long way as we approach the anniversary of Swachh Bharat Mission on October 2. I am certain again we would stage some shows of ‘broom wielding’ photo-ops next week to congratulate ourselves. I wrote in these columns on the subject in 2014 too which may be accessed at: https://diplomatictitbits.blogspot.com/2014/10/swachh-bharat-campaign-gandhi-jayanti.html

My immediate provocation to write again on the subject is a news story in the Tribune about a school in some remote area of Hoshiarpur district of Punjab where the parents found that their children were made to clean the premises, including toilets, of the school by the teachers. The parents were up-in-arms against the school and the teachers. The concerned teachers explained that they themselves joined students in the cleaning operation as a planned activity to instill the sense of ‘do it yourself’ and ‘dignity of labour’ in the young students. The parents were not impressed and the authorities were finding it difficult to defend the school and the teachers because social pressure was over considerable.

The problem is acute and serious. There is no easy answer as the roots of the problem are wide spread in our ethos and culture which gets its sanctity from the religion and scriptures of the society at large. We suffer from the ‘graded inequality’ and ‘self centered’ mindset. We may or may not agree but it is true, if I humbly assert. I was not surprised to read in one of the essays on the subject of Swachh Bharat Mission on the internet that ‘even the government policies with regard to cleanliness and recruitment of safai karamcharis take into account the caste considerations’ because to clean and maintain cleanliness do not pertain to the whole society but only to the condemned to do that work, the dalits of Balmiki or Bhangi extraction in spite of the fact that manual scavenging, the utmost inhuman activity, was legally banned in India in 1993. The safai karamchari jobs are fully, 100 %, reserved, unofficially and socially, for those condemned sections of the society. The Thekedars of the society, the so called ‘General Samaj’ shouts from the house tops against ‘Reservation’, the affirmative action stipulated in the Constitution of India. They are not interested in jobs of cleanliness as they belong to the  privileged ‘General Samaj. The leadership from Mahatma Gandhi to Narendra Modi found ‘spiritual solace’ in the inhuman and degraded work of cleanliness.  If there was anyone who

found dignity in manual scavenging, it was Mahatma Gandhi then, and it is Prime Minister Narendra Modi now. Modi claimed in his autobiography that manual scavenging is a spiritual experience. The discussion on the dignity of manual scavengers would also remain incomplete without looking at what Gandhi said "The ideal Bhangi of my conception would be a Brahmin par excellence, possibly even excel him… It is the Bhangi who enables society to live. A Bhangi does for society what a mother does for her baby... A mother washes her baby of the dirt and insures his health….” This is how we glorify scavenging? Mera Bharat Mahan.

We Indians are the dirtiest people as we depend on a particular section of the society to clean our dirt.  I am sorry for this somewhat candid view. It is not the case in other countries, particularly the developed world. I have personally seen young students in Japan cleaning their own schools and officials cleaning their own offices. I even joined my fellow residents in an up-scale residential area in Tokyo to clean our surroundings on a holiday and thereafter a get-together of contributory or self-served drinks and lunch or dinner. I also recall a well thoughtful activity in Beijing (then Peking) in China which was initiated by Ambassador R.D. Sathe, who later rose to become the Foreign Secretary in late 1980s – Sharamdan on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. He invited or directed all of us in the Embassy with families to come in shorts, jeans etc. with brooms, buckets and baskets to clean our sprawling Embassy premises and later join at a community lunch. I learnt a great deal from this beautiful gesture. Why don’t we do this here in our mohallas and villages? No, it cannot be done unless we change our mindset and refuse to find ‘spiritual experience’ in the odd job. It is a matter of pity that even after 75 years of independence, we could not come out of the so called ‘spiritual experience’ and provide mechanical and appropriate tools to the safai karmcharis to clean the sewerage and do away the manual scavenging. It is not high on the policy matrix because of traditional mindset. I know personally when our people migrate to other places in foreign lands to earn their bread and butter, they don’t mind doing all odd jobs to sustain and prevail. But back home in India, story is different. We need two set of people for odd jobs – one for cooking and general cleaning and other for cleaning toilets and removal and disposal of waste. Is this the way to become ‘Vikshit Bharat’?

 Let us stop glorifying the odd jobs to scavengers by birth. Babasaheb Ambedkar rightly said, “In India, a man is not a scavenger because of his work. He is a scavenger because of his birth irrespective of the question whether he does scavenging or not.” The new slogan or ‘Jumla’- Swachhta Hee Sewa Hai - has no meaning as asserted by Shonottra Kumar and Sumeysh Srivastava are lawyers working at Nyaaya, an initiative of the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy in an article ‘For Manual Scavengers – Swachhta is not Sewa in the Wire and said, “Most importantly, the state needs to acknowledge the role of caste and how it traps people in the practice

of manual scavenging. Building a lot of toilets without proper sewage or mechanized disposal mechanisms will only lead to more stigmatization, and more work for manual scavengers. Currently, the role of caste in cleaning and sanitation in India has been ignored by the state. If everyone has toilets, but only Dalits are supposed to clean them, then it’s just a Savarna Swachh Bharat.”Let us come out of the lip service and do something concrete while remembering Mahatma Gandhi and appreciating PM Narendra Modi.

Masjid To Bana Di Shab Bhar Mein Iman Ki Hararat  Walon Ne
Mann Apna Purana Papi Hai, Barsoun Mein Namazi Ban Na Saka

(Though the mosque was built overnight by the believers
Our heart being old sinner for years devout could not be)

Iqbal Bara Updeshak Hai, Mann Baaton Mein Moh Leta Hai
Guftar Ka Ye Ghazi To Bana, Kirdar Ka Ghazi Ban Na Saka

(Iqbal is a good advisor, fascinates the heart in moments
He did become hero in talk, but one in deeds he could not be.)

Postscript: - It has been reported in the media that at a school function in Patna, an IAS officer, Harjot Kaur Bamhrah responded as a student asked that the government was providing school dress, scholarship, bicycles and many other facilities to students, can’t it provide sanitary pads for Rs 20 to 30 to girl students and said, “Today, the government would provide you with sanitary pads for Rs 20 to Rs 30. Then you ask for jeans, pants and then, beautiful shoes,” she said but did not stop there. She further added, “When it comes to family planning, will the government give condoms (Nirodh) to you? – Swachhta Hee Sewa Hai !