Advantage India : The Garbage Advantage

["A.Shrivastava" <justforkix25@yahoo.com>]

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Advantage India : The Garbage Advantage

One of our returned to India friend, puts one
advantage of living in India very succinctly   " I can
throw garbage on road here for free, where as in U.S I
would have had to pay  $200 for the luxury. I can also
spit anywhere I please which would have cost me $100
anywhere else." Now that's a straight gain of  $300 
per month accruing from the freedom to throw garbage.

Scene 1: A few years back I had gone to see Dhuadhar-
one of the spectacular waterfall’s in India on the
river Narmada near Jabalpur. It was a beautiful sight,
the verdant green surroundings, the glistening white
marble rocks and the still whiter water, cascading and
foaming over the rocks. The roar of the waterfall
accentuated the surrounding hush. Come closer and one
could see the rainbow formed over the spray and also
green Fruity tetrapacks bobbing up and down in the
water along with litter thrown all around. A memorable
sight indeed;  from that day onwards I remember to
carry all my thrash home (from where it can be
collected) and not throw it on the wayside.

'Oh no !' you would say 'not another one of those oft
repeated preachy articles'. 'Anyway what can one
person do ?'. 'We are a poor country cannot afford to
have a proper waste collection and disposal system'.
'People are illiterate it is difficult to educate
them’. 'Anyway whenever I look around' you shrug
'there is not a single dustbin to be seen in miles'.

Scene 2 :
A bus-stand in Bastar, a remote tribal district in
India. An adivasi child defaecated on the ground in
the bus-stand. Much to my surprise this lady cleaned
up the mess. Nowhere in India had I seen such a sight;
people cleaning up their own litter and this coming
from a so called uncivilized, uneducated  ( depends on
your definition of education) , tribal woman ; a
person who cannot even count money and whose only
covering is a loin cloth.

Some suggestions to : 'What can I do ?'
 
1.Not throw plastics, rubbish on roads/picnic sites.
Carry them home with you, from where they can be
collected.
2. Try to use as few plastic carrybags as possible.
3. Teach your children to do the above.
4. Do not spit on the roads.
5. Stop other people from throwing litter on the
roads. If this is not possible openly express your
disgust.

How about adopting cleanliness as an attitude?
Recently, my ailing father was admitted to a hospital.
He asked the sweeper to clean the toilet a few times.
The sweeper didn't and my father took the broom and
cleaned the toilet himself. We were flabbergasted and
he received the flak from us.
But on second thoughts the incident bought home, the
uncomfortable fact that we were being hypocrites.
While it was all right for Gandhiji to clean toilets
and let us venerate him for that, we won't use the
brooms ourselves to keep our surroundings clean. Let's
wait for another Gandhi to come along and wake us from
our apathy; to teach us the ill-learnt lesson of
cleanliness.
Sermonising apart , it is feasible for people to form
local groups and  get organized to get  their own
locality cleaned.
So go ahead treat yourself to cleaner surroundings.   






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