A clean hometown, Gharaunda’s award
Manju Gupta
Now that it had yielded results, it sounded less irritating, the recorded message which played on a loop, disturbing the early morning calm “Nagarpalika aapke dwar.....shehar ko saaf suthra banane ke liye.........” (the municipal committee is on your doorsteps to clean up your town). Suddenly everything fell into place, it all started making sense—small things that I had noticed in the recent past, and others that I had missed.
A few months ago, when I walked to a friend's house I noticed that the distinct stink of cow dung was less intense as I passed by a few dairies located on the way. Drains that were usually clogged with animal waste were cleaner, the flow smoother.
A few weeks ago, I was standing outside my nursing home when a garbage van passed and enthusiasm with which young men were doing their work was surprising. After commending them for their job, on an impulse, I asked if someone would remove the junk which was blocking the open drain next to our gate. Very dutifully, one of them said, “Haanji woh bhi karenge, kyon nahin karenge. Naali wale safai karamchari alag hain. Mein apne supervisor ko bol doonga” (Yes of course, it will be done. There are separate employees to clean drains. I will bring it to my supervisor's notice). His attitude and assurance was impressive enough, very different from the earlier safai karamchari who showed up once a year around Diwali to demand their ill-deserved ‘bakhsheesh’. I was further surprised when a few days later I found that the muck had actually been removed from the drain.
When I recently visited a nearby city for an early morning swim, unchecked littering was noticeable. Rotten vegetables and fruits dumped on the road, plastic and cardboard packaging strewn around, colourful plastic bags floating in the early morning breeze. That is when it first occurred to me that in sharp contrast my own ‘town’ (the only ‘urban’term I can use technically!) was spotless when I left. The roads freshly swept, neat piles of refuse waiting to be loaded onto the garbage van.
I had missed missing hordes of stray animals though. Monkeys visited regularly and we were still privy to occasional dogfights but holy cows and unholy pigs were missing from action; no longer seen rummaging through garbage and drains. I tried to remember the last time a pig had entered our premises and ravaged the vegetable patch, burying itself in the cool soil to escape the summer heat. It had been a common occurrence in the past. A nuisance for which we had no solution, we have to keep our gates open for the ‘bimar’ and hence can’t avoid the occasional beast. I did recall spotting some coloured pigs though. At that time I had thought they had taken part in the household Holi celebration. Now, I knew better.
It was all there, in its full glory, in the morning paper. A recognition by the Central government for a job well done. The Union Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs, under the aegis of the Swachh Bharat Mission, had announced the results of the Swachh Survekshan 2018 last week. This is a state initiative to instill a competitive spirit about cleanliness at the ground level. A total of 4,203 urban local bodies had been surveyed collecting data from three sources-service-level progress, direct observation and citizen feedback. The localities had been categorised on the basis of population and the awards were given in each category for cleanest city, solid waste management, citizen feedback and innovation and best practices. Gharaunda, my town, won the award in the last mentioned category. The news was especially noteworthy because it was the sole winner in Haryana. While I gloated over this commendable achievement, a part of me felt ashamed that I had not appreciated cleanliness till it screamed from the front page of a newspaper. Why are we so busy nitpicking that we miss the positive changes happening around us?
When I read that innovative means were used to solve the stray pig problem I imagined some advanced microchip buried in the hog’s rear to trace his movement. It was amusing to discover that the innovations were not high tech or expensive. They were basic strategies demonstrating resourcefulness, out of the box thinking and willingness to work within constraints. The solution to stray pigs roaming the streets was an example of such ingenuity. Earlier it had been difficult to fix responsibility because no one would own up that the pigs were theirs. The authorities started sprinkling colours on stray pigs and followed them to their homes. The owners were then penalised for letting them loose. Similarly, the problem of animal waste blocking drains was solved by sending committee vans to collect cow dung from dairies. To prevent open defecation, use of toilets was encouraged. It was noted that people had taken subsidy for building toilets but were using the space for other purposes. A survey was conducted and action was taken against defaulters.
The fact is, whether it is colour coding pigs or making people use toilets, it doesn't take much to keep a city clean—just willingness to find a way and perseverance to see it through. Ordinary measures can yield extraordinary results and it seems Gharaunda (with the soft D or otherwise) gets it!
(The writer is a gynaecologist based at Gharaunda)
