Dr A S Bhatia
I was on my way to Government Medical college Rajouri from Jammu to attend to my duties there, it was about 8 am in the morning and I was sipping a cup of tea on a road side tea stall, when I saw a speeding car passing by and someone from inside threw a used coke bottle along with wrappers of chips packet on the road. There was nothing new in it, but what happened next mesmerized me! On the road side few school going children in well dressed uniforms were standing perhaps waiting for their school bus, Suddenly two of them ran towards the road, picked up the garbage thrown by the speeding car and put it in the dustbin installed on the side! I could not resist myself, while holding the cup of tea in my hands I moved towards the school going children. On seeing me approaching towards them, all stood in silence with an curious expression on their face mixed with fear, “Hello Good Morning Dear students, I am Doctor Bhatia” On listening my words spoken with a smile , I could see the fear on their face going away but still were looking towards me with a strange feeling in their eyes. “I saw you running towards the road, picking up the garbage thrown by the occupants of the car and putting it in the dust bin” I told. “Yes Sir, we want our area to be clean and green and won’t allow anyone to spread litter here and there” answered one of the student confidently. Just then their school bus arrived and all of them ran towards the bus making joyful voices. I wanted to interact more with them, but couldn’t. However, the children aroused a strong positive feeling inside me with their beautiful answer, and I had a strong hope of a new clean and green India!
Twin problems of environmental sanitation, in all the developing countries, are the lack of safe drinking water and primitive methods of excreta disposal. Back in eighties, when we used to go to Ranbir Higher Secondary School Jammu on foot, people moving to fields with a container of water in their hands was the usual sight which we witnessed daily, is now is a thing of the past ! Many of us must have live memories of people lined up early in the morning on the railway tracks! There was a need of mass public awareness programmes about sanitation and hazards of open field defecation along with strong political will to get rid of this. The big starting was made on 2nd October 2014, when the Prime Minister of India launched Swachh Bharat Mission to accelerate the efforts to achieve universal sanitation coverage and to put the focus on sanitation. Under the mission, all villages, Gram panchayats in India declared themselves “open defecation free(ODF)” by 2nd October 2019, the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. During this period a mind blowing, over 100 million toilets were constructed in rural India. Further the strong political will of the present dispensation has moved one step further to ensure that the open defecation free behaviors are sustained, the mission is moving towards the next Phase II of Swachh Bharat Mission (Grameen) to ODF – Plus, which will reinforce open defecation free behaviour and will also focus on providing intervention for the safe management of solid and liquid waste in villages. UT of Jammu and Kashmir excelled in the mission with 100% achievement of ODF plus model status under SBM-G as all 6650 villages across 285 blocks in 20 districts were declared open defecation free plus model! Even in urban areas, now everyone is well versed with the lyrics, “Gaadi waala aiyaa… Kachara nikaalo..” being played on the garbage carriers plying daily on the roads !
Another usual sight commonly seen in the past, was women carrying water on their heads and moving together towards their households in the evening! Who has forgotten the sight of women fighting over water, whenever a water tanker used to come to mohallas to distribute water? Many a time quarrel started over the water used to get converted into a fight of families with free for all situation! I myself had an horrifying experience in my childhood when someone threw broken glass bottles in the water tank where we used to dive and enjoy the bath to beat the summers, and the memories still haunt me when after diving I had sharp cut injuries on my foot with the wave of red blood gushing from the injured foot, spreading in the water, the scar of which is still there, that was only to prevent us from getting into the water. Scarcity of safe water was the root cause of many enmities in those days! This social problem has been solved up to great extent by the Jal Shakti Abhiyaan launched by the Ministry of Jal Shakti in the year 2019. Jal Jeevan Mission, a central government initiative aims to ensure access of piped water for every household in India.
I remember one of my teachers stating in our class during MBBS training, “Great sanitary awakening which took place in England in 1840s is yet to be born in India, and we may not be alive to see that day!” Those were the most pessimistic words I ever have heard in my life, But after near about forty years, I am very happy that the words of my teacher proved absolutely wrong and I am the lucky one to see the great sanitary awakening happening in my life time in my beloved country. As LG Manoj Sinha also said, “Cleanliness brings happiness, joy and prosperity. It is the door to reach closet to the God. Garbage free cities and villages are no longer imagination but a reality now. “Taking one step ahead Prime Minister pitched for blending fitness and well being with cleanliness as during “Swachhata Hi Sewa” compaign , PM joined Ankit Baiyanpuria for cleanliness drive and while sharing his experience on X said ,”Today, as the Nation focuses on Swachhata, Ankit Baiyanpuria and I did the same! Beyond just cleanliness we blended fitness and well being also into the mix.
It is all about ” Swacch and Swasth Bharat” giving a new direction and dimension to the sanitary awakening! Going back to the roads of Rajouri where little school going students showed exemplary act by lifting the garbage thrown by the speeding car, the words of Dr John Everett park, the renowned author of Preventive and social Medicine, came in front of my eyes, when he wrote, “The most difficult problem to tackle in this country is perhaps the environmental sanitation problem which is multifaceted and multi factorial .” but what I witnessed few minutes back were refuting the words of Dr Park, as the “Great sanitary awakening” has taken birth in Bharat, thanks to the tireless efforts and well perceived policies, stong political will and continuous appeals for public participation for ” Swachh and Swasth Bharat” by our Prime Minister Narendera Modi!
The Bhagwad Gita in Chapter 13 also talks about ‘shaucham,’ cleanliness, as one of the values to be cultivated if a person wants to evolve. It refers to both internal as well as external cleanliness! As the Government is committed towards external cleanliness for its citizens, it is the duty of every one individually to work for the internal cleanliness which will come from truthfulness, humility, trust in the principles of religion, chanting the holy name of the lord, austerity, sacrifice, faith, satisfaction and service to the supreme master, silence, forgiveness and most important fearlessness!
(The author is Principal, Government Medical College Rajouri.)
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