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| Do Indian passengers like the sight of garbage around them? | | |
Vinod Chandrashekhar Dixit
Heaps of garbage lying unat
tended in many areas in most of the cities & towns speaks volumes about the inefficiency of the concerned authorities. With the mounds of heaps of garbage remaining uncleared for weeks together emanating a nauseating stench all over area resulting into stinking. With heaps of garbage lying around, the dog menace has also increased. The mosquito menace has gone beyond the reasonable tolerance levels.
It is also observed that garbage clearance trucks in the city are seen at some places attempting to carry out the herculean task of ridding the roads of the rotting garbage. It is not uncommon to see piles of putrefying garbage lying along the streets, in front of fancy malls and luxury car showrooms, and at the gates of many exclusive neighborhoods. But just as common is the sight of Indians walking past the smelly heaps, covering their noses with the edge of their saris or handkerchiefs and waving the flies away. Many Indians routinely throw empty cigarette packs, plastic wrappers or cans from their car windows. Even at religious sites, waste is often dumped into rivers, lakes or the streets. Open, stinking drains in residential neighborhoods are choked with household trash.
With India's creaky municipal management system stretched thin and government response to the teeming trash patchy at best, the problem will only worsen, analysts say. More than 600 million Indians will live in cities by 2030, compared with a little more than 350 million today. Indians generate more than 55 million tons of solid waste every year, and that figure will increase to 240 million tons by 2047, according to the Energy and Resources Institute in New Delhi. But there is a new push for change from some quarters.
Neighborhood volunteers, schools and activists in big cities are organizing like rarely before to clean up India. They are staging sporadic cleanup drives at markets, beaches and railway stations. They are urging people not to litter, asking families to separate waste from recyclables and using smartphones to photograph and report uncollected garbage to the government.
Even the federal Tourism Ministry launched a campaign to keep areas around heritage monuments clean. The momentum is at least partly generated by Indians who believe that the grimy cities damage their country's image abroad and clash with its hopes of becoming a 21st-century economic power. There is an unspeakable amount of filth around us.
Sometimes we come across the garbage overflowing from the bins outside the gate and spilling out into the streets. The amount of littering and garbage generation every day is humongous.
Uncollected garbage in the city's streets swelled to such an extent that the heaps impeded pedestrians and drivers alike. To placate the protesters, the local authorities must advise the residents to separate recyclables and compostable material from household waste, which would have reduced the volume at the landfills. There are some researchers who are trying to better understand Indians' attitudes toward litter. Indian passengers do not like the sight of garbage around them, so they immediately throw it out of the train. After all, trains are so crowded that there is often no space for trash cans. Some in the tourism industry say that the garbage problem is overstated - and that it actually might be part of the adventure of traveling in India. Owing to the indifference of the concerned authorities are exposed to dangerous diseases like dengue fever, malaria, hepatitis, dysentery and typhoid. Let us take a pride in our environment. Don't be afraid to confront those that are messing it up. |
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