October 2, the Famous Day

October 2, the Famous Day Yes, Gandhi Jayanti is celebrated on October 2, with much fervour and sincerity, after the Mahatma passed away. He is remembered for his principles of Ahinsa, Shantata and Swachata; nonviolence, peacefulness and cleanliness. Unfortunately we remember him only on his Jayanti. There are cleanliness drives and people participate and netas deliver speeches on Gandhi’s birthday . Next day is third October and we rest till the October 2 next year is born. In our social life there is an increase stress that many times escalates to social unrest. There is peace, that is searching for itself in our country. We have still not achieved the goal of making India clean. If in the pre-independence era, we saw an unclean India, today she has become worst. All the talk of making India an open defecation free country has remained on paper. In the life of Independent India, cleanliness campaign began some 100 years ago. It was only prominently Gandhi, who bore the torch. So many years have passed since, independence. Mahatma Gandhi advocated the need for clean India. He told India lives in villages. Albeit, India resides in villages. Are all the rural areas and those merging with urban habitats are free of open defecation? Go for a walk, a long walk and cross the boundaries of city, some village you will come across. Your feet will be reluctant to go ahead as the signs of open defecation will be seen at many places. Netas walk on lawns and travel in aeroplanes and in hi-tech vehicles. Their feet should touch the streets, lanes and by lanes of the country. If they do this they will realize how badly people live in our country. Most of these leaders hail from rural areas. Don’t they know the fact? They know it very well. Needed only is will power to make India clean. What are the means? Decentralization of power. Let the party workers, grassroots level party leaders and MLAs and then the MPs of both the houses and then the misters of all the states take this up the task to ensure cleanliness. Let newspapers which are nowadays are writing advertorial features or are presenting just numbers as data write stories that describe what is ailing this cleanliness drive. Let these netas at the grass root level plan a strategy for a small area, since they do not want to work very hard; and run an anti-open defecation programme. Why it has not been possible for so many years? The entire country is sick with dirt. India is densely populated and the resources are just not matching to produce the desired results. But then conscious efforts can gear up the movement. Attitudes matter. We, the people of India, are very clumsy, and lazy. Everything we regard as OK. We just do not want to put in efforts enough to wipe out the dirt off our nation.Every person should strive for cleanliness. Children should get a lesson on practical grounds in about cleanliness in schools. Right from washing hands, before eating to avoiding eating roadside food, that is sold near a wastewater stream and garbage hip, children should take lessons. All the fast food and snack shops lined up along household open drainages should be shut. Administration here comes in to picture. How are the vendors allowed to sell food in such an unclean area? Children should be encouraged in schools eat homemade food. They should be inspired to deliver speeches and write essays to combats the unhygienic eating practices. Students should be given marks in a separate mark sheet that has no bearing with their academics for good behaviour. Why have we not done this? Are the principles of schools not capable of administering these rules for their students? Why is there a lack of will? Why is this work regarded as lowly and of meaningless? School authorities should ensure that the roadside food stalls are not seen in ten km area from the school. No vehicles should pass the school except for the school buses and vans. The administration can give reward to schools for following these norms. In one of my articles I have mentioned about Greta Thunberg’s work for climate change. Our children are not free to work like her. They are burdened so much by the demand for academic excellence, since it is directly connected to our economics that they cannot work like Greta Thunberg. But the IAS officers can plan for a cleaner, healthier environment by wielding the power that they have, if ministers do not interfere. So whether we need a Greta Thunberg or not, we need an up front, bold and smart IAS officer to ensure that the district is kept clean. “Keep away from such officers, Mr MLA and Mr Ministers"The Prime Minister should announce, so that the dream of a clean and healthy environment is fulfilled. Trend in India is that any honest officer with principles is transferred repeatedly if he is found guilty of not obeying the minister. Please help break this tradition, Prime Minister Sir. Truly needed for every district is an officer like Tukaram Mudhe who is known for his unique disciple and honesty, to achieve the goal Gandhi’s clean India.