Given that most of India’s towns and villages are some of the dirtiest on the planet, it might come as a surprise to many that a village in Meghalaya has been adjudged the ‘cleanest village in Asia’ by a respected travel magazine. How Mawlynnong, a tiny hamlet some 75 kilometers from Shillong, came to the notice of the magazine is not known but it has paid full tribute to its citizens for meticulously collecting litter in bamboo baskets placed at short distances on the village street and then depositing the contents in a nearby landfill.
Likewise, household garbage is disposed of in a common dump. Every home in the village has its own toilet. And there is a provision of pay public toilets for visitors and those away from home.