Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Swachh Bharat Mission was launched amid much fanfare earlier this month. However, many have labelled the campaign as mere tokenism. Author, international affairs expert and consultant with the Confederation of Indian Industry Sharmila Kantha talks to Dhruv Munjal about the challenges the mission faces, the impact it will have on India's global image and ways to sustain this effort to clean the country
Do you think that the Modi government is serious about addressing the grave issue of cleanliness through the Swachh Bharat Mission?
Prime Minister Modi appears to be the public face of a renewed administrative push for cleanliness, and I believe the Swachh Bharat Mission will go much beyond rhetoric to deliver policy and action. The cleanliness campaign has been a recurring thread in Modi's pre-election speeches. Hence, one can be expect it to be a serious initiative. The first order of the day would be to create a complete buy-in from diverse sections of society, including state and local governments. The launch of the campaign raises awareness, which is the beginning of an attempt to change mindsets towards cleanliness.
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I have personally witnessed how effective administration can drive cleanliness. I lived in Colombo soon after the long war was over, and saw the committed efforts to refurbish public buildings and public spaces.
The Swachh Bharat Mission has taken a cue from a similar drive launched by Singapore in the late 1970s. The UAE has also been hugely successful in implementing a cleanliness drive. Compared to these countries, what major challenges does India face?
The primary challenge is that of scale. To be successful, the Swachh Bharat Mission would need to be rolled out in all habitations, including metros, small towns and villages. Currently, less than a third of urban India has access to sewerage systems. Secondly, population pressure is a big issue. It will not be easy to institute systems that can cover all households given entrenched sanitation habits and decayed urban management. Third, the development process itself would generate much more waste as incomes rise and industry expands.
Is this an attempt to refurbish India's global image?
I would term it as a domestic-facing initiative. India's global image would definitely benefit from introducing effective sanitation and waste management systems as well as beautified cities, and non-resident Indians are certainly happy about the campaign. But the main advantage would be for our citizens and they deserve functioning, effective institutions and processes for a clean environment.
If the campaign is indeed successful in the next few years, how big a role will it play in India's development?
It will be a huge step forward. It would lift India's metros out of the developing-country image and place them on a par with world-class cities. Isolated islands of excellence with the rest of the country in a mess carry little conviction for the world at large. Cleanliness is a multi-dimensional issue and tackling it effectively implies that a nation is able to efficiently establish sustainable solutions across many diverse areas, including governance, administrative efficiency, sanitation, waste management for different kinds of waste, environmental issues, and others.
Don't you think that stringent laws and stricter punishments are required for successful implementation?
Not really. Probably many of the laws are already in place, but are not being enforced effectively. Stricter punishments cannot be the answer; the idea should be to discourage non-compliance with the law to begin with. Often the laws do not make much sense either as some of them were meant for an earlier era and are anachronistic for a rapidly urbanising country. As the prime minister has mentioned, we need to overcome the trust deficit and have confidence that our citizens will deliver when presented with functioning and efficient cleanliness management system. As we have seen earlier, the Delhi Metro did begin with a real adherence to civic practices.
Several personalities like Anil Ambani and Sachin Tendulkar have hit the streets wielding brooms. But what needs to be done to sustain this interest in the campaign?
A dirty India is mainly a function of an indifferent and insensitive administration and a failure of our governance processes. Continuous public interaction and new initiatives will spark serious citizen interest. There is also a need to add much more funds into municipal management and capacity building for elected officials and administrators. Some announcement on this would be a confidence boost.
