A PLEDGE TO CLEAN

The fifteenth Prime minister of India and the first PM born in post-independence India, Mr. Narendra Damodardas Modi launched the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (Clean India drive) on 2^nd October, 2014, asking people to fulfill Mahatma Gandhi’s vision of a clean India. The Prime Minister hopes to achieve this feat by the 150^th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 2019. Before launching the Clean India Drive, Mr. Modi visited Valmiki Basti, a housing society in central Delhi for sanitation workers, in which Mahatma Gandhi once stayed for a short while. Mr. Modi interacted with school children there, who had come to greet him. He then picked up a broom and started cleaning the street to show that everyone should come forward to clean India.

Following this, the Prime Minister gave a rousing speech at Rajpath to inspire all Indians to do their bit to keep our nation clean. It was a truly inspiring speech in which he asked people to shun their inhibitions and come forward to pick up any garbage or wrapper, they may see lying on the road and also requested people to stop littering on the roads and in public transport like the metro and buses.

During his speech, the Prime Minister invited nine people on stage including Yog guru Baba Ramdev, entertainers like Salman Khan, Priyanka Chopra and the cast of the daily soap “Tarak Mehta ka Ulta Chashma” and political figures like the Chief Minister of Goa and Congress MP Mr. Shashi Tharoor to join him in his cleanliness drive and asked them to further nominate nine more people. 

The Prime Minister urged everyone who had been working towards this cause, much before the launch of this campaign to continue their work. He also urged people to post pictures of their efforts and its results on the social media platforms like Facebook or Twitter to inspire others. Mr. Modi suggested people upload the images of places before and after they had been cleaned of any filth and upload a video of the cleanliness drive as well to inspire others.

Actor Aamir Khan also joined the Prime Minister on stage as he administered a pledge to the masses, who were present for the launch of the Clean India Drive to not to litter their surroundings and to spare two hours every week towards cleaning India. Last year, Amir Khan in his programme ‘Satyamev Jayate’ had shown that the environmental perils of unchecked garbage dumping in city dumping grounds. He urged people and cities to adopt environmentally friendly and practical solid and liquid management practices which he would telecast again on his show for the benefit of the people.

To encourage companies to work towards this Clean India Drive, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has recently placed donations to the Government-instituted Swach Bharat Kosh and the Clean Ganga Fund within corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending.

In less than one month since the drive started, it has already become a mass movement with even small localities taking the initiative and pasting posters to request people to keep their surroundings clean. Recently, celebrities like tennis player Sania Mirza, actors Salman Khan and Hrithik Roshan and business person Nita Ambani and others were seen wielding the ‘jhadoo’ as never before as part of the Clean India Drive. Swachh Bharat Abhiyaan has turned an emblem of Aam Admi war on corruption into fashion accessory of the socially aware elite. Five time world boxing champion MC Mary Kom, who is also an Olympic bronze medalist and the winner of the gold medal at the Incheon Asiad had been lauded by the Prime Minister for joining the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. She cleaned up a part of the city of Imphal along with students of her boxing academy and members of Manipur Baptist Convention.

Last week, there were reports of BJP and Aam Admi party workers being involved in a blame game by highlighting negligence in cleanliness in each other’s constituencies. However, I feel it is a blessing in disguise because the aim is to clean India. BJP members even clicked and showed picture of dirty public toilets in New Delhi Constituency which is under AAP party. In response, AAP members showed the pool of filth and garbage dumped in areas which come under BJP assembly constituency. Keeping their dirty politics aside, one hopes that by highlighting such pictures in media, authorities will spring into the action to do the needful.

Nonetheless, the dream of clean India should not be of Mahatma Gandhi or our Prime Minister, it should be of every citizen of INDIA. The most important aim is sanitation and it is not only your sweeper or municipality worker’s responsibility. We should also remember that though a sweeper or cleaner may be poor, she/he deserves our respect because she/he is not just earning money but is also cleaning India. To fulfill this dream of a Clean India by 2019, what required is the “collective effort”, which is possible only if we accept the whole India as our own and make similar efforts to keep it clean as we do for our homes. No dream is too big - the only thing required is clean and passionate ‘intention’.