The relevance of celebrating 'cleanliness' in today's India.

Since 2014, every year on January 30th is observed as National Cleanliness Day to commemorate the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. This responsibility for environmental cleanliness, calls to maintain high standards of cleanliness in our homes, workplace, road/streets and public places. However, let us question the importance of observing this every year while many of us still pursue apathetic attitudes towards cleanliness in public spaces.

In a country where cleanliness is restricted to the four walls of our homes, there is a sense of ownership that is lacking when it concerns public spaces. It’s unfortunate to say that, it is still not possible to access public toilets without covering one’s nose and ignoring the sight of faeces that usually is left unattended by its owner and the toilet cleaners. It’s the same story when it comes to littering in public, despite numerous attempts by the Government to help citizens understand waste segregation - not many city dwellers follow it. Our excuse? It is time consuming.

What more must we do to simplify the objective of cleanliness? Is the onus upon the Government to create stronger outreach programmes or is the onus upon us citizens to shed our apathy and take responsibility for creating the mess that we constantly complain about yet do nothing?

So far, our celebration of ‘National Cleanliness Day’ seems to be restricted only to preaching. How will we answer when the future generations asks us what we were doing instead of cleaning up our dirty act? Let us truly celebrate this day for what it asks us to stand up to.

These are just a few ways we can begin to change our society and the way it views cleanliness. What are your views on this? What more do you think should we do? Share your views on our Facebook and Twitter pages, or email us at jaagorein@gmail.com.