“Transform India With Modi”

Hygiene, Sanitation and Civic Sense – Issues, Root Causes and Solutions
All of us would agree to the fact that lack of Hygiene, Sanitation and Civic Sense is one of the critical challenges India and its citizens face today. The 150,000+ strong “Transform India with Narendra Modi” online citizen community has come together to collectively identify the key issues, root causes and solutions for Hygiene, Sanitation and Civic Sense in India and the community expects that the Government will work towards implementing the identified solutions.

Citizen Poll (20,000 votes)
A citizen poll was recently conducted in the circle on the subject of citizen participation.
Over 20,000 citizens voted in the poll.

Would you be interested in participating in a local circle focused on enabling PM's upcoming initiative of Swachh Bharat/Clean India at a local level?
1. Yes (96 %)
2. No (1 %)
3. Can't Say (3 %)

Issues identified:
1. People spitting on the road
2. People throwing garbage in public areas
3. No provision of public toilets in rural India
4. Lack of clean public toilets
5. Lack of cleaning and manning of public toilets
6. Large portion of the population defecate in the open
7. People urinating in public places
8. Household garbage is thrown on the roads
9. Garbage dumps are not cleared regularly
10. Contamination of water due to unregulated industrial waste
11. Rivers / ponds / beaches being are used for cleaning, bathing, washing utensils, bathing animals etc. with nobody to question
12. No segregation of dry and wet waste
13. There is a large network of open sewerage
14. No regular water supplies in most residential areas
15. People smoke openly in public areas
16. Public transport is very dirty – inside and outside
17. Lack of clean and enough sitting spaces in areas like railway stations, government hospitals etc.

Root Causes Identified:
1. Shortage of public toilets in rural and urban India
2. No systemic process of garbage collection from households
3. No strict action/ fine against people who spit/ smoke/ urinate/ throw garbage on roads
4. Lack of civic sense among the general public
5. No waste water treatment plants in factories
6. The number of users is too large for the public transport/ hospitals to handle
7. Poor grievance redressal
8. No online method of complaint registration & follow-up
9. Lack of adoption of proper techniques/ design/ thought during maintenance & upkeep of civic infrastructure
10. Lack of proper drainage systems
11. Poor surveillance of roads and streets
12. Total Ignorance of Scientific Facts, like existence of various types of Bacteria and their effects on human health
13. Habits passed on from generation to generation which are ingrained in daily life, as well as upbringing during formative years
14. Unregulated industrial wastes linked to Rivers flowing within a city or township
15. Absence of dustbins on the roads
16. No check over the quality of street side food vendors

Solutions Identified:
1. There needs to be civic education combined with appropriate strict penalties against violations.
2. Locals, shop owners, NGOs and business houses must be roped in to provide modern sanitation facilities and its upkeep
3. Police must be trained on civic sense. Presently police itself violates civic issues and sets a bad example for others
4. Enable & enforce cleanliness in religious places with bill boards, videos etc. and gentle persuasion initially for few months until devotees internalise the message
5. People should be educated about hygiene, sanitation and civic sense through mass media campaigns
6. Awards, in form of development funds should be allocated to cities & localities who keep their city and area clean
7. End corruption in Local bodies and Municipality and everywhere else
8. Schools must teach civic sense as compulsory subject
9. Proper and prior planning of drainage and parks in towns and cities, before approval of projects
10. Local government officials (civil body) should be allocated areas for which they are responsible for clean keeping
11. Private agencies should be involved for imposing fines on people who litter, spit and dirty public places
12. Repeat offenders should be given harsh punishment
13. Leaves, Plastics, and other garbage items should not be burnt in open
14. Government must ensure proper disposal of organic waste through composting, preferably within the building premises such as schools, colleges, societies, parks & gardens, hotels, industries etc. Use the compost for greening the premises and landscaping. Surplus compost should be sent to rural areas for promoting organic farming.
15. More dustbins should be installed in public places
16. Municipal Solid Waste Management 2000 Rules & Guidelines should be implemented
17. Mandatory Primary Waste Treatment Site in every residential society with more than 200 households
18. Mandatory Sewage Treatment Plant in every residential and commercial complex
19. State Government, State Pollution Control Board, Central Pollution Control Board must enforce setting up de-centralized solid-waste management, composting & recycling centres in societies, commercial establishments, ward level etc.
20. Clean & hygienic toilets should be built in schools
21. Waste segregation bins should be provided in Schools, colleges, Public Places, etc.
22. Segregation should not be only into Dry & Wet Waste but also Reject Waste - certain waste items such as sanitary pads, diapers, band-aid, etc. cannot be classified as dry or wet
23. Chewing tobacco and smoking should be banned
24. More and cleaner toilets should be made in public areas
25. Population control will also help in improving the situation

Hygiene, Sanitation and Civic Sense – Citizen posts and comments:
1. It’s very much true that these are some of the causes. But for 1st point, even though there are few public toilets, they are not maintained and clean. That is also one of the reasons for spread of diseases. Many people won’t use public toilets due to fear of infection. Along with setting up new public toilets, measures should be taken to maintain the existing ones als0 – Nalini SG

2. I would like to add that, Education is important; people need to be told the adverse effects to them as well to the environment. First, we educated class have to stop throwing waste items anywhere, be it road, or bus, train, or gardens. Secondly, children are to be educated on this, at home and school - to keep clean and neat their homes, school, and surroundings. It may take time, but a start has to be done. Perhaps, some NGOs may take up the issue and keeping the roads neat and clean of their locality, may be on weekly basis. Also by arranging awareness programmes at Panchayat levels – Rajendra Hatwar

3. I am from Mumbai I do feel due to lack of sanitation facilities people from Slums come near to the railway track to dispose their Human waste. The Government can take the advantage of this human waste by converting them to Fertilizer and reduce the chemical use of Urea. Also other suggestion is to construct Toilets near the Railway tracks .adopt Rain Harvesting facilities and good drainage system so that water does not get accumulated. Stop the use of Plastics .Promote Organic food for good Hygiene – Ramadoss Venkataramanan

4. The basic thing to achieve hygiene and sanitation is to control the population. Until it is controlled, providing or adding new resources won't have major impact in improving the Hygiene in India – Arun J

5. It’s not government, it’s the citizen of India, should be self-disciplined. A subject should be introduced in the school in a practical way. If other countries can do, why can't we. Penalty should be very high, authority should be monitored – Harsh Parikh 6. Regular awareness campaign at different levels, including kids, schools, household, village level, municipality level. NEAC was good initiative but it did not percolate too many branches & offshoots. NGOs, Private Bodies, Social Bodies to be encouraged without any bias of any political leaning of bodies – Narendra Roy

7. I feel that a lack of responsibility and ownership makes us dirty our spaces. Value based spiritual education is needed – Chitra Jha

8. There is a huge risk of human and animal lives because of plastic waste thrown on roads. We should urge government to put complete ban on the plastic product in any use – Rajiv Dubey

9. Government should ban production of pan masala products, and stop wasting time on advertising to stop their usage – Sundaresan Muthiah

10. Please consider a fact that we have all witnessed in the past few years. Delhi Metro and the Metro Stations. People do not litter there because of a sense of pride which comes from the fact that the DMRC has placed a lot of attention and care in keeping these clean and suitably sanitised. We have to build this sense of pride in everyday life – Neel Chatterjee

11. As per my experience in the social sector, I think that lack of sensitization is one of the main cause for the hygiene, sanitation and civic sense – Manoj Kumar

12. Many municipal corporations have officially created garbage dumps e.g. Delhi, in every locality to store and lift garbage. In most cases these dumps continuously overflow and old garbage at the bottom of the dump rots creating innumerable health hazard and perpetual foul smell – S. K. Sah

13. What is needed is a serious and systematic research into studying the generation of waste and methods for disposing it of properly. It should be a well-recognised discipline of environmental engineering in the universities – Subramanian Ramamurthy

14. The best way to solve the problem is to fine an entire street if garbage is found in the street. Door collection of garbage should be implemented first as the garbage bins in the street serve only to give off bad odour and feed stray animals which add to traffic problems encountered by vehicles and pedestrians – Krishna Murthy

15. Many countries keeps Last Saturday of each month as Sanitation day where people have to do all repairs and maintenance works in office, house even the roads also. Like that a desperate day can be followed as 'Sanitation Day' every month where everyone can help to maintain cleanliness already within each house and office premises. Government also can provide employment for voluntary workers to participate in cleaning – Vignesh Kumar

16. Our people when they go to different countries, they say the country is so clean and they maintain the cleanliness there. Why cannot they do the same thing here? Dustbins have to be there on roads even in small villages as well. Whoever puts wastes outside the bin to be punished then and there? Public toilets should be there, again in small villages as well. Cleaning them regularly is a must. Also, whoever makes the road filthy should be fined properly. These things to be covered in CCTV or photographed and aired so that the public including the person who dirties the road should watch. Photos of those people should be published in paper or banners and in all social media networks. Hope our country will be the most beautiful country – Sourabha Ravi