I love India.
But I don’t understand why India is so dirty? I ask my offshore colleagues and some say it’s the population, some say it’s the culture and some blame it on politicians.
But I don’t understand why India is so dirty? I ask my offshore colleagues and some say it’s the population, some say it’s the culture and some blame it on politicians.
While growing up in village, there were so many sayings now I understand. Like my soul is pure what if my hands are dirty or I havnt took bath for two days. Cleaniness of place is even less cared for and personal cleanliness.
I get it that other dont understand why its so hard to keep your neighborhood clean. Its not hard, its just most dont care!. And before thr age of plastics, nature did all the cleaning during monsoon and summer.
PS: It is not the politician. It is the people and culture.
Though one can ask why this can’t be true of any ‘world-denying’ religion too? Judaism? Christianity? Why bother with physical cleanliness in this life when you’re gunning for salvation in the next one?
Yeah, no. You see the same happening in poorer parts of South East Asia and Africa.
Indeed, I was particularly struck by how clean and tidy poor parts of SEA are!
What’s the excuse here then?
I think the person you are replying for is saying that they grew up in India
Lets see how it works generally in cities - millions of homes do their daily cleaning, there is no where to dump this garbage, so it is thrown street side or somewhere in a nearby small dump (https://scroll.in/article/802978/as-garbage-continues-to-pil...), then it is not collected for weeks, finally when it is collected it is thrown in a bigger dump (https://www.newsweek.com/trash-mountain-india-could-taller-t...). Only Indore that I know of (https://www.outlookindia.com/national/how-indore-became-the-...) is doing proper garbage collection and disposal.
p.s. my knowledge may not be fully up-to-date.
This is something I see often. How come with a large population there is a shortage of manpower?
You see the same sort of thing in the UK, lots of people, high unemployment (more than twice what we have here in Norway), and yet there is a large amount of obvious work that needs doing like insulating houses and fixing holes in the road.
India had one of the first civilizations with a functioning sanitary system, yet 4,000 years later, it is seemingly not yet on par with the Indus Valley civilization. Now, there are many factors for this of course, including population, corruption, apathy, etc, but still, the meme rings true.
Dhanbad allocated around $34 million dollars to its public waste management company a couple years ago, yet even today it still hasn't managed to get standardized trash bins and collection routes for most households. Endemic corruption and tax avoidance cripples virtually every public service in India, and any systems of regulation (law enforcement, bureaucracy, politicians, journalism, etc) are firmly captured by the business interests that perpetuate it.
City corporations need money to enforce the laws and clean stuff up but housing taxes continue to remain disproportionately low and people don’t pay that either.
Talk to some expat Indians and you may get an answer.
As an expat, my reason is simple. Apathy!
Counterpoint: In Japan, I often had to haul my garbage quite a bit before I found a trash can to dispose of it. No litter though. (To be fair, there are other factors; most people don't eat on the go, and there are usually garbage cans near convenience stores and vending machines).
I'm definitely not the most well-meaning person, but that piece of trash is going to go into my pocket (or stay in my hands) until I see a sufficiently-empty trash can or dumpster to place it in. It'll stay with me until I get home if it has to.
I _do not_ get folks that toss trash around. It's just fuckin nuts.
13of40 is implying that that trash will not end up in a trash can, but will end up on the ground, because they believe that even the most well-meaning person will refuse to carry refuse with them until they locate a trash can. (I -and others- have direct evidence that supports disagreement with their bleak outlook.)
Aside from the occasional (American) football or baseball hooligan tipping over a can in "celebration", trash cans in my area get emptied into the trash-disposal truck that stops by on a regular schedule. It's legitimately regrettable that you live in a place where your trash cans get emptied into rivers or other common areas.
If what you're telling me is a true and accurate picture of the state of waste management in your area, then that's a crying shame. I sincerely hope that wherever you are, you and your compatriots a successfully able to convince enough people that the commons is worth protecting and that proper disposal of trash and other refuse is worth doing to change this sad state of affairs where you live.
I think it is not mere apathy but learned apathy. There is no way for the people to know who to hold accountable. The political structure is a mess. It's not even googleable.
In addition, most people don't know that they need to constantly harass their representative to get things done.
Lastly, after many decades of political decay, most rich people only clean up their high rise societies. No one fights for public streets.
That's why there are few traffic lights, no lanes on streets, no crosswalks, ruthless traffic etc. People need up-to-date websites with contact details of elected representatives so that the representatives can be spammed to death about their inaction.
In America, you are very likely to be admonished by a stranger for littering in a public place. Trash cans are everywhere, and the laws/regulations are enforced, so the risk-reward of littering/pollution is overwhelmingly in favor of proper disposal. Most of the population doesn't have to work 14-16 hour days, 6-7 days a week, so there's a lot of volunteered time to go around for maintaining public areas. There is public funding and enforced regulations to handle waste management, and industry employees have union representation.
India is diametrically opposite to this - it would be risky to admonish someone for littering, especially if they look wealthy, because rich Indians are usually above the law and consider themselves so. Everyone bribes the police, so anyone can pollute the environment for a price. In everyday life, the tragedy of the commons is certainly prevalent - there's already a pile of trash, so one more wrapper makes no difference. But there is also apathy in the sense that you're not going to admonish the person dumping a rickshaw full of trash into the river, because that's the only realistic way for him to feed his family, and it's probably the only economical option over dumping it somewhere yourself. And there isn't much evidence that paying more in taxes is going to do anything for the problem, and a lot of evidence that it will just line your local politician's pockets. The people who actually do the work are usually the poorest in society, and they don't know the dangers of lighting carcinogenic materials on fire.
To summarize with an anecdote - I saw my uncle throw an empty chip bag on a beautiful beach in Goa, so I picked it up and asked him why he couldn't just hold on to it for a while. He shouted back, "it's someone else's job to pick that up!"
I won't go into what exact part of culture results in this because it will upset a lot of people - but I do ask Indians reading my comment to ponder upon it without becoming defensive
Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan do not have any cities with 5+ million people. In fact, the most populated cities in those nations do not even exceed 1 million people.
Think about the relative population density in many of these cities as well. And the relative productivity.
Not at all an easy problem to solve.