It’s time to zip it up!....

A shout out to prevent peeing and spitting in public places.

Guwahati is no doubt developing; the once green city is rapidly becoming an unattractive concrete jungle, the melting pot of northeast. I love my city and would accept some of its faults, but there is no point denying that it’s screaming for a change, a "clean" change. While driving around Guwahati, you will notice the irritating not-so-soon ending traffics, the people, old, young, the families, the coming up tempting stores, buildings, more buildings, and then there are the unavoidable stink of pee and the red stains of spit in almost all the public walls. The sight of a man relieving himself with his face towards the wall or a woman or man spitting from speeding vehicle is almost synonymous to the everyday sights of Guwahati or for that matter in any state in India.

When our PM Narendra Modi launched the cleanliness campaign “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” I heard apprehensions and cynicism on a regular basis. One local elderly uncle, “Swachh Bharat, my foot!” spitting a torrent of red betel nut juice on the road. The local youth, the aspiring cool dudes who cannot let go of their ‘gutkas’ talking about all things and spitting on the nearby walls the streets and even the corners of staircases. The Swachh Bharat enthusiast for a day... cleaning and smiling with a broom their hands who, later on even forgot the meaning of cleanliness and continued to treat the streets as the waste bin.

For Mahatma Gandhi "Sanitation is more important than independence". He saw a clean and hygienic dream for India. Though not much a fan of Gandhi, his vision was the foundation for Swachh Bharat and I couldn’t help but agree with him, and why not? Why then the apprehensions and cynicisms? Why not try? Is the cynicism coming from those ‘men’ who cannot handle pressure and give in to it? For whom finding a toilet is the most difficult task in hand and who believe in the saying “going back to nature”?
To me, a simple bus journey is enough to see how the Guwahatians treat the busy streets like a huge waste bin. Let me narrate an incident which happens in regular, basis and I know which has been experienced by all of us irrespective of what public vehicle we chose to travel in. Here I was taking a bus from Christian Basti to my place (which is not too near) jam packed with all kinds of people. In the more than half an hour journey I seething-ly and helplessly observed how at least ten people spat from the moving bus without any care in the world like world champions or has chucked their finished eatables or wrappers like they were flying paper kites. What struck me most was this group of young college going girls going on about the high-flung things in life and easily throwing out gum and chocolate wrappers out of the window and wrinkling their noses when the bus stopped beside a ‘forced’ waste bin beside a bus stop.

Streets are the major source of throwing waste by the Indians followed by the wall of public buildings, official, private buildings and the staircases and yes elevator! I once met a friend of a friend who narrated why he shifted from a government job to an IT company. He told me how the government offices, wash basins, staircases were always painted with red stains, and the backyard wall is marked by ugly red stains along with the filth and stains of urination. The image itself is disgustingly repulsive. But what do we do to prevent it? Or what did my friend’s friend did to stop it? If it repulsed him instead of doing something he preferred to leave. But another question is can one person make a difference? Will his or her voice change the filthiness of people?

To some extent no doubt a voice or the collective voices will make a difference or it will simply bounce off the offender. No doubt peeing at roadside walls is the worst possible filthy picture a city can present and it’s downright embarrassing to the passerby, especially women. I am not being Feminazi here, just merely being a feminist and my question is why is it always men who find it difficult to find a toilet or hold on to the pressure of their pipes?? Day or night, whether it’s a bust street or a secluded spot there will always be a section of men unzipping and relieving themselves. And the thought that peeing in public places in front of public doesn’t seem to bother them calls for a strong need to change this attitude and it has been tried; definitely tried! to a very great extent. From the Governments campaigns and policies to the local endeavours people have tried and still trying. Like for instance, the various implementations of schemes in the major cities.

In Mumbai peeing and spitting in public places is considered the top offence, New Delhi and Bangalore is levying a heavy fine for the same offence and other cities are also taking up the same route slowly. The Government implementations are fine but are they really working? Well, not so much so the locals or the non-government organisations tried to stop this disgusting parade in different new ways and for instance, the advent of posters which are hilarious and eye-catching. And then there are those graffiti saying “yahan mootna mana hain” or “yat kukuror nisina numutibo” Or for that matter putting up deities and pictures of Gods and Goddess in the once garbage or peeing, spitting part of the public places to stop the persons specially men from defiling the area and locality. The walls are splattered “demotivational” posters and messages threatening to pleading to being downright begging... from bringing God’s name “For God’s sake do not Pee here” to a politer one “yahan peshab na kare” to a more aggressive like “Peeing here or spitting here will be subjected to heavy fine” but the problem still persists. Some get discouraged, but some sickening people answer those pleas and threat by directly urinating or peeing in those messages and posters. But to some extent the pictures of Gods or Goddesses seems to work. At least the picture of God makes them control their urge to attend to their nature’s call

And there are those public toilets Sulabh Sauchalaya in almost every big city which undertook the social task for providing hygienic toilet amenities to the local people who feel the need and also to the people who visits cities from outside. They are usually free of cost and also the charges for using toilets etc are easily affordable by every section of people. However, Even then people pay no heed and decide to answer their nature’s call wherever they are.
It’s not just keeping the environment and social surroundings clean and fresh, but also contributing to the nation’s hygiene and health. Spitting is the breeding ground of some of the most hazardous diseases like TB, Swine flu, pneumonia and influenza. India has the highest number of cases of TB caused by infections from spit. Peeing also has its share of infections like urinary tract infection giving birth to other health problems.
The clean-up campaigns, schemes, projects may look fine in print, but the India has a long way to go before achieving its cleanliness targets. It’s not just the lack of manpower or funds but targeting the psychology of the majority of Indians who plainly refuse to follow the basic rules of hygiene and cleanliness and treat the streets and public places as their person dumping grounds.
Building the attitude and the will is what going to solve the problem. No matter how colossal the task seems to be or how deep is the ocean of problems, the awareness programs should never stop; even if they seem quite insignificant. It might just be a short message on the wall or a big scheme of the Government without trying the problem won’t be solved. It’s up to the citizens to try to change the psychology, the hideous attitude and asking them to zip it up!




(Published in the Goodtimes of the Northeast Magazine, month of September)