Few thoughts from a young citizen on what she feels on cleanliness…..
I’ve always had these thoughts in my mind as to what is India lacking in today’s times? A constant thought that crops to my mind- Cleanliness and the citizen’s responsibility towards her motherland. Even before our Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi had said in his Independence Day speech that cleanliness is a big mission, these thoughts were already in my mind. As a young citizen I’ve been disturbed and disheartened as to how irresponsible we all can be when it comes to polluting our streets!! Now why I would say that? I don’t believe in just playing the blame game, since I am also a citizen of this country. We throw all sorts of things on the roads such as waste papers, empty chips packets or chocolate wrappers or even garbage. We are so impatient that we can’t search for a dustbin. We just throw it where we are, but when it comes to travel abroad, it’s like we are a different person altogether, we just admire the beauty of the surroundings in that country and quietly follow their rules with a second thought.
When we are visitors to other countries, we should ensure that we follow their rules and take their example, nations such as Singapore have stringent punishments : certain number of lashings for throwing things or even spitting on the roads, not only their citizens join hands to punish an offender when they catch them red handed polluting their city. But it doesn’t stop there!!!
The million dollar question to be asked here is why don’t we do the same thing here in our Country as well? Why am I saying this? It’s because we keep seeing big dumps of garbage thrown and unattended in big posh places of cities such as Bangalore. Also when it comes to our religious offerings we tend to put those in rivers. The Ganges is the most polluted river in today’s times, if we consider that river holy; why can’t we leave it – spick and span. Allow me to take the example of the recently concluded Ganesh Chaturthi festival, how many of us immerse our idols in rivers, tanks and ponds- polluting them because of the artificial colors on these idols.
One small request to everyone would be that please don’t depend on your local municipal corporation or don’t keep blaming the government that it doesn’t do anything. Remember each one of us as a citizen is duty bound towards our great country; and not only will help keep our place clean, but also helps in preventing diseases. We do not want to scare our foreign tourists away; they should appreciate the clean and green surroundings. We must avoid their complaints of our country being dirty. They will come back again to enjoy a beautiful and friendly India; we thus pay our tribute to the father of our nation.
– Aabana Rao
