The time of the year when lawmakers to bureaucrats to students engage in cleaning their surroundings and public spaces is here. The fortnight-long campaign Swachhta Hi Seva or Cleanliness is Service, has taken off again across the country, this time aiming at larger community participation in the cleanliness drive for a bigger impact. This year also marks the 10th anniversary of the ambitious national sanitation programme – Swachh Bharat Mission – which was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014. The mission has been widely debated, with some terming it a game changer for public health in India, while others dubbing it a scam, amid rampant corrupt practices surfacing in several states, including Nagaland, with the Comptroller and Auditor General of India revealing in its report that it had detected a fraudulent payment of INR 90.54 lakh made under the PHED (Dimapur division) for 2,338 metres of drainage works in 18 villages, without actual execution of work, during 2018-19. The nationwide campaign has been marred by corruption; no doubt about it, but there is also no denying the fact that it has created a massive awareness about cleanliness in every corner of the country. This contrasting picture of the campaign shows that the government needs to do a lot of homework and set things right for better results.
In Nagaland, major urban settlements, especially Dimapur and Kohima, have been grappling with waste issues for years. These cities have been listed among the dirtiest cities in the country and efforts have been made to get rid of this “dirtiest city” tag but there is a long way to go to get there. The Kohima Municipal Council has initiated a house-to-house campaign for segregation of waste in collaboration with Zub Zub India, while the Dimapur Municipal Council is currently conducting door-to-door waste collection in selected localities on a pilot basis, besides clearing garbage from several unauthorised dumping sites on a regular basis. However, these efforts have proven futile due to a lack of civic sense among the public. The ongoing fortnightly Swachhta Hi Seva campaign too will pass without any significant positive outcome like in the past. This calls for the need to take the campaign beyond a few days event and make cleanliness a way of life. For the mission to succeed, extensive awareness programmes highlighting the benefits of cleanliness, including health and learning outcomes, are needed, and this should start from schools. Adults found littering public spaces should be penalised. In the absence of a punitive action, people will continue to litter the Indian streets and make a mockery of the Swachh Bharat Mission.