Padma PeguLet’s accept it straightaway. We do not have the instinct for it. We brush away any thought of maintaining civic decorum with the thought that we are but a speck in the expanse of endlessly dirty, crowded, messy streets, backyards and frontyards, and neighbour’s yards. So, it’s just a toffee wrapper that slipped through the fingers. One toffee wrapper cannot spoil the landscape any more significantly.
In any case, there is not much point in reiterating what has already been stated by thoughtful citizens. Any number of opinions have been heard on the subject of civic sense and sensibility. It is evident that the message never reached home for the majority.
So, we have cities and towns immersed in ironies of various hues. And lives go on. We are relatively content taking pride in the growth of our GDP, in the manner we cushioned ourselves from the global economic crisis, in our membership of such clout-wielding clubs as G15 and BRIC, in our status as a contender for membership in the United Nations Security Council, in our ’emerging superpower’ tag, and in our elaborate malls and fancy cars. Of course, we also behave rather well as visitors in foreign countries (some of us would question that, though).
The mess back home can wait to be cleaned. What we do not ask is, who will take the onus? Will it be our children’s children, since our children will naturally follow the examples they see around themselves and have
learnt to adapt themselves to the ironies? Will it be our government? Will it be our neighbours, since they are most often at the receiving ends, literally speaking?
The instances and metaphors of our lack of civic sense are many, and they are not funny anymore. The fact that we mock our own situation does not redeem the situation. The point is, we need to ask questions of ourselves and of everyone else, and find the answers as well. The government, civic agencies and NGOs can take any number of initiatives, but all of these are bound to fall flat on our face if each one of us do not take a conscious decision on a daily basis not to throw even something as pitiable as a toffee wrapper on the roadside.
Can we think of ways to get a national movement going and, more importantly, get everyone to join in? Can we start thinking of every single citizen as an individual, rather than as a statistical accident that is dispensable? Can we start teaching ourselves that the garbage we contribute daily eventually comes back to us, in whatever form ” in the air that we breathe, in the water that we use, in the diseases that we help foster, in the ecosystem that we exist in? It is a surreptitious thing, indeed, but there is no escaping.
Why are there such few public campaigns on the subject? Why aren’t we seeing more mass-education/awareness programmes? Why don’t we see public spitters being pulled up? How can we make change inspiring? How can we incentivise change? What should change so that we learn to be serious about things that we have been remarkably flippant about?
Finally, if it’s a cover-up, who are we deceiving? Can we discuss and start finding the answers before it’s too late?