Towards a clean India

HYDERABAD: NRIs and Indians who visit foreign countries often praise the clean and hygienic environment, roads, public places and so on that they maintain but the same people when in India do not do anything for their own country. We Indians, rich or poor, literate or illiterate are very selfish and are barely socially conscious as we tend to care only about the space between which our existence pertains. We spit on walls, we urinate on roads, and we litter literally every place available, even if there’s a dustbin within arm’s length. We munch on a pack of chips and we try to toss it into a bin at a distance from the car, eat a banana and throw the peel onto the road from a bus, litter the railway tracks with mineral water bottles, chew tobacco and spit it on the roads and so on. These same people will not dare to do such things in other countries where people follow rules strictly but don’t mind breaking rules in their own country and do not bother to stop a fellow citizen from breaking rules.One main reason why India is looked down upon by people of other countries in spite of having a rich culture, intelligent people, plenty of resources and talent is because of our lack of discipline. We can cut down upon a lot of expenditure on maintaining public places when people give importance to cleanliness. Each person contributing a bit can turn even our country into a hygienic, clean and green place. The government or corporations need not set and implement strict rules when people themselves realize the importance of all this. This change can only be brought through people who are really concerned about the welfare of their country. When these people begin to spread awareness surely one day each and every citizen of this country will become a responsible citizen.Sruthi M Dixit is class IX student at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan