Goa joined the rest of the country in swearing by Swachhata, with leaders, social sector icons, celebrities and mentors across the spectrum marching out and participating in cleanliness drives with brooms, garbage collection bags and other accessories in tow. The State has seen some unprecedented ground action for two days — October 1 and 2. Despite the wet spell of monsoon, school teachers, students, and government employees joined in with gusto since they had to upload photos of the cleanliness drives they undertook during this period. The social media went abuzz, and suddenly, 'Swachhata' became the most relevant topic of discussion. Waste collection — a mundane and routine issue in the Goan environment -- was the focus of all attention.
While that picture of cleanliness in the background, the one question that promptly came to the foreground — is Goa genuinely living up to the promise of Swachhata, or are leaders and all those undertaking the drives going through the motions complying with directives and merely posing for the optics? Is this the Swachhata message we are passing on to the next generation that we fail to see the mounds of garbage litter every nook and corner of Goa that is consciously ignored every other day?
Goa has been grappling with the garbage issue, and the Sonsodo garbage dump and the piles of waste along roadsides are testimony to what the State is facing daily. Goa is seen as a favourite tourism destination, but the failure to tackle garbage woes is staring right at us — thanks to a system utterly insensitive to the malaise that pervades the surroundings. It is insensitive because it takes the High Court to knock sense on authorities and tell them to do their job. And yet, religiously and very proudly, we march out to showcase something that has been blatantly ignored in our day-to-day lives.
We live in an era where Goa takes pride in becoming the first State to declare itself an open-defecation-free state (September 1, 2019), and four years later, the State has over 1,850 houses without toilets. One may argue that ODF is not entirely about toilets for all. Right? But ODF is certainly about open defecation. The State witnesses thousands of people, especially migrants, defecating in the open daily as authorities remain silent bystanders to the menace. And thousands relieve themselves in public places, locals and tourists alike.
Swachhata cannot be merely about optics and sloganeering and the one-two-day thrill of clicking selfies while sweeping the not-so-dirty by-lanes. If we are unmindful of the dirty picture of garbage right before everyone's eyes and show the slightest concern to address it, then the one-day Swachhata exercise would be absurd and meaningless.
Instead, the State must live by the ideals of Gandhi of having clean surroundings every day and respect his belief that cleanliness directly reflects society's general outlook. This cannot be a one-day affair but a continuous and conscious effort. Last but not least, Swachhata is not the sole responsibility of the government but a collective one where people's participation is equally significant. Together, we can make Goa a better place to live in.
