why is india so dirty
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Why is India so dirty?
Unlike many countries where special efforts are made to keep areas surrounding tourist attractions spotless, India allows such places to be as clean or as dirty as the less-frequented tourist spots.
Although Russians are not known for being particularly politically correct, members of the country’s polite society often avoid asking Indians about public hygiene, in order to not sound offensive.
India is world’s biggest dustbin
Reasons Why India Is So Dirty & Polluted
- Attitude to cleaning: Indians are known to be very diligent when it comes to keeping their own houses clean. Indian mothers, especially, are known for fastidiously scrubbing and sweeping, until every spot in their home is free of dirt. The issue is that this attitude is disregarded once they are no longer in their houses. Indians, in general, tend to feel that the upkeep of roads and other public facilities is someone else’s responsibility. This mentality is ingrained in their upbringing.
- Poverty: Although India is one of the fast-growing economies and poverty is on the decline, there are still many poor people. According to the Rangarajan Committee, over 38% of the population was living below the poverty line in 2014. With such widespread poverty, disposing of thoughtfully rubbish is probably the last thing on the mind of someone who is struggling to feed themselves.
Reasons
- Overcrowding: India is one of the most populous countries in the world, with over 1 billion citizens. Only China has a higher population. The third most populous country in the United States, with only a quarter of the Indian population. With such a vast number of people, and inadequate infrastructure to both comfortable house and support their needs, rubbish is an inevitable consequence. Many people from the countryside also migrate to major cities like Mumbai and Delhi every year, seeking jobs or a better future. But they end up living in slums built with plastic sheets and bamboo sticks, without proper drainage or waste disposal facilities.
- Herd Mentality: Humans are social creatures and we have a tendency to follow the lead of others. When a street already has rubbish on it, it almost comes naturally to simply add to the pile. India also has a pervasive caste system. Due to societal norms, there are certain classes of people to perform a specific job. Cleaning is considered a dirty job, thus beneath those of a higher class. It, therefore, becomes somebody else’s problem.
- Government Services: The lack of government services to empty bins, repair open drains, and clean the existing mess results in more mess, and becomes an unending cycle. There are not enough garbage collection bins in some localities, which forces people to dispose of their waste in public places. Add to this the fact that dust bins are often hard to come by, which simply perpetuates the problem.
How dirty in India?
Indian streets and (parts of) e.g. stations and other public buildings are far far more dirty than e.g Vietnam or Thailand, while poverty levels aren’t that different; India has its rich and poor (slum) areas like all other developing countries. I have far too many Indian friends to want to be rude, but there are reasons for this. It’s partly an attitude problem, with lots of ‘superstition’.
There are even some temples where cleanliness is, well, doubtful – and even a temple where RATS are worshipped, and the ‘holy rivers’ which are also open sewers and still used for ‘purifying baths’. And the overt respect for Holy Cows including their droppings which in turn can pollute the stations and Streets too much.
But whether this means more risk of getting sick – nope. It can happen in a 4- or 5 star Vietnamese or Thai resort as much as with Indian street food; it’s all about how proper and controlled the supply chain is, and you want to see what happens in the kitchen of the Thai resort and in the delivery fans bringing ‘fresh’ refrigerated food to it as little as you want to see what happens in some Indian street restaurants.
Simply stress on freshly cooked and thoroughly baked food, avoid anything that could have been touched by dirty hands without heating afterwards, and you are as fine as elsewhere in e.g. Vietnam. No 100% certainty against Delhi Belly but get that nowhere in the 3rd world.
DIRTIEST CLOTHES
Recently, Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh courted a controversy with his remark that India needed more toilets than temples. Open defecation has become so rooted in India that even when toilet facilities are provided, the spaces round temple complexes, temple tanks,
beaches, parks, pavements, and indeed, any open area are covered with faecal matter.
Some years ago, while staying at the Guest House of an undertaking,
I watched with disbelief the wife of a fellow-guest occupying another room letting her child out into the compound to do its business. When I asked her why she was doing it when there was a good attached bath-room,
she blandly said that the child was not comfortable with any other mode of evacuation. True story!
DIRTIEST CLOTHES
If one wants to keep one’s sanity,
one should avoid entering the kitchen of a hotel or even an ordinary household. I sometimes wonder how we are still alive eating at our hotels. At the dining hall of a posh mansion hired out for weddings,
I noticed stacks of dahi vadas and jalebis kept covered by the dirtiest clothes I ever saw.
Here are some sample findings from a published study conducted by Hygiene Council and supported by Reckitt Benckiser:
All swabbed kitchen cloths in India are heavily contaminated and found to be the dirtiest item in Indian households; in 92 per cent cases, chopping boards and knives are found to be contaminated; 45 per cent of home makers do not wash fruit and 51 per cent of them do not wash vegetables before eating; only 44 per cent of them clean and disinfect their child’s lunch box every day; only 44 per cent of children are made to wash their hands after playing outside.
