A cesspool called India

Once again, the government and its agencies are in denial over the uncivilised outbreak of dengue and other such unique strains of diseases transmitted through mosquitoes. Why this national uprising of militant mosquitoes? One simple answer is that India has, increasingly and rather rapidly, descended into becoming a dirty, filthy and unclean environment that makes for a great and fertile breeding ground for ?killers?.

Many of its newly constructed urban areas are polluted, devoid of carefully thought out green plantations of neem and suchlike that are established natural ?repellents? and ?cleansers? and comprehensive planning. Stringent building and environmental norms are flouted regularly for bits and pieces of gratification and the result is here, finally, for all to see.

This menace is casteless?it attacks everywhere, regardless of elevated social position, caste, creed and faith. Hope-fully, it will be seen as the great leveller and symbolise the start of a radical municipal and administrative clean up.

If the government is serious about attacking corrupt practices within its administrative machinery for a start, and if it intends to work for the people and country it is mandated to serve, then it must get its hands wet and dirty, accept its huge failure and start the rectification with the citizens on a war-footing.

Economic booms will not make India a ?super power? if disease and deprivation stalk the land simultaneously. The filth of Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Indore, Chennai and wherever you go, as well as the obvious lack of urban planning and infrastructure bordered with zero mainte- nance, is the most shameful aspect of this hitherto fine civilisation.

The rampant corruption that has invaded this land, nurtured by those who are responsible for ensuring a civil society, is one major criminal reality that has not yet been addressed adequately and there has been no reform whatsoever in this area. If there is one major scandal running riot in both India and Bharat, it is corruption and the accompanying practices meted out by various arms of the state and its machinery.

It has, over the last few decades in particular, corroded and disabled dignified living for all. It has made a mockery of faith, human values and the basic social tenets that govern societies across the planet. We have excelled in the killing of all morality.

The dengue mosquito is a mascot of this gross failure. Open drains in our cities, mire in our urban slums, neglect of all civil amenities in our villages, have put India at the top of the list of the polluted cesspools of the world. The wealthiest and overly educated will dispense their household waste on the street. Suited and booted men will open the door of their swish salon car and spit or blow their nose using their fingers, onto the tarmac. I have seen this many a time.

I do not think there is a man in India who has not opened his fly and peed in public somewhere, sometime. Women too have a bladder and yet are not seen squatting on street corners. The fragrance of India is the stench of stale urine that emanates from all public loos, starting with the airports frequented by the ?educated? middle-class and the business community. The maintenance of these public conveniences, as they are called, is the responsibility of our administrators. Is this the ?Incredible India? we want world citizens to share with us?

A thought that comes to mind, based on a social stereotype, is that men are not half as efficient as women in running the ?homestead?. Homestead India should, therefore, be in the hands of women who are bound to bring energy, vitality and quality to the job of administering municipalities.

Women are the repository of culture and its myriad facets. They nurture the generation they create. They deal with the alien, degraded realities and combat them in whatever way they can to protect their progeny. They do it unconditionally. They keep the izzat. These are the qualities imperative for positive social change and for the cleansing of the rot that has overwhelmed us.

Hand over the controls to women in these social areas, starting from village panchayats to urban municipalities, and the change will happen. Nothing can be worse than it is.