Sadhguru: Historically, as a culture, we have always invested a lot towards the cleanliness,
both on the personal and public spheres. Well, is it not true that when the British excavators
excavated the cities, the ancient cities of Harappa and Mohenjo-Daro, they could not stop talking
about the drainage systems in these cities. Because many millennia ago, they invested so heavily
both on the personal and public hygiene systems. The culture has always been this way.
Even today, in terms of personal hygiene, we as a nation stand out.Most women will not enter their kitchen
without a morning shower or bath. No one enters a temple without a shower.
No yogic practice is performed without cleansing the body first.
Taking care of the internal cleanliness of the body and also the external cren… cleanliness of the body
has still remained with us.But keeping our public places clean has taken a beating, because this great
culture,this Bharat as we knew it in the past, just twenty-five decades ago, we were the
greatest economy on the planet. We were the biggest exporters, and most organized society in many ways.
But under the expert care of the colonial guile, the eco… the economy of the nation slowly decimated itself,
industries destroyed, backbreaking taxation, slowly took us to a place where nobody was concerned
about public hygiene. Nobody had the means, nor the energy, nor the resource to maintain public hygiene.
But even today, if you walk into any village home, just a one-room home, you will see the inside
of the house will be spick and span but unfortunately you can’t say the same about the external situations.
Since 1947, in these sixty-five odd years, no government has taken enough care to organize
cleanliness in the public space. We have not invested in this direction. This is not a complaint.
Maybe we had other things to do. Maybe people thought this is not the most important thing to take care of.
But today we know, lack of public hygiene is costing the nation big time.
Our children are not growing up as they should, due to lack of hygiene.
It is a known fact that apart from malnourishment, which is definitely a serious issue,
where the needed nourishment is not there. A farmer who goes to the field to work has not eaten
what he should have eaten to do that work. A pregnant woman has not eaten what she should have eaten
to deliver a healthy child. A little child who goes to school has not eaten what he should have eaten
to keep his body and mind alert and grow them into a big possibilities.That is there, but that is complementary
to this because malnourishment and lack of public hygiene generally come together and they complement
each other. In the sense - because of lack of hygiene, repeated bouts of bacterial infection and infestation
of parasites in the digestive tract takes away or flattens out the intestines and our ability to absorb nutrients
is considerably reduced. So many children who are even getting a certain amount of nourishment,
are not able to absorb the nutrients that they ingest, simply because of continuous bou… bouts
of infections that they go through. And in the first six years, if one does not grow to their proper capabilities
within themselves, if first six years if their nourishment levels are not the way they should be, then most
probably you have a stunted body and an undeveloped brain for the rest of your life and generally
it can never be fixed. So, considering all this, getting India clean is a very important project.
I am glad for the first time, the Prime Minister of this country has taken this up as an important step
in the making of a new nation. When Prime Minister launched this on the Gandhi Jayanthi day
on 2nd of October, there were comments, “Why is the Prime Minister talking about
pedestrian issues when there are bigger, larger issues to be addressed?”
Unfortunately people are forgetting that a large mass of India is pedestrian and addressing pedestrian issues
is of national interest. Without creating a clean nation, developing a nation into a great possibility will be
out of question because we will carry things within us which will not allow us to become full-fledged
human beings. If public spaces are not kept clean and appropriate for healthy growth of
individual human beings. This process of wanting to clean India is not an overnight job.
At the same time, if we can inspire the entire citizenry of this nation, then it could be quite a easy task.
But we need to understand this, in this country, nothing changes just by changing policies.
Things will happen only if you make it into an emotional movement, which is what I believe
the Prime Minister is trying to do touch the emotional chord of pride
about the nation and wanting to clean it up.
I see many advertisements being released by the government of India to touch that emotional chord
in the Indian citizen so that everybody will take it up. Everybody taking this up is very important, otherwise
this will not be a successful movement. A year is a long enough time to clean up this nation.
The bigger pollutants of… which come from industry, which will need a little more technological attention,
but the waste or the material that is generated from domestic use can be easily handled.
Industry and chemical wastes need to be looked at little differently. But I’m sure if all of us are determined,
as a nation, we can… in twelve months’ time we can turn this into a very clean nation.
I already see in many cities, towns, localities and villages, this is beginning to happen.
The Swachh Bharat campaign is only a few months old but the signs of cleanliness beginning
to happen in many places, at least in the south.