'Swachh Bharat Abhiyan'

Ever since our  PM announced nine celebrity's names, almost all of them have come to the streets and their contributions had been recorded by the media. If the current trends are an indicator the clean India campaign's success  would be definitely in question.  Weeks have passed by. The polluters continue to pollute. This includes all. None can be  excluded. 

My views would be different. For instance a manufacturer who uses a non-bio degradable material for packaging his product is a polluter. The officer who has not suggested an alternative packaging material is a polluter. A person who switches on his AC machine after closing all the windows of his room is a polluter as the energy he consumes had born after polluting the atmosphere. It is not the person who throws the garbage on the streets alone. Together we fail. 

Many learned people argue that cleaning is the job of the workers who are engaged in the work and throwing garbage is their fundamental right. Unless we change the attitude of the people with a massive media campaign we are not going to succeed. 

I think the government must be making payment for the small ads it runs on our channels. This is not sufficient.  It is meagre. We need to enact a law or approach courts for a direction for taking 10-30 minutes of the satellite channels'   and a few centimetre columns of print space to run socially relevant messages. No government can pay for a campaign that is so crucial and massive. 


The present campaigns are carried out by the bureaucrats who use the time-tested techniques which have failed miserably and repeatedly. The voices are monotonous and  the messages do not reach even the ears of the listeners -leave alone the  reaching of hearts. The same messages are dubbed in multiple languages and delivered poorly without any local touch. They lack professionalism and variety and people are there to help the campaigns. Even me are ready with hundreds of themes and interesting and appealing anecdotes. But how to reach these people who decide on these advertisements?    

Hope the government gets space and air time free and runs massive, sustained campaigns with these celebrities or with more added to the list over a period of time. It would take time for changing the attitude as it is centuries old habit.