Is Indians have Zero Civic Sense?

Two Worlds, One Planet

Picture this: In Copenhagen, Denmark, you find a clean public toilet every 5 minutes of walking. Roads have no potholes. Everyone drives in their lane. No unnecessary honking. Footpaths are everywhere, and at zebra crossings, cars actually stop for you. People have such civic sense that even on escalators, they stand in a line on one side so that those in a hurry can walk up quickly on the other side.

The whole city is full of public parks so clean that you won't find a single piece of garbage anywhere. In fact, you even get money back for returning plastic bottles.

The Contrast: Now compare this with India. In most cities, you see mountains of garbage. Every street corner, every crossing has litter lying around. You see people cleaning gutters by actually going inside them. Public toilets are in such bad condition that people prefer peeing on the roadside. The noise of vehicle horns is so much that most people hear honking even while sitting inside their homes. Footpaths and zebra crossings are missing in half the places. On top of this, people's behavior is such that they cut lines everywhere. They throw garbage anywhere without thinking.

One uncle is seen throwing all garbage on the railway track. Senior employees are throwing garbage outside. "Uncle, that's not 'Mutraalay' (toilet), it's 'Mantralay' (ministry) written there. Peeing here is strictly prohibited."

These look like two different countries, two different worlds. But the real question is: Were Danish people born more civilized? Do Indians genetically have less civic sense? Obviously not. The formula that developed countries like Denmark used is actually very simple. But at the same time, this civic sense issue is much deeper than it appears. What you're about to read might completely change how you think about this problem.

The Three Hidden Problems

Civic sense issues are linked to three problems that most people don't talk about, or maybe don't want to talk about.

Problem 1: Casteism and Classism

In our country, caste roots run deep. "Sit properly. Who are the people here who will vote for BSP? Why did you sit below? If you sit below, I'll leave from here. You sit on this chair. No, I cannot sit on the stool in front of you."

Gandhi's Vision: Traditionally, cleaning work was associated with caste. Gandhi ji had said that those who clean are like mothers to society. Just as a mother keeps her child clean and protects from diseases, similarly those who clean protect society from diseases. Gandhi ji gave them the status of mothers, but people considered them so low that the word for caste became an abuse.

Think about it—in a country where this is the attitude towards sanitation workers, where cleaning is seen as a matter of shame, how can there be cleanliness? A few days ago, there was news from Dhanbad district in Jharkhand. A 46-year-old Dalit woman was beaten up and given caste-based abuses. Do you know why? Because this woman refused to clean for a shopkeeper for free.

The truth is that in our country, most sanitation workers even today are Dalits. The problem isn't that they are Dalit or from which caste. The problem is that they are forced to clean gutters by going inside them. Many times they die due to poisonous gas. Is our country so poor that someone has to clean gutters by going inside and we can't even buy machines? Not at all. Our country isn't that poor. It's just indifferent.

The Labor Market: Many Indians, when they settle in foreign developed countries, clean their homes themselves. Because calling a domestic worker for cleaning is very expensive there. But in India, poverty is so much, unemployment is so much that we can auction labor. You can get your home cleaned for very less money.

Let me ask you—do you respect the person who works in your home? Do you treat them respectfully? In most societies, in our apartments, we've even made separate lifts for them. If they take some tea, separate utensils are kept for them. This wrong mindset starts from here itself.

People don't consider cleaning as their responsibility. In schools, homes, offices, there's always someone else who comes to clean. Those who collect garbage from our homes—we don't call them sanitation workers, we call them "kachra wala" (garbage person). What an irony—we spread the garbage, but we call them garbage people.

The Disconnect: People mentally and physically completely dissociate their identity from cleaning. This is a very big difference from developed countries. Whether it's Canada, Germany, Japan, or Australia—people separate their garbage themselves there. Most people clean their homes themselves.

But in our country, you see someone standing on a garbage mountain sorting garbage. And what's our leaders' plan for cleanliness? Now every 15 days, our minister goes and stands on a garbage mountain and tells it to go. "You'll have to go, brother."

Problem 2: Government System

Have you seen clean public toilets in your city? I'm not talking about malls—public toilets. In half of the existing public toilets, water doesn't even come. You have to bring water from home. "You have to bring water from home for this washroom, and you have to pee yourself too for using the washroom."

The Reality: Think about it, then what's the point of a toilet? The smell is so much that either the person will die from the smell or get urinary tract infection. Look at this condition. "All these people have urinated here. Such bad smell is coming from here."

But here's a sad reality—this is actually a washroom which is locked. People are forced to urinate here out of compulsion. And think, if the female one is also locked, where will they go, brother?

People say there's no civic sense, people pee in open. But think about it—street vendors who are outside their homes the whole day, they will have to urinate somewhere, right? Either you give them access to clean public toilets in malls, or give them space in markets for their carts. Put common toilets in those markets. But this doesn't happen.

Infrastructure Gap: From their perspective, when no option is left, obviously they will pee on the roadside. Similarly, are there footpaths on roadsides? Are zebra crossings built everywhere? No. Are lane markings and signs put properly on roads so people know where to turn? No. Instead, in our country, flyovers are built where suddenly a 90-degree turn comes. Or look at this flyover that suddenly became 2-lane from 4-lane.

In the middle of all this infrastructure, how can you expect people to drive in lanes? The surprising thing is that in our country, the opposite is happening. People aren't asking for their rights. They're busy blaming each other. "Zero civic sense. Zero. Someone is making a video, just enter in between, brother. Where is civic sense?"

Yes, many people don't have civic sense, and I'll talk more about the reasons behind this. But what sense does it make to brush aside every issue by just saying "people don't have civic sense"? "Modi ji, these people are so shameless. They die deliberately. They die again and again to defame you. Modi ji, there's no civic sense in these people. This public doesn't deserve you. Modi ji, the fault is of the public, right? You get this public thrown in the Indian Ocean and order a new good public from Amazon or Flipkart."

The Satire: Hopefully you understand this was satire. Of course, you can't bring new public from anywhere. The people who are in this country, they have to be taught only. But who will teach? How will civic sense come?

Some influencers and content creators talk about this from their end as much as possible. But you or I can't forcefully teach anyone, right? We're not police. Neither are we government who can make new laws. Nor can we fine anyone for doing something wrong.

So obviously, this work has to be done by the government itself. Whether civic sense is taught in school curriculum, or fines are imposed on people for spreading dirt. But for spreading dirt also, you'll impose fine only when first there's cleanliness somewhere, there's system somewhere.

The Cycle of Poverty: Think about it—the person who lives in a smelly slum. Whose street corners have garbage piles. The street has mud spread. Dirty water is filled. There are mosquitoes. For whose child, there's no clean toilet in government school. How much smell must be there, you can imagine.

One who has never seen cleanliness in life, what civic sense lesson will you teach them? First let there be cleanliness at their place, then you'll tell them don't make it dirty. First dustbins should be put, then you'll tell them to put garbage in dustbin only. Public toilets should be built where there's cleanliness, water, soap—then you'll tell them to use toilet. After that flush is done.

Footpaths should be on roadside, cycling lanes should be there, beautiful flowers should be planted everywhere—then you'll tell them don't pluck flowers. But if this person from dirty slum goes to some clean, expensive society where he sees flowers, obviously he'll want to pluck those flowers because this is his first exposure to beauty.

Herd Mentality: I'm not justifying plucking flowers. I'm just saying—think from his perspective once. The person who has never seen clean, beautiful things in his life, what will his behavior be like?

The thing is, people here have a herd mentality. A sheep-like attitude. Where there's dirt, everyone's spreading dirt, so they also don't hesitate to open their car window and throw wrappers on road. But where there's cleanliness, where they feel that if I make it dirty, everyone's eyes will be on me—then the same person hesitates to throw chips wrapper.

You see this example in Indian cities too. Look at Delhi Metro, or at airports, or in malls. Leaving aside some stubborn people, most people actually don't spread dirt in these places. They feel nervous about what people will think about them. They don't want to come in everyone's notice. And this is only because there's already cleanliness in these places. A system is set.

The Government's Role: So until government doesn't take the first step here, achieving anything is very very difficult. And unfortunately, the situation is so bad that this doesn't even come in government's manifesto—that we'll do cleanliness in your area.

Even poor people who deliver Zomato-Blinkit orders for ₹10, who are forced for free ration—their dreams also don't include that there will be cleanliness, trees will be planted in streets, flowers will be there, dustbins will be there.

So it's very clear—if system is right, if right tools are there, results come automatically. Even if people's civic sense is bad.

Problem 3: Empathy

Now let's talk about the third problem behind civic sense—which is empathy. Rich people, what do they care about these slums? They talk about cleanliness from above, but how to reduce garbage, better waste disposal mechanisms, compost pits, better urban planning—they're not ready to talk about all this in detail. These people live happily inside their own bubble. They'll buy crores-worth flats. Inside the apartment there will be swimming pool, lawn tennis ground, gym—everything. But the slums around it will be filled with dirt and garbage mountains.

The Divide: In drone images of many cities, we can clearly see the difference between rich and poor. A wall is clearly visible. The rich people living on this side of the wall have never dreamed that the whole city should be beautiful. Feudal mindset is ingrained deep in people's minds. There's no community feeling in them.

Think about it—billionaires like Ambani, Adani have so much money that they can make at least a very large part of a city completely clean, if not the whole city. But they won't spend money on that. They'll build their big tall palace in the middle of this dirt. They'll put all luxury things inside their palace, but they won't have any problem with what they see from the window outside—all dirt and garbage.

No God Buddha is going to take avatar to instill this community feeling in people. Let me tell you their message themselves. You'll have to keep empathy towards others. You'll have to think that someone else will have to clean what I made dirty. That's why I shouldn't make it dirty.

Small Changes: And this thing you'll think later after going out of home. This mindset should be there inside your home too. Wherever you spread dirt inside home—scattered things, dirty utensils, calcium accumulated in bathroom. Take responsibility for it yourself and think about it.

While checking out from hotel, you should put your empty water bottles, empty packets in trash can yourself. After eating in restaurants, gather all utensils in one corner of table with your own hands so that it's easy for waiter to take them. Next time while exiting building, hold the door for the person behind you.

The day these small small changes come in your behavior, your empathy will wake up. You'll feel concern for others, and that's what is called civic sense.

Education is Key: But often people comment on such videos that "those who should watch this video aren't watching it." So for those people, as I said, government itself will have to do this work. Teaching civic sense in school curriculum, explaining in class that casteism is a mental illness. Cleaning is not a matter of shame—it's a matter of pride. It should be taught to respect sanitation workers. How to separate your garbage. If watching video in public place, use earphones so others don't get disturbed. All this should be taught in class.

Second thing is, whole system has to be built. And finally, rules have to be made to maintain that system. Stubborn people are in every country. They're in developed countries too. But the difference is that there, the system is such that those people get punished and there's no disturbance for everyone else.

Here, there's no need to give very strict punishment. Rather, the probability of getting punishment needs to be increased a lot. Even if you keep just ₹500 fine or just one day jail. But there should be high probability that if someone spreads dirt somewhere, you won't be able to escape. You'll have to pay this fine. You'll have to go to jail for one day.

Building Habits: By doing this, habit of civic sense will come automatically. Slowly, there will be concern for others in people and community feeling will also wake up. Danish people have community feeling. It's called "samfund"—social mindedness. Keeping society's interest above yourself. This feeling was seen in Denmark during Corona time too.

In Denmark, people keep concern for each other. They follow rules in shared spaces. They maintain public hygiene. They behave respectfully towards others. This is because they have social awareness. And this is enough to bring civic sense.

Actually, there's another reason too—there's no casteism there. Whether someone is poor, sanitation worker, housekeeping staff in hotel—they're seen as human beings. Cleaning work is respected there. In India, people are still very confused in sorting garbage into dry and wet. But in Denmark, garbage is sorted into 10 different categories—separate for glass, separate for metal, separate for plastic, paper separate, food and drink cartons separate, cardboard separate, textiles separate, food waste separate, hazardous waste separate, residual waste separate.

10 Categories: People don't wait for someone to come who will sort their garbage into 10 different ways? No. People put dustbins in their homes to sort garbage in 10 different ways themselves. Ten different compartments are made in their homes itself. And the story doesn't end here. Only for the most generated garbage, someone comes to pick up from your home. But for hazardous waste, textiles, electronic waste—you have to collect and take them to a recycling center yourself.

Usually, there are three to four recycling centers in a city for collection. People have to go themselves to deposit garbage in those recycling centers. Think about it—if this happened in India, most people out of laziness would put hazardous waste in normal garbage, which they already do. But in Denmark, people take so much trouble to go to recycling center themselves because they know if this hazardous waste goes in our environment, spreads in our city, they themselves will suffer the loss.

And it's not just about Denmark. Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand—most developed countries have similar systems. In Switzerland, there's a cost for trash disposal. You can dispose your home garbage only in municipal bags, and you have to buy these municipal bags. On the other hand, recycling facility is given free to encourage people.

The Deposit System: The biggest challenge in recycling is plastic bottles and aluminum cans. In India, plastic problem is so big that whether it's Ladakh's Pangong Lake or Chandigarh's Sukhna Lake, whether it's Kerala or Manipur, plastic waste problem has been seen everywhere. But you won't find this problem in most European countries because countries like Denmark and Germany have a deposit system for plastic bottles.

You must have seen vending machines where you put money and bottles come out. Here, reverse vending machines are installed. Where you put empty bottle and in return you get some money. Actually, whenever you buy something in plastic bottle, you always have to pay some extra money which works like a deposit. Later when you bring empty bottle and return it in these reverse vending machines, you get that money back—your deposit.

This whole system is not punishment-based but reward-based. From this, everyone gets motivated that they won't throw plastic bottles anywhere because there's money in them. You'll get money back for returning them.

Bornholm Island: Denmark's Bornholm Island is trying to become completely waste-free. Meaning, everything produced on that island will be reused or recycled. Their aim is that by 2032, this will become world's first waste-free community. How exactly they'll achieve this is a very interesting story. We'll talk about it some other time.

But this attitude is seen in everything in Denmark. In Denmark's capital Copenhagen, cycling is very common. This is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities. 64% commuters here travel only by bicycle. Along with this, they've made sustainable 5-minute neighborhoods. Where by just public transport and bicycle, you can go to your workplace, go to school, go for shopping. Everything is within your 5-minute radius.

This makes people move around more. People stay more healthy, and cars are used very less. In Denmark, climate-friendly asphalt is also being used to cut down CO2 emissions. Trees are planted on roadside so that shade is available and temperature can be controlled. In most developed countries, there's pedestrian-first policy. Meaning, if any pedestrian has come out to cross road, vehicles will have to stop in front of them. Whether there's traffic light or not.

The Horn Culture: Apart from this, no one will blow horn. In fact, this horn thing is so interesting that India is one of the only countries in the world where people keep blowing horns without reason. In other countries, blowing horn is so rare that you'll hardly hear horn sound once or twice in a month. This keeps a lot of peace on roads.

In India, we normally see that to develop any area, to make residential areas, nature is completely removed from there, and then after making buildings, parks with grass lawns are made in between. But in Denmark, look at this—we see climate parks. Where nature is allowed to remain in its natural form.

All these things work like holistic solutions in a way. People think about them only when there's empathy in people for their community, for people around them. And here, in a way, a positive feedback loop is also created. When there's cleanliness, environment is good, clean air is there, efforts are being made to stop climate change, efforts are being made to reduce noise pollution somewhere—then automatically community feeling in people keeps increasing more and more.

Global Examples: In Singapore, there's Restroom Association of Singapore which examines public toilets, gives them three, four or five stars. Toilets that score well get Happy Toilet logo and RSA promotes them on their website too. Similarly, in Japan, civic sense is taught in schools. Children clean their classroom corridors and toilets themselves. For this, they're given 15-20 minutes after lunch or at the end of school. This is called "osoji." This thing is inspired by Buddhism and Shintoism philosophy, where cleanliness, mutual harmony, and respect for shared spaces are encouraged.

In the same way, in schools of European countries like Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic, Netherlands too, children are taught recycling and waste management practices from childhood. Similarly, standing properly in line runs in England's blood. In citizenship test, you can be directly asked questions about standing in line. Canadian people are known for making very neat and orderly queues. In many countries like Russia and UAE, we can see escalator etiquette—one side for standing and other side for people walking on escalator.

System Solutions: System can be made for all this too. Like fastener queue managers? You must have seen them at airports. Why isn't this done at railway stations? Why isn't this done in lines at religious feasts, at temple lines? Why do we think that let these poor people climb over each other? Why do we let stampedes happen there? At least 30 dead, more than 60 injured. World's largest religious congregation turned into a nightmare in the wee hours of January 29.

Municipalities and police can make this part of their clearance procedures—show entry and exit plan, show signage plan, show crowd management mechanisms, queue managers, all this. So you see, friends, the full picture is clear here—clean roads with no potholes, zebra crossings, pavements, greenery, trees, flowers, clean air, no noise, toilets and dustbins everywhere, separating your garbage yourself, emphasizing on recycling.

The Possibility: Can all this not happen in India? Absolutely it can. Anything can happen if leaders have right intention. We just need to build systems in this way, and then maintain them. And for this, people can be employed.

I request all Chief Ministers of the country to move forward in this direction. Make your place beautiful. Make our country beautiful. This will also boost tourism in the country and people will also be happier. We urgently need to do all this. African countries that used to be so behind India at one time, they've also become cleaner than India. One such country is Rwanda, which is considered Africa's cleanest country.