A few days ago, Reena Talwar’s pet dog Bebo suddenly lost her appetite.
The reason? She had been sampling the garbage outside their basement apartment in West Patel Nagar. Inside a gated road flanked by trees, the building doesn’t look like it could have uncollected garbage for days.
The Hindu drove through several neighbourhoods in the city, trying to find if Prime Minister’s Swachh Bharat Abhiyan has really made a difference to the residential areas in the Capital.
“Swachh Bharat. Really? Delhi, at least my neighbourhood, is stinking more than ever. In fact, it has been the smelliest year since I came to live here about six or seven years ago,” says Ms. Talwar, keeping a hawk-eye on Bebo so that she doesn’t start sampling the leftovers from heaps of plates that have been discarded from a neighbourhood party the night before.
Her sentiments are echoed by Gulshan Rai, part of the confederation of resident’s welfare associations across NCR, the 70-year old resident of Janakpuri says he has now become a fixture in the Municipal Corporation offices.
“The idea behind the Swachh Bharat is commendable but it seems like some sort of a publicity thing. I feel it’s an extended photo-session of politicians who do not know the first thing about how dirty the city really is. In fact, the city is dirtier than ever,” he says, and adds: “It is like catch and throw. They collect and do their jobs depending on how alert the citizens are. The local MCD workers know that I do not keep quiet if they do not do their jobs.”
The entire West Delhi suburb is a mixed neighbourhood with rickshaw-pullers, construction workers, doctors, lawyers, businessmen and other white-collar workers with posh bungalows and apartment buildings sharing space with barsatis and dilapidated structures.
However, there is a common thread that connects them – the uncollected garbage, the open urinals at every street corner and of course beetle-nut stains on every uncovered wall.
“In the evening, I like to go to the park with my friends, right outside there are ice-creams, momos, jalebis,” says 14-year old Shika.
When asked if the urinal right in front of the park bothers her, she replies in the negative.
“I am used to the stink. Even though the vendors stand right next to the urinal, that doesn’t stop me from going there. Bad smells do not bother me. After all, my school compound has a garbage collection centre on one side and these types of urinals on the other side.”
It is the same story everywhere else — garbage collection centres and public urinals attached to school compounds.
“I come every day to sweep and along with my helpers I collect garbage. After all, I am paid by these people and if I don’t come, I don’t get paid. However, even I cannot help it if the garbage remains uncollected and piles up. I do my job. And, of course if people litter in front of their houses and leave their garbage after I have left…there is nothing I can do. Garbage doesn’t collect by itself, if people want cleanliness, they have do something too,” says Meenu, a sweeper-woman in Patel Nagar who has been hired by the local resident’s welfare association.
A drive along the government neighbourhood of Kali Bari, a government colony of clean-swept roads tells a different story. So does a few posh neighbourhoods in South Delhi and of course Central Delhi where garbage is invisible. Then is the Swachh Bharat programme meant only for a certain kind of citizen?
Chetan Sharma, from the Confederation of Resident’s Welfare Associations across NCR in Kailash Colony begs to differ. “Greater Kailash has pockets of dirt too,” he says.
South Delhi Municipal Corporation additional commissioner GS Meena said the civic body had ramped up cleaning in areas that see heavier flow of garbage.
“All colonies have even deployment of manpower and machinery. We have started night-sweeping at markets, so they are cleaned thrice a day,” said Mr. Yadav.
He added that the ‘zero garbage hour’, the time of day when all trash is cleared from a spot, was maintained at least once a day, if not more.
