India First! - A Non-Anthropomorphic View

India is a FILTHY country. However one looks at it, there is no escape. There may be plenty of excuses, but that seems to be all there is plenty of in India...and people, all 1.2 billion of them. In 1994, there was a pneumonic plague epidemic in Surat, India that resulted in 52 deaths and in a large internal migration of about 300,000 residents, who fled fearing quarantine. A combination of heavy monsoon rains and clogged sewers led to massive flooding which resulted in unhygienic conditions and a number of uncleared animal carcasses. It is believed that this situation precipitated the epidemic. In 2005, Bombay was hit by floods, precipitated by heavy monsoon rains but caused by clogged sewers. Later inquiries revealed that the sewers had not been completely cleaned for fifty years! The city was not spared the same fate in 2006, nor in 2007. The Times of India reported (June 30, 2007), "Everything goes down the drain, except water!"

For all the new-found pride Indians seem to have in their nation since the liberalisation in 1991, somehow the act of translating that into action seems to have hit a roadblock. To this day, most Indians feel no hesitation in dropping trash on the street or spitting paan, marking their uncouthness with the characteristic red stain forever. Admittedly, an enormous percentage of the population lives below the poverty line (by Government of India - GoI - standards of Rs. 10/- a day, 30%. Although the World bank defines poverty as an income of less than $1.00 a day which is about Rs. 48/-, by factoring in purchasing power parity, it works out to about the same as Rs. 10/-.) and homeless. This segment of the population contributes the most to the filth as they have little or no access to sanitation and clean water. But how does that excuse the techie babu in the back seat of his newly acquired-on-credit Mahindra Scorpio sliding the window down to eject his refuse or some college student flinging a banana peel out of the bus window as it negotiates its way through the traffic?

The issue is not only a question of the aesthetics of a city's streets. The complete ignorance of even the concept of cleanliness is the root of many of India's problems. Standards of hygiene in manufacturing are virtually non-existent or not enforced. Incense sticks are dried on the footpaths right next to open sewer lines...the same incense that will then be given to the big corporations that outsourced them to the unorganised labour sector to save on costs. These sticks will then be sold in the market to millions of devotees who will offer them to their chosen deity. For all the hoopla one goes through regarding religious rituals (appropriate clothing, removing footwear, switching off electronics, showering before visiting the temple, etc.), muck from the sewer is burned in the sanctum sanctorum. Flowers offered at the temple are bought from vendors who are dirty themselves and sell their wares amidst the puddles of stagnant water found around the temple. In the monsoons, there will also be a generous helping of mud and even animal dung. This is the perverse logic of life in India.

Let the reader not think that the problem is a purely personal one. The Indian Government does a fair share of damage too. Anyone used to the sanitary conditions of the First World better beware when eating in India. Roadside stalls may offer some of the tastiest bites available in the country but the hidden costs are steep. The ingredients could be stale, the way they were stored could be cause for an upset stomach, the pollution from the vehicles can settle on the food, and there could be rodents, cockroaches, flies, and ants in and around the stalls. Even the strong anti-microbial properties of corriander, fenugreek, and other spices used in Indian cuisine cannot fully neutralise the germs in the food. Even global brand names like Coca Cola and Pepsi have a fairly high level of pesticide residue in their softdrinks in India and the areas near their plants seem to end up with lower watertables and unusually high concentrations of cadmium. This is because India has no proper food safety laws or standards enforced by an agency like the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) or the British Food Standards Agency (FSA). So although Coca Cola would have been in violation of health standards in Europe, the UK, or the US, Indian standards were low enough that their products were legal in India. In Bangalore, the capital of Karnataka (6th most prosperous state in the union), there were no food inspectors for over six months right in the middle of the bird flu scare. The reason given was that the laboratories (which could test only 20 samples a month!) were being upgraded. In Bangalore, there are over 25,000 registered outlets that sell food and there are only THREE food inspectors (a fourth is available only for VVIP duty) to ensure that the 25,000-odd food outlets in the city serve hygienic and safe food fit for human consumption. This means that each inspector has to keep tabs on over 8,330 joints.

Recently, it was found that 72% of paint sold in Tamil Nadu and Karnataka contained unacceptably high levels of lead. When Chinese toys were found to contain lead and cadmium (neuro- and nephrotoxins) in March this year, they were promptly banned in the US, UK, and Europe. India banned toy imports from China but relaxed the ban almost immediately. The ban had been imposed after dangerous levels of toxins were found in the toys, exposing the 130 million children in India to risks including liver damage and disruption of mental health.

Health and hygiene are not a first world luxury but a necessity. Amending the food safety laws and practices and industrial standards on environmental effects, although initially requiring investments of manpower and money, will save money in the long run as health costs come down and real estate prices appreciate due to cleaner surroundings. Recently, when the US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited India, one of the main discussion points was the environment. There was opposition to India caving in to American demands on climate control because, critics nonsensically claimed, it would impinge on India's defence. I fail to see the connection. For all his foibles, Manmohan Singh played his cards beautifully. India was concerned about the environment, he said, but at India's pace. It was not fair that the West raped the planet for the past two centuries and now did not allow the Third World to climb the same development ladder. Short of the West donating environmentally friendly technology to India and other nations, India should not handicap its industries. However, it must be realised that cleaner air, water, and land are in our interest as well as the planet's. Malaria, filariasis, kala-azar and cholera rates in India are rising over the past fifteen years. Take this quote from the Economist (December 11, 2008):

"To know why 1,000 Indian children die of diarrhoeal sickness every day, take a wary stroll along the Ganges in Varanasi. As it enters the city, Hinduism’s sacred river contains 60,000 faecal coliform bacteria per 100 millilitres, 120 times more than is considered safe for bathing. Four miles downstream, with inputs from 24 gushing sewers and 60,000 pilgrim-bathers, the concentration is 3,000 times over the safety limit. In places, the Ganges becomes black and septic. Corpses, of semi-cremated adults or enshrouded babies, drift slowly by."

The Yamuna, according to Newsweek, has 10,000 times higher amount of fecal bacteria than is safe for bathing despite a 15-year

programme to build 17 sewage plants. According to a Times of India article, around 50% of Bangalore's children - that is about 1.3 million - suffer from asthma, while in Calcutta, 45% of the population had reduced lung function. In frustration, the Centre for Science and Enviroment stated in 2000 that India’s pollution control laws are not even worth the piece of paper on which they have been promulgated. In Europe, air pollution (PM10) is less than 40 µg/m³ (annual avaerage) and they plan to halve that by January 2010. In contrast, Delhi had PM10 levels of 150, Calcutta 128, and Kanpur and Lucknow 109 (2004 statistics). A study from 2006 can be found HERE.

As I said at the outset, India is a filthy place, both in terms of civic sense as well as governmental regulations on food, medicine, industry, and the environment. By promoting this agendum, it can create jobs in new sectors, reduce healthcare costs, and allow us to live in a cleaner country and consume healthier products. We don't all have to become followers of Edward Abbey but a little care won't hurt. Mera Bharat may be mahaan, but is mera Bharaat also saaf-sutra?

Two additional site for environmental statistics in India:

1. Centre for Science and Environment

2. IndiaStat