CLEANLINESS IS NEXT TO GODLINESS (04/01/2014)

Recently I happened to read a news item in a national newspaper on pet culture in Delhi. People in Delhi love to keep pets, especially dogs of good pedigree- the article informed. People not only keep pets but also spend quite a good amount on their upkeep. They take them to the vets regularly for their general health and hygiene. Stores dealing in items related to pets make a thriving business in Delhi- the article informed. However, the news item was critical of Delhiites on one count- people do not care for the cleanliness of their locality and allow their pets to defecate in open- unmindful of whether it is Public Park or the precincts of their society. People do not make use of toilets accessories which are available exclusively for pets and are sold by the same shops which shelves the diets for pets.

While I appreciate the concern for cleanliness over defecating pets, it is a fact that even in the Delhi of twenty first century; people are constrained to defecate out in open. You can be a witness to this if you happen to travel by any train that enters Delhi in the morning hours. As your train approaches Shahdara or New Delhi or Hazrat Nizamuddin, you will find people lined up across the railway track defecating out in open. Likewise if you are on your way to office by metro or by chartered bus in early morning hours, as I do, you can be witness to such display of public convenience. It is indeed shameful for a nation to be unable to provide such basic facilities to its citizen even after 60 years of independence, and that too in the capital of the nation- not to speak of the villages, where it is a common phenomenon. To add insult to the hurt pride you also come cross people who are engaged in the job of carrying night soil everyday on their own head in order to clean the locality. This is akin to slavery which continues to exist in India of 21^st Century. Still we have the audacity to challenge US of America on issues of propriety and human rights. This I regard as hypocrisy of the highest standard. In an era where we have been unable to provide such facilities to common man the concern of the newspaper for providing such facilities to pets is like rubbing salt to the injured pride of common man.