Interesting article from Economics Blog-Economix and other opinions. It is an Indian native who has written the following:
"I live in the UK, but love visiting India even as one of the ubiquitous NRIs. The warmth of family and friends cannot be replicated anywhere else. The beauty of the familiar landscape and the sunny climate cannot be replicated. Nor, unfortunately can the squalor in which we live.
I have travelled in many countries and have heard about others through friends. I must say that India beats every other country in terms of its dirt levels. This includes African countries that are poorer than we are, it includes China that has a larger population than we have. Perhaps the only other country that may qualify is Bangladesh, but I consider that as part of the Indian sub continent so it does not count.
A friend suggested maybe Vietnam is dirtier and that China might be dirtier inside the house
And I started to wonder why. Why are we so dirty? Plausible reasons that spring to mind are the poverty, the density of population, the culture. I could understand the first two: obviously given the hordes of urban poor living in slums, with no sanitation and no public service garbage collection.
I cant understand the culture: is there really a dirt norm in India? Apparently in Hinduism there is an important element of segregation: inside the house it should be clean but outside is the other, thats by definition unclean just like in the construction of temples there is always a segregation between the space where God is and where others are.
I believe it is more that there is a free riding culture. In other words Indians believe strongly in the idea of a free lunch. If you can save on the time involved in finding a garbage bin (I must admit they are rarely around) to throw your garbage, we just throw it on the streets. We eat paan and spit it out on the walls of our office buildings. No one would spit on the wall of their own home, and no one would throw garbage on their own floors but the boundaries are very clear. Just outside the house can be littered, but just inside is sacrosanct. I have noticed even in the upper middle class gated community where I live: they are DDA flats and the common areas are ******, even though the flats are in most cases lovingly maintained. People will clean up until the point where they illegally cordon off part of the common area but beyond that is the responsibility of the communitys cleaners and gardeners. Notice that these are paid through local taxation: for my flat I pay Rs 400 a month for the security and the cleaning and horticulture services. This is a typical public goods problem: even though everyone pays for it, we still end up in a situation where someone rents the common area for a wedding or other event and leaves a huge mess on the garden. I saw piles of food just emptied on the lawn: can you imagine anyone doing it on their own lawns? Its totally amazing! Thats the country in a microcosm. How to build a culture of cleanliness and cooperation? Is it possible at all? Is punishment the only way out? Surely not: in Gandhis country surely there could be leadership by example?
Is there any area in the country that qualifies as clean? Maybe Chandigarh is a case study. Why is Chandigarh clean? It does have a high per capita income relative to the country, and it was a modern design by Le Corbusier? Could the design of the city make such a difference? But see: airports are cleaner (privatized now) than train stations (public): they are more organized relative to train stations similarly privately owned buildings are usually cleaner. So maybe there is something to the tragedy of the commons (this years Nobel winner, Ostrom s work was based on this) if no one owns the commons then they are overused. So, building on that idea, one solution for DDA flats common area to be kept clean is to make individual owners shareholders of the land. When they sell the flat they also sell the rights to the common area, But then co-ops do exactly that and I havent noticed co-op society flat buildings being particularly clean either. I think you have to do even more than that: you have to divide up the common area into bits that each flat owner knows belongs to him so e.g the flats on one floor own that floor. The price of the flat then depends on the floor area as well even though they cannot build on it there can be restrictions on the use of the common floor area but just knowing that they own it can make a difference.
But we cannot do this in the larger sphere can we? It would involve the government leasing out public roads to the communities that live there .
One interesting comparison is with China: there people are afraid of being punished so they dont have the freedom to litter. As in Singapore. Well, our government too has tried: delhi with its radio advertisements of Susukumars and Thuthu Kumars is an example. I dont have much hope honestly "
"I live in the UK, but love visiting India even as one of the ubiquitous NRIs. The warmth of family and friends cannot be replicated anywhere else. The beauty of the familiar landscape and the sunny climate cannot be replicated. Nor, unfortunately can the squalor in which we live.
I have travelled in many countries and have heard about others through friends. I must say that India beats every other country in terms of its dirt levels. This includes African countries that are poorer than we are, it includes China that has a larger population than we have. Perhaps the only other country that may qualify is Bangladesh, but I consider that as part of the Indian sub continent so it does not count.
A friend suggested maybe Vietnam is dirtier and that China might be dirtier inside the house
And I started to wonder why. Why are we so dirty? Plausible reasons that spring to mind are the poverty, the density of population, the culture. I could understand the first two: obviously given the hordes of urban poor living in slums, with no sanitation and no public service garbage collection.
I cant understand the culture: is there really a dirt norm in India? Apparently in Hinduism there is an important element of segregation: inside the house it should be clean but outside is the other, thats by definition unclean just like in the construction of temples there is always a segregation between the space where God is and where others are.
I believe it is more that there is a free riding culture. In other words Indians believe strongly in the idea of a free lunch. If you can save on the time involved in finding a garbage bin (I must admit they are rarely around) to throw your garbage, we just throw it on the streets. We eat paan and spit it out on the walls of our office buildings. No one would spit on the wall of their own home, and no one would throw garbage on their own floors but the boundaries are very clear. Just outside the house can be littered, but just inside is sacrosanct. I have noticed even in the upper middle class gated community where I live: they are DDA flats and the common areas are ******, even though the flats are in most cases lovingly maintained. People will clean up until the point where they illegally cordon off part of the common area but beyond that is the responsibility of the communitys cleaners and gardeners. Notice that these are paid through local taxation: for my flat I pay Rs 400 a month for the security and the cleaning and horticulture services. This is a typical public goods problem: even though everyone pays for it, we still end up in a situation where someone rents the common area for a wedding or other event and leaves a huge mess on the garden. I saw piles of food just emptied on the lawn: can you imagine anyone doing it on their own lawns? Its totally amazing! Thats the country in a microcosm. How to build a culture of cleanliness and cooperation? Is it possible at all? Is punishment the only way out? Surely not: in Gandhis country surely there could be leadership by example?
Is there any area in the country that qualifies as clean? Maybe Chandigarh is a case study. Why is Chandigarh clean? It does have a high per capita income relative to the country, and it was a modern design by Le Corbusier? Could the design of the city make such a difference? But see: airports are cleaner (privatized now) than train stations (public): they are more organized relative to train stations similarly privately owned buildings are usually cleaner. So maybe there is something to the tragedy of the commons (this years Nobel winner, Ostrom s work was based on this) if no one owns the commons then they are overused. So, building on that idea, one solution for DDA flats common area to be kept clean is to make individual owners shareholders of the land. When they sell the flat they also sell the rights to the common area, But then co-ops do exactly that and I havent noticed co-op society flat buildings being particularly clean either. I think you have to do even more than that: you have to divide up the common area into bits that each flat owner knows belongs to him so e.g the flats on one floor own that floor. The price of the flat then depends on the floor area as well even though they cannot build on it there can be restrictions on the use of the common floor area but just knowing that they own it can make a difference.
But we cannot do this in the larger sphere can we? It would involve the government leasing out public roads to the communities that live there .
One interesting comparison is with China: there people are afraid of being punished so they dont have the freedom to litter. As in Singapore. Well, our government too has tried: delhi with its radio advertisements of Susukumars and Thuthu Kumars is an example. I dont have much hope honestly "
