Pledging to maintain Cleanliness

The mission to make India a clean place is indeed a noble one. And the 2^nd of October, being the birthday of the Mahatma was ideal for rolling it out this year.

While it shall definitely take some time for cleanliness in public places to attain desirable levels, it is of essence that the tremendous impact cleanliness has in creating a good environment should find root in the psyche of the citizens. The earlier it actually happens, the better it would be for the nation. 

Yet the fact that this mission is piloted by the Prime Minister himself gives solace that at-least some progress would definitely be achieved. The resoluteness with which issues are being handled by the present government gives confidence that in a couple of years, the nation would indeed be a much cleaner place with rhetoric having been relegated to the back seat at present.

A clean environment is at the root of almost everything including human happiness. It enhances productivity, creates a good living environment and enhances satisfaction and happiness levels. The Mahatma realized it almost a century ago when he called the cleaners “harijan” ie men of god. He also equated cleanliness with godliness.

Yet the nation remained dirty, the marketplaces, the roads, tourist sites, railway stations and the bus depots, almost all still bear the stamp of an unclean place. Even temples of worship have generally failed to maintain a semblance of cleanliness and that foxes me. How even tiny Asian countries are able to maintain cleanliness in their public places and private and why we have been a miserable failure on this important front?

Has it something to do with our culture and if so, why the same indian who litters on home soil displays perfect behavior even in matters of keeping his surroundings clean when not on the home soil. Perhaps more than culture, it is about conditioning and fear and also about pride. I clearly remember the seventies when the Kolkata metro emerged, the same “bhadralok” who considered defiling his city as his birthright, maintained impeccable cleanliness at metro stations even to the extent of admonishing one who littered within the confines of swanky metro territory. A difference made in a span of a few steps only. Perhaps this shows that a clean nation is indeed possible.

But not without a firm resolve. With my better half taking good (and clean) care of the home territory, I have pledged to ensure that the office space occupied by me and my team is always maintained in a state of pristine cleanliness. I am also inspired by the the clean india campaign of indiantopblogs (http://www.indiantopblogs.com/2014/10/diwali-and-clean-india.html) and am contributing my wee bit to their effort.

And the genuine national effort this time in this direction gives me hope of being able to witness an immaculately clean and by corollary an economically strong and contented India in my lifetime. 

What ails Indian tourism?

Tourism along with railways has always been a key focus area of the new prime minister even before he became one and it is now time that these sectors are actually harnessed for the national good. Unfortunately tourism, an activity of the masses has always been looked upon with an elitist undertone and therefore the sector rarely got the attention and the priority it rightfully deserved despite its unmatched multiplier effect and capacity for generating employment.

There has always been an ongoing debate over whether tourism is a state or a federal subject and voices to bring it on the concurrent list were always getting raised. Yet the fact remains that merely being on a list is not a guarantor of growth or development and what really matters are intentions and also the efforts to convert them into reality. During my earlier roller coaster stint in the federal ministry of tourism I always wondered whether merely putting Agra, the home of the Tajmahal in order should not be the starting point for setting right the entire gamut of tourism in the nation. Yet it was never to be as we always aspired to do something big while failing in achieving the small. 

Another issue that has always been on the top of my mind is whether the primary role of the tourism departments at the federal and state levels is tourism for the mandarins or tourism for the masses. For masses obviously it has to be, yet the tours beyond the confines of the shores have continued unabated, cutting across states and shades of governance. Our focus definitely needs to shift from beyond the shores to setting our own house in order and then zoom forward.

It is not merely about how many visitors we receive from beyond the shores. Tourism to my mind is more about enabling our countrymen to explore the richness of their own country, something that gets shrouded by the glimmer of what is regarded and worshipped as foreign stuff.

It is also of essence that the national perspective on tourism does not remain confined merely to figures both of foreign tourist arrivals and the home population moving within the country. Unfortunately the national mind-set is guided and also led by statistics, and therein lies the malaise. Even while remaining confined to statistics, the essential difference between the tourist, who is basically an explorer, and the traveller, who may be moving for many reasons needs to be   appreciated, though both form part of the tourism statistics that are regularly being churned out and touted by those who matter in the matter of tourism in the country.

Another fallacy is related to international advertising. Our sheer inability to appreciate that the bottleneck in so far as foreign tourist arrivals is concerned is not the inability to showcase but the  number of seats in the aircrafts plying between the homeland and the rest of the world. It is time to realize that advertising is not merely for increasing the numbers but also for improving the image perception and creating the desire to visit and it therefore has to be primarily driven by the Indian ethos, culture and achievements and not merely the numbers game.

And it is also about infrastructure. The much-needed basic tourist infrastructure is a dire necessity and merely releasing grants to the State Governments who permit only a trickle to reach the ground is not making the difference it actually should. The release of funds alone is an inadequate measure unless it results in an actual conversion and in its absence a pat on the back is not really in order. The emergence of a good monitoring and executing machinery is the desperate need of the hour.

The India Tourism Development Corporation is indeed the sad story of Indian tourism. An inherently profitable commercial organization also entrusted with the national mandate of development of tourism has been brought to seed by inept leadership provided by high ranking bureaucrats. Is it not really unfortunate that along with Air India, ITDC is also now regarded as the national symbol of sloth, inefficiency and corruption? Both these commercial monoliths could have given a tremendous push to the cause of tourism as well as travel within the country, something they did till professionalism remained at the core of their operations. Yet both can turnaround provided………

It is beyond doubt that tourism as an activity almost always happens on its own, without prodding from the governments, and that it helps local economies to grow at a pace much higher than in other sectors. Its employment potential as well as impact on economy many times over the investment in the sector have already received adequate national hype and now it warrants real inputs not merely rhetoric  from the governments. 

It is now time that the handling of tourism moves beyond the established clichés and it actually starts  driving local economies, besides giving a thrust to the re-emergence and positioning of ancient Indian heritage, art, culture and thought. It would indeed be futile to look at tourism without looking at all that the country stands for. The sectors encompassing tourism and culture are complimentary and a much higher natural synergy will now perhaps be achieved after the merger of the two ministries.

The role of the Government of India Tourist Offices, popularly known as GOITO’s that earlier formed the backbone of the national effort to give a thrust to tourism need a much deeper understanding and appreciation. Merely finding faults without suitably empowering them to function efficiently in a fast changing international scenario is causing more damage than good. Perhaps an injection of fundamentals of administration and management is the need of the hour. It is also necessary that the unfortunate state of affairs in which these offices and the men who man them stand castigated should cease once and for all. 

Lack of cleanliness and hygiene is also a bane of the tourism sector in the nation. Perhaps it is an issue related to the mind-set that is prevalent, yet there is no alternative to maintaining in a state of utmost cleanliness both our tourist destinations as well as places of human habitat in general. The recent clean india campaign marked a good beginning, yet the effort has lost steam midway or so it appears.

And make it easy for the private sector to invest. That the number of hotel rooms in the organized sector is far lower than that in the city state of Singapore indeed says it all. A multi-pronged strategy focussed on cleanliness, private sector participation, infrastructure development, promotional advertising and tourist facilitation would make all the difference in proper positioning of the country as a tourist friendly nation in its own national interest, is indeed the need of the hour.

We the bureaucrats!

We are the largest employer in the world, yet have minimal concern for HR!

We talk about doing big things, yet end up not doing even small things!

We talk about clean stations and clean trains, yet maintain dirty offices!

We want the field staff not to drink on duty, yet fail to ensure it in our offices, right under our noses!

We criticize the police for rape in the cities, yet do nothing about sexual harassment in our offices!

We talk about staff shortages at work, yet unfailingly misutilize official staff at residences!

We talk about shabby treatment by seniors, yet unfailingly misbehave with our subordinates almost always!

We talk about loading, revenue, world class stations, mega projects, postings and transfers, yet have no time to discuss the welfare of our men or value systems that need to be a part of the organization's culture!

We want everyone else to be honest, hard working and committed, yet do not apply the same principles on ourselves!

We talk about the rampant corruption in the nation, yet do nothing about corruption right under our noses, in our own domain!

We blame the politicos for the mess, yet leave no stone unturned in complicating matters ad-infinitum!

We blame the unions for the mess, yet have no concern for staff welfare ourselves!

We want the organization and the nation to improve and have plenty of ideas for others, yet do nothing about it ourselves!

No wonder, our downhill speed is growing faster by the day!

Amen!

Experts on advising others

My belief that we indians as a society are experts on advising others is getting stronger by the day. Ask any man on the street how the nation can go forward, and he would know. Everyone, each one of us has an opinion on how the nation should be run, how the railways can do better even under extreme climatic conditions or how the airlines should tackle problems during fog, how the crime rate can be reduced, how economic prosperity can be brought about or evn how to improve cities. What we do not know or rather do not appreciate is how we should be doing our own jobs.
We believe and quite often take pride in being busy, even though the deliverance might be zero. And that is the tragedy of our nation. We all believe in cleanliness even though we would like someone else to ensure it while at the same time we can continue to litter and make this country a giant dust bin. Since coming back to the railways, my conviction on this front is getting stronger by the day. I find it rater surprising that so far I could not locate even one establishment or evn one small room in this gigantic establishment that can be called clean and/or orderly by decent standards.
Perhaps the reason for such and many other similar issues lies in our inability to govern this nation properly, a fact that is amply reflected through our ranking on various international indices. I hope for the sake of the nation, that we as a society should mature as early as possible. Amen.

Clean up hindu religious places

Is it really necessary for hindu religious places to be generally filthy, unkempt and disorganized? With the rare exception of perhaps the shrines at Tirupati and Vaishno Devi, all hindu religious places have filthiness as their hallmark. Whether it is the Kamakhya temple at Guwahati, the Kashi Vishwanath temple at Varanasi or the temple at other religious sites in the country, generally they are unkempt, filthy, disorganized and do not by any stretch of imagination appear to believe in the philosophy of “Cleanliness is Godliness”. The presence of a group of touts disguised as the agents of God trying to fleece the devout of his hard earned money, adds to the disgust. I therefore find it almost impossible to visualize the presence of the almighty at such places. It is therefore strange that thousands and millions of people from all over the country regularly visit these shrines, get fleeced, physically engage with the densely packed and often unruly crowd in their attempt to enter the sanctorum and yet go back home satisfied that they have done their duty to the almighty who will now bestow his favors on them, their family and near ones. It defies conventional as well as scientific logic, yet it happens day in and day out. This untiring belief in the almighty and the calm acceptance of the dismal situation as his gift is what is keeping the wheels of the hindu religion and the nation moving.