How to retrain Indians: the story of the cleanest city in India (6 photos)

The fight for clean streets in India seems like a hopeless idea, where people don't even hesitate to urinate in the street, not to mention such work as carrying trash to the trash bins. And any initiatives for clean streets start with some politician picking up a broom and furiously sweeping for two hours under video cameras, and everyone sweeps with him.





And the next morning on the same street there is the same dirt and spit, and the politician considers his job done. But Indore, Madhya Pradesh, which was named the cleanest city in India in 2017, has managed to reverse its “evil fate.” And has even kept its streets clean all these years.



I don’t know if you’ll believe it, but IT’S REALLY CLEAN HERE

As tourists say about this city: “When you leave the airport, it seems like you’re not in India, it’s so clean.” Indore was once dotted with stinking dumps where stray cows, pigs, and dogs dug and added their excrement to the piles of food and plastic, attracting swarms of flies. The thing is that Indians themselves are not against cleaning their homes, cleanliness is often associated with righteousness. But everything that is further than one step from the house is considered someone else's property, so there is no need to keep it clean, but you can spit and litter. This is so deeply ingrained in the consciousness of the inhabitants of India that it took ten years to "brainwash" the residents of the town.





Cleanliness, I can't believe it's India

They started with schoolchildren, they were forced to take an oath to maintain cleanliness in the city. Most importantly, CCTV cameras were installed and anyone identified as throwing litter on the ground was fined. Cleanliness contests were organized. Religious leaders were forced to give sermons on hygiene and beauty inside and out. During the Hindu festival of Holi, when streets and buildings are painted in bright colors, extra vehicles and water trucks are sent out to water the city and clean the roads.



Nicely dressed girls sweeping after the rain

And the people were not left to solve the problem alone. Trash cans were placed literally everywhere, in every little street, so that they did not have to be looked for. It was very smart that people first had to be taught to at least throw trash in the bin, and only then taught that trash bins are in strictly designated places. And people got used to it! Well, in a small city by Indian standards there are 850 cleaners who go out every morning to collect trash from the bins. They all have trackers installed on their cars so that they don’t get lazy and don’t cheat. Before trackers were invented, many people did their job half-heartedly.



Yes, yes, he also has a tracker. Civilization!

In general, the huge work to re-educate the population worked! But the point is that this is not a city with a large migration of the population. That is, in Indore the core of the residents has not changed for decades, so they can be retrained. In Delhi, full of newcomers, this is unlikely to happen.



People are being trained in separate waste collection. So far, things are neither good nor bad