How to Promote Civic Sense Amongst Indians?
It’s a common practice in Japan to carry special bags when one takes his/her dog out for a stroll, to pick up the dog droppings. Japanese children are required to clean their schools for 15-30 minutes every day along with the teachers. Japanese children are taught about ethics in dealing with people in the primary school. There are several other mandated practices that lead their future generations to a habit of modesty, cleanliness, helpfulness, empathy, respect for the law and other people, etc. In other words, it is a society that practices and inculcates great civic sense and sense of responsibility into its people.
Similar is the case, in terms of cleanliness, with many other countries like the US, European, Middle-East and South-East Asian countries – Singapore being one of the
top-rated countries in terms of cleanliness with an Environmental Performance Index (EPI)1 score of 87.042 (Exhibit I) and it is also listed as one of the safest countries in the world as it has a very low crime rate................
Indian society, on the other hand, is known to have an attitude that does not care much for civic sense, and the attitude is prevalent amongst all sections of the society, irrespective of their level of education, social or financial status.
For instance, on June 16th 2018, Virat Kohli, Indian star cricketer, had shared a video3 (on social media) of his wife, Anushka Sharma Kohli, Bollywood actor, telling a man (Arhhan Singh) travelling in his luxury car, “Why are you throwing garbage on the road. Please be careful, you can’t just throw plastic on the streets. Use a dustbin.” Instead of feeling guilty of littering, Arhhan slapped a legal notice on Virat and Anushka for shaming him on social media. Seemingly (from the video), Arhhan was well educated and commanded good financial and social status in the society. This clearly proves two things about Indians in India – education has nothing to do with civic sense; and high financial status and influence in the society gives one the license to flout the laws as well as civic behaviour. There are several examples for such lack of civic sense amongst Indians (Exhibit II)........
Exhibits
Exhibit I: Top-10 Cleanest Countries and Cities in the World 2018
Exhibit II: Instances Showing Lack of Civic Sense in India
Exhibit III: Lack of Civic Sense in India
1 The Environmental Performance Index (EPI) is a method of quantifying and numerically marking the environmental performance of a state’s policies. This index was developed from the Pilot Environmental Performance Index, first published in 2002, and designed to supplement the environmental targets set forth in the United Nations Millennium Development Goals.
2 “Top 10 Cleanest Countries in the World 2018”, https://improb.com/top-cleanest-countries-in-the-world/ (Accessed Date: July 10th 2018).
3 “Man scolded by Anushka for littering sends legal notice to her and Virat Kohli”, https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/man-scolded-by-anushka-for-littering-sends-legalnotice-to-actress-and-virat-kohli/articleshow/64717979.cms, June 24th 2018 (Accessed Date: July 10th 2018)