Dear Elisabeth,

Your concerns are right. Perhaps, our colleagues from India can respond. Your next question is in order - how can this message can spread to other towns in India, and, for that matter, to towns in South Asia.


F H Mughal

Dear Mughal,

I don't really understand this article. OK, so the website wants to share positive news about India, which is great. But what are really the underlying reasons? Why do people have a sense of hygiene there?, why do the villagers not litter around? Etc.
Does anyone have any insights? The village is called Tamnath near Karjat, Maharashtra.

If we understood this better, then the next question would be how to spread this to surrounding villages.

If the have a wall of shame there, then I wonder if they have had some CLTS triggering.
Perhaps they also have some sort of very special village leader? What's the size of this village?

Lots of questions which this article fails to answer. I have the suspicion it's more of a publicity stunt of sorts... (??).

Regards,
Elisabeth

Despite the fact that the Muslim religion, Islam, lays great stress on cleanliness and hygiene (cleanliness is next to Godliness, a famous saying in Islam), the villages and towns are often dirty and unclean. The main reason for this is two-fold. One, the janitors do not do their job properly and responsibly. Second, the people themselves are careless about hygiene and cleanliness.

It was, frankly, a bit surprisingly, to find a clean village in India. The village is Tamnath near Karjat, Maharashtra, as detailed in a propoor newsletter (www.propoor.org/news/?n=82306). The post also carries pictures of the village, which are worth seeing. The pictures show that the people, beyond doubt, have really kept the village clean!

Why the village is clean? The post gives reasons, which are:

• The village is focused on sanitation. It has achieved 98 per cent sanitation;
• A small temple advocates cleanliness;
• People have a sense of hygiene;
• Subsidy is easily available for those who wants to build toilet at home;
• Sweepers came early in the morning and clean the village;
• The villagers do not litter around;
• A girl would not marry a boy, who do not have a toilet at home (!!); and
• (unfortunately), a wall of shame.

F H Mughal