TidyCity

TidyCity Surveys – the beginning

– by Anju Kurian

After the successful bout with clean-ups, tidycity has initiated a novel angle to spreading awareness by conducting surveys in public places. This way, we directly reach out to people and any impact positive or negative can be gauged to a certain extend through conversation itself. The survey

included basic questions about whether they litter, how they manage plastic and also the star question of ‘do you spit’. Well, that wasn’t intended to be a comic relief but in fact a crucial question to examine the civic sense in people:D.

Few groups of people were sympathetic with the sad state of our city while few considered trivandrum relatively clean and tidy as compared to Ernakulam which in their opinion is the maximum waste accumulator. Everyone unanimously stated that they do not litter.:| Surprise surprise! We were left with the thought of where does all the littered stuff come from?! But one thing that was clear is that people are aware that they shouldn’t litter. Many said they would use a waste-bin if they find one. Not many people seem enthusiastic about taking waste back home to dispose it off. They’d rather throw it away at places not ‘inconvenient’ to others which might even include neighboring plots! Reminded me of Thanal Shibu’s class where he mentioned the NIMBY syndrome. People were mostly diplomatic in their answers which clearly depicts that they know what the right thing to do is. There is just the delay in putting it to practice. About spitting, we initially got negative responses. Many were assertive in the statement of they don’t spit (in public places ). Few however accepted the fact that they do spit if it is absolutely necessary and they see to it that it isn’t a public nuisance.

Reuse of plastic bags doesn’t seem an option to the majority. Few groups mentioned that they take bags of cloth or plastic when they go shopping so as to avoid buying more. Some say they don’t consciously try to reduce plastic but as the shops charge people for the plastic covers, they take covers with them. So that is indeed a good measure to reduce usage of plastic. The waste disposal inquiries yielded mixed responses. Almost all the places have kudumbasree services. People from the outskirts of the city or from villages had given varied answers in the form of disposal in pits, use of vegetable wastes for plants etc. The city dwellers mostly prefer giving all kinds of wastes to kudumbasree either due to lack of space or because of fear of rats :O. We even encountered a family who did not know about the hazards of burning plastic. We were successful in convincing them about the ill-effects but the mere thought of other such people who do the same because of their ignorance is shocking!

One line that was repeated by people all over was the ‘malayali mentality’ of letting their mother-land be dirty while being extra cautious about cleanliness when at other places. Considering the fact that all those people talking about the mentality are malayalis themselves, why can’t they themselves think about being the change! Why is there a collective blame when it is an individual responsibility! If they can do it elsewhere, why not make it a habit here? Questions unanswered! Nevertheless, we got to meet really erudite people who gave us many valuable suggestions. They emphasized on teaching by example which has been our trial so far. They also asserted on the awareness being spread from a young age. Schools seem to be a good platform to extend our activities. The necessity of more ‘accessible’ trash bins was voiced throughout.

When asked whether a law or rule regarding the same would be effective, some felt it wasn’t their responsibility at all and that as a law abiding state, there was scope for improvement only by government intervention. Others opposed the view saying that a social commitment cannot be forced upon people and as citizens we ought to imbibe the essential civic sense so as to achieve the social objective.

As a whole it was definitely an enriching experience. It is not reasonable to generalize since we are just in the early stages of the survey. Still, we had the satisfaction of interacting with people and hearing things from their perspective. We also got numerous suggestions and a general idea of what we are up against. Hope this helps us move further in our cause and bring about a marked change in the attitude of people.Old Hag dvd The Order buy