The role of behavioural change communication in nudging citizens towards cleanliness is important. The Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’s “swachhta pakhwada” is one such initiative.
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Clean space is a prerequisite to a clean mind. Be it remote villages or cities, cleanliness is the utmost striking factor while scrutinising a place. The very desire of humankind to clean and change its habits, is what makes humans capable of saving both: the environment and the future.
Only behavioural change in humans can engender the idea of bringing change and contributing to a much cleaner society.
The pining thought of changing habits and mentality surrounding cleanliness, hygiene, and sanitation associates the theory of behavioral change in communication to cleanliness.
The Swacch Bharat Abhiyan’s (Clean India Mission) “swachhta pakhwada” (fortnight of cleanliness) is one such initiative, aimed to kindle the innate idea of cleanliness not just in the thoughts of citizens, but also in their ideas and actions.
Behavioural Changes Are Important
One obvious question that arises is why do we refrain from disposing off an empty plastic bottle on a seemingly clean street?
The very idea of not dirtying a place, is behavioural and innate in the minds of some people, while others may think the contrary.
The Swacch Bharat Abhiyan links such people together, who either communicate or bring in the change, voluntarily. The participation of people is linked to their behaviours, attitudes, and the psychology of what they understand as right and wrong.
Hence, roping in “behavioural changes” in people’s lifestyles, will hammer down the persistent habits of people they think is normal.
Cleanliness Is Everyone’s Responsibility
Awareness is the backbone of “behavioural change communication” these days, when it comes to cleanliness and hygiene.
Unless and until people themselves raise their guards and brace themselves for a clean environment, the ecosystem may not be able to encompass the current standard of living in the future.
While the present is hauling with the dearth of waste management, Swacchta Abhiyan aims to communicate and spread awareness on how cleanliness can make life better, when it starts at your own home.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said the following in a speech:
“Cleaning up the country cannot be the sole responsibility of sweepers. Do citizens have no role in this? We have to change this mindset. According to the World Health Organization, an average of ₹6,500 per person was lost in India due to a lack of cleanliness and hygiene. Swachh Bharat would make a significant impact on public health and in safeguarding the income of the poor, ultimately contributing to the national economy. Cleanliness cannot be achieved through budget allocation. Behavioral change is the solution. It should become a mass movement.”
The Role Of Community Awareness
With regards to cleanliness, behavioural change communication also plays a vital role in the Swacch Hygiene Index, developed in support of the mission, to evaluate varying parameters like water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), on a scale of 5.
One of the main areas of evaluation is the health, and behavioural change communication that kicked off various initiatives by volunteers across Indian states.
How can one engender behavioural change in a person when it comes to cleanliness? How can we communicate to others about the grave need for this change in mindset? All of it begins with community awareness.
Street Plays Promoting Swacchta Among Masses
There have been several traditional and non-traditional initiatives by a bevy of volunteers who communicate behavioural changes through creative means like nukkad natak (street plays), posters, art, Swacchta campaigns on the radio etc.
The Vadodra Municipal Corporation (VMC) set up one such example of communicating behavioural change to people through its street plays, to spread awareness about sanitation and cleanliness.
Nukkad natak, which is a traditional and rural way of communication, has now found its own space in communicating socially-relevant ideas to the masses on the streets, even in cities.
The faculty of performing arts of the Maharaja Sayajirao University of Baroda (MSU), had long been identified by the VMC for the purpose of staging plays.
Women In Bihar Build Toilets In Their Village
Senior IAS (Indian Administrative Service) officer, Parameswaran Iyer also paved towards a clean India voluntarily, by emptying a public, toilet pit with his bare hands.
Shattering some of the stigma lurking around cleaning toilets, Iyer made no bones about entering the toilet pit and cleaning it, while he was on a visit to Gangadevipalli, as a part of the Swachh Bharat initiative.
In another anecdotal instance, The Wire reported that women in Bihar took charge of building toilets, with self-help groups (SHGs) in the villages of Jehanabad.
Poonam Devi and Nageena Devi succeeded in their mission of ensuring that no one in their village defecates in the open.
“No Toilet, No Bride!”
Awareness towards hygiene and the motivation of women from rural areas, overcame their lack of access to education.
The idea of “change beginning at home”, helped the women of Jehanabad overcome the challenges of open defecation.
Similarly, class 10 girls in Bihar chose to boycott jewellery until their parents built toilets in their homes, to save them from the shame of defecating in the open.
One such behavioural changing awareness is reflected in the slogan “no toilet, no bride!” coined by maulana Yahya Karimi, a sarpanch in Haryana.
We Must End Open Defecation
Karimi said that, “Open defecation is not only an unhygienic habit, but also, it often leads to crimes against women. So, unless a groom has a toilet at his house, he won’t get a bride.”
The staff of the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, on the occasion of Swatchta Pakhwada, also took the swacchta pledge and organised a cleanliness drive across regional campuses.
Given such enthusiasm, the stride towards a cleaner and hygienic environment, empowers everyone in the country to go Swachh, and bring in the change, starting from their homes.
This will happen only when people, voluntarily, start changing their own behaviours and mindset regarding a clean environment.