A recent case that made headlines in India was the case of a young Bollywood actor - Ranbir Kapoor - a heart throb of millions of girls – who are going head over heels for this cute chocolate hero.
Recently, the police in the state of Maharashtra caught Ranbir peeing on a highway. He was instantly fined 200 rupees - about US$4. Ranbir not only paid the penalty he also vouched never to repeat his act again.
Who knows? In future he might become an icon for dissemination of message of sanitation and hygiene among the masses!
The other example is of a few government buildings in Uttar Pradesh – an Indian state known for illiteracy, poverty and population – and for paan and tobacco chewing men. The corners of all public places – even hospitals are coloured red with paan spit. A few years back the administration in a few buildings enforced heavy penalties for spitting. And voila! Those buildings are now comparatively clean.
In the times of recession, India is emerging as one of the most favoured destination for tourism. Every year it is witnessing an inflow of millions of travellers from different parts of the globe.
Thus, now it is no secret that sanitation and hygiene stand last anywhere on the agenda in the Indian society.
All road sides and all corners at any place – even at the tourist monuments – serve as 'conveniences' for men – especially in the urban areas. The sides of all railway tracks function as free and open toilets for people in urban and rural areas, both.
All those who visited Mumbai for Global Forum on Sanitation in October 2011, witnessed the most common scene on their way to or from the airport to the conference venue – people in congregation squatting on the roadsides or near railway tracks. The sight was visible even from the five-star hotel where the conference was being held - there was a railway track next to the hotel located next to Powai lake.
Spitting on the road is a common phenomenon in India and throwing rubbish anywhere on the road is taken as a birthright by most people. The worst aspect of the issue is that the educated and urban society too, does not pay any heed to issues of sanitation and hygiene, at times.
In such situation a strict implementation of Tort seems to be a solution, considering the examples of Ranbir Kapoor and the government buildings where strict law coupled with a penalty showed positive results.
A Tort is a civil wrong. The word comes from Latin expression ‘Tortum’ – which means to twist. The English equivalent is ‘wrong’ and in Roman it is ‘delict.
Tort covers all those acts which are twisted, crooked or unlawful. In simpler words – people are expected to behave in certain ways and when they deviate from that path it is said that they have committed a tort.
The suggestion should ignite a normal reaction that a strict tort law will cause violation of human rights – especially of those who are weak and marginalised (in case of sanitation and hygiene it is people who do not have toilets).
So the answer to that is that we – working in this sector - are already pushing the governments to improve infrastructure in the field of sanitation. Now the need is to imbibe the habit in people to use these toilets and evolve a culture of self restriction in terms of not littering the road – not dirtying their surroundings – keeping in mind that by doing so they are saving themselves from violating the rights of others to live in clean and hygienic environment.
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