Saaf Aangan Dreams
October 22, 2006 on 5:54 pm In the late seventies I lived with my family in
Mexico City, where I noticed that our neighbours would wash the foot path
outside their house every day. But we, being good Indians, swept our home,
washed our driveway but left the pavement to the municipality. As a result,
the walkway outside our neighbours’ homes sparkled proudly while ours
remained dirty and sad. It didn’t take long before we felt ashamed and
followed the good ways of our neighbours.
While we were learning civic virtue in Mexico, a flight lieutenant in the
Indian Air Force, Madhu Sawant, had the same idea. He asked himself, what if
each Indian took care of the little space outside his home, office or shop?
So, when he retired he set up an NGO called “I Clean Bombay”. Redefining the
charming, wistful Hindi word, aangan, to mean the space between one’s
boundary wall and the middle of the street, he created the “Saaf Aangan
Scheme”, which was formally adopted in 2002 by Mumbai’s municipality. The
scheme allows an individual to lease the footpath outside his home from the
municipality for Rs 3 per year, and makes him officially responsible for
keeping it free of garbage, hawkers, and squatters.
In 2005, the NGO Council of Mumbai persuaded the municipality to convert
Saaf Aangan into enforceable Rules, which provide a fine for littering of Rs
1000 on citizens and Rs 100 for house owners, and also encouraged home
owners to keep litter bins on footpaths. In August 2006, the municipality
decided to upgrade Saaf Aangan rules into Bye-Laws to cover hawkers, who are
also responsible for keeping the surrounding space around them clean. There
are 300 Nuisance Detectors to enforce the fines. “Even a paanwala can apply
to the municipal ward office to lease the area around his stall,” says
Sawant.
Like many Indians I despair over the filth in our public spaces. But I am
embarrassed to complain as there are so many ills more pressing. In Saaf
Aangan, however, we may have the makings of a big idea for our grimy towns.
Its attraction is that it doesn’t depend on the state but on individual
initiative. It also feeds on self-interest rather than altruism because one
wants to return home to a clean doorstep. Any group of individuals in any
town in India can make it happen. It helps to rope in a sensitive municipal
commissioner, but that is not necessary. Before BMC got involved, 500
municipal schools and 83 police colonies were practicing Saaf Aangan. So
were citizen in neighbourhoods like N. Dutta Marg in Andheri (west), which
is now lined with trees and has flower beds along the boundary walls of all
its 35 residential complexes. Once a few get going it doesn’t take long for
neighbours to emulate as we learned in Mexico City.
Saaf Aangan should be easier to implement in smaller towns where the word
spreads faster, enforcement is easier, and there is greater sense of
belonging. Tanya Mahajan, a volunteer with Karmayog.org says, “Belonging and
ownership are an intrinsic part of this concept, and schools are a good
place to start”. So tomorrow, when you sweep your house, why not
absent-mindedly sweep the pavement in front of your door. You might create a
revolution. But remember, man is the only creature on this planet who is
truly dirty. And when we haven’t taken civic responsibility for two thousand
years, it won’t happen overnight.