Garbage problem of India

Garbage Problem 

Garbage problem in the cities of India is a metaphor for garbage in the minds of officials of those cities. It is also indicative of intellectual bankruptcy so glaringly evident in India. The fact that a country that can send a satellite to Mars has not figured out how to dispose off garbage safely should tell you their mindset.

For decades now there is a huge perpetually burning garbage pile just a stone throw away from the front of MGM college. Udupi municipality has not done a damn thing about it. There has not been any attempt by citizens of Udupi to do anything about it. There is now an almost dead Consumers' Forum, which I started 34 years ago. Day and night the garbage pile is spewing out toxic smoke into the air and homes of people of Udupi. I don't know if this problem still exists. If it still does it is a black eye for citizens of Udupi.

In Bangalore, there is no proper garbage disposal system. Everywhere there are piles of stinking, rotting garbage. People are urinating and defecating all over the place. Bangalore Municipality is up to its eyebrow in corruption; too busy making illicit money to be bothered by such a trivial things.

There are thousands of "educated" and "successful" youngsters in Bangalore: software engineers, bankers, investment agents, doctors, etc. Recently I met with 25 of them in a public meeting. They called themselves "Freethinkers." I pointed out to them how Bangalore has become one of the dirtiest cities in the world. When I asked them why they had not done anything to tackle this problem, they all said in chorus, "WHAT CAN WE DO?"

These are the so-called educated youth of India. Their only response is loaded with helplessness and hopelessness. Fear and passivity rule their lives.

But then it is too much to expect from these youngsters whose only goal is to make money, buy big condos, and drive flashy cars. Don't call this pessimism. It is realism.

The other day my sister-in-law met with a successful gynecologist in Mangalore. His wife had suffered three bouts of malaria in three years. His house was the den of giant mosquitoes. He did not have enough sense to install screen over his house's windows. When my sister-in-law asked him, "Why can't you guys do something about this mosquito problem?" He shot back, "If Dr. Kamath comes here, maybe he could do something about it." In effect this gynecologist (a Konkani to boot) was saying, "I am helpless and hopeless to do anything. Someone else should do things for me."

 Such is the sad state of affairs with India's youth today.