Be the change

THE public toilets in government buildings, more often than not, remain nauseatingly dirty and unusable because they are not the priority of officials. They remain indifferent to the agonising trips that the visitors — often kept waiting for long periods by the staff and fed the ubiquitous tea/coffee/cold drinks — are forced to endure. They have their own little toilets, kept spanking clean by the very staff whose duty it is to also ensure healthy outings at the dark and dingy public restrooms. The senior officers’ involvement in this matter which begs for absolute necessity is limited to extolling the virtue of cleanliness during the much tom-tommed ‘swachhta’ drives held occasionally. Making the places dirtier is the public which generally lacks the civic sense of leaving the toilets flushed clean.

In a whiff of freshness, the Deputy Commissioner of Sirsa, Ashok Kumar Garg, has taken up the cudgels for cleanliness. Convinced that the district officials would ensure the cleanliness of the public toilets in the government complexes only if they themselves were made to use them, he has directed them to lock the restrooms attached to offices and deposit the keys with the DC office. Hopefully, he will be leading from the front, too.

Be the change you want to see in the world. Though this powerful line is often quoted, it is not so easy to implement. For, it entails a passion to set things right. It demands a lot of self-discipline. And, giving up of certain privileges that may come with wealth or position. It’s indeed a tall order and not many public servants have it in them to take on challenges, that usually have simple participatory goals. The key to the success of government programmes and schemes lies in involvement. As the rich and powerful prefer cripplingly costly and elitist private schools and hospitals, the government schools, despite qualified teachers and infrastructure, lag behind. The Allahabad High Court’s suggestion in 2015 that government employees send their wards to government schools created a furore. Because, sadly, the authorities never cared to make them good enough for themselves.