Hygiene and the Conservative Indian Railway System

Dr Ramamurthy Seth has been pronouncing a lot about the H1N1 infections and what could be the most efficient way to tackle the demon’s nails. It takes me a lot of energy to comprehend the clause, looking hastily down the papers in the dawdling Indian train. The conditioned air within the chamber was not all that conditioned for a comfortable journey, but yes – it was reasonably fine. I see the statistic reports that point to the evident dwindle in the daily toll of the dreaded disease, the influenza that did more damage to what the global recession had left behind. Of course Dr Seth, we all know cleanliness and hygiene had much to do with every disease and it is always taken for granted. Nobody finds a need to discuss them seriously in medical papers these days.

Most of these trains refused my right to stay cozy on a journey; and for the same reason, I never found privilege to travel with these machines. The first class Chambers had an economic design, telling me, “Son, you are travelling in a country of Gandhian Philosophy.” Was that a joke intended? The Alappey station let the pacing Classic Machine out of the Indian novels pause, but momentary. I could see a lot of improvements at the station, none worth mentioning, because they still just managed to satisfy basic human needs.

A pity that the railways stick to the Dark Age measures to keep the station clean and running, even with a billion dollar, government owned, money vending machine  tootling with a little more than a million passengers across the length and breadth of the country at a peak hour. Was expansion all that mattered? It wasn’t very sensible to understand why the lavatory waste management system was so ancient; making this efficient, economic and reliable appliance of public transportation, a machine that defecates all along the path, irrespective of its location, speed or time.

Unfortunately, the authorities and public activists take long to recognize that the railways become serious unhygienic environments and a barter market to infections. Would it count so uneconomic a deal for the Indian democracy to initiate measures to render the Railways hygienic? Posters and sponsored awareness boards would endow with entertainment not cleanliness. It is time for a rising society to understand what hygiene means to it. Hygiene is not just a way to keep healthy. It is a status symbol.

I had been witness to an Australian tourist who dropped himself into the broad, stinging, dirt logged water channel along the Adayar station, protesting at its condition. He refused to get himself to the platform unless the authorities promised him satisfactory measures. Poor for the man, he never probably knew it would cost three hours and a quarter of his hip deep stay in the filth drench for an authority to bother about his interest, before he ventured for the adventure. Whatever he was of a social activist, I expected at least a genuine few to regret the situation at his presence. What a shame that he was left away without an offer for a shower or at the least a word of thanks for having opened their eyes! What a pity that when an alien man no related to us finds displeasure at the situation, we ourselves just walk away with napkins across the nostrils! No change has come over the Adayar Station, if it has not gone worse, discerning from my visit to Adayar a few weeks back.

It is not expected out of one of the most successful railways, to maintain the ancient lavatory system that disposes the excrement with no regulations. The machine behaves as an involuntary animal that has no control over its bowels. If incinerators turn to be convincingly uneconomic, this seriously wouldn’t be, I suggest some R&D for a control system that at least prevents the disposal at the proximity of the station. Pay per use toilets could be a good idea, provided the conservatives do not come out with red placards pointing to the fact that the government questioned their human right to pass on the bowels.

The giant gained its tempo down rural Cochin. The situations seemed to get worse. A to be metro with the most fragile sanitation and waste disposal system, the drains along the rails often shared the water ways. The easiest way to move the wastes from the slums were to pack it into the clogged drainage. Not just does this affect the slums, because it is rule that every part of this metro is a web whose stability is determined by every other part. The epicenter might never be the railways and hygiene; but the periphery of course is.

Dr Seth was expressing himself, discussing hygiene. Maybe it is an established fact; but what shields knowledge is always practice. Green House Effect and Global Warming are natural phenomenon. They would happen if all humanity had existed or not. What burns the hole is that we are accelerating it. With billion dollar projects to cut emissions and a hundred thousand dollar fines on industry management for not abiding by the rules, we could cut Global Warming marginally. But we are making no better places. It is like cutting your nails.

It wouldn’t require a global summit to discuss ways to keep your society clean. Neither of course do we want a G20 summit to discuss climate control. With China and UAE generating artificial rainfalls and fighting drought, we sit back and speak of how Mother Nature wouldn’t like it if we wrestle the drought like that. Would that again require a billion dollar venture?

Hygiene is not a right country men, hygiene is duty. When something becomes every man’s right, it forever becomes each man’s duty to himself and to others. You cannot view hygiene from any different perspective gentlemen; Love, anger and respect could be; not hygiene. It is defined by wisdom, not words.

A lot ahead at a local station in rural Palakkad, I observed someone’s good initiative; a bright pole lamp powered by a solar cell. Such little things matter a lot. They require appreciation. Maybe things would change. The eco friendly lamp lights up the intellectuality of the society, but I had be happier if I had seen the semi-automated device switched off; because no gentleman desires for a street light at this midday hour.