Reality of Civic Sense in India | The Problem is NOT What You Think | Dhruv Rathee

Hello, friends. In Copenhagen, Denmark, every 5-minute walk you'll find a clean public toilet. There are no holes on the roads. No car drives in the lane. And there is no noise of horns.

If you walk on the road, there are footpaths everywhere. And cars stop for you at zebra crossings. People's civic sense is at such a level that even while standing on the escalators, people stand in a line on one side even while standing on the escalators. So that those who have to go early, can climb the stairs on the escalators.

The entire city, public parks are so clean that you won't see any signs of garbage anywhere. And you even get money for returning plastic bottles. Now compare this scene with India. Most of the cities in the country have mountains of garbage. You find garbage lying around every street, corner, and crossroad. People look like they are cleaning after entering a gutter.

The public toilets are so bad that people start urinating on the roadside. The noise of the car horns is so loud that most people can hear the noise of their own horns. Footpaths and zebra crossings are not visible at half the places On top of that, people's behaviour is such that people cut the lines everywhere Without thinking, they just throw the garbage anywhere

This uncle is throwing all the garbage on the track This is the condition of Indian Railways All the workers are throwing the garbage

Hey, uncle!

It's written as Mant, it's a ministry!

It's strictly forbidden to urinate here.

These two countries are like two different worlds. But the question here is, were the people of Denmark more civilized by birth? Do Indians have less of a civic sense genetically?

Here, look at this.

The answer is obviously no. The formula that is used by developed countries like Denmark is very simple. After listening to it, you will also say that it's so simple. But at the same time, the topic of civic sense is much deeper. Believe me, what I will tell you in you in this video will change your perspective on thinking. The problem of civic sense is interlinked with three such problems that most people don't talk about.

Or you can say, don't want to talk about. The first problem is casteism and classism. In our country, the roots of casteism are deep.

Sit down.

Who are the people here to vote for Basma? Why are you sitting down? and classism. In our country, the roots of casteism are deep. Please sit.

Who are the people here to vote for Baspa? Why are you sitting down? Why are you sitting down? If you sit down, I will leave. You sit on this. No, you cannot sit on the bench.

The traditional work of the Bhangi caste has been to clean up. Gandhi ji had said that the Bhangi is like a mother to this society. Just like a mother protects her child from diseases, similarly a prostitute cleans the society and protects it from diseases. Gandhi ji gave her the status of a mother, but people considered her to be the lowest class, and used the word prostitute as an abject word.

If I get a step, I feel like I'm a being bullied. I am not looking good in this at all.

Just think about it. In a country where this attitude towards cleanliness is seen as a shameful thing, how will there be cleanliness in that country? Just a few days ago, I saw this news about politics. A 46-year-old Dalit woman was beaten up in Dhanbad district of Jharkhand, a 46-year-old Dalit woman was beaten up and abused by a casteist. Do you know what was the reason behind this? Because this woman had refused to clean for a shopkeeper for free. The truth is that most of the cleaners in our country are Dalits.

It's not about their caste. The problem is that they are forced to clean in the gutter. Many times, they die from poisonous gas. Is our country so poor that we have to clean in the gutter? And we can't even buy machines? Not at all. Our country is not that poor. It's just indifferent. When many Indians settle in foreign developed countries,

they clean their homes themselves. Because it's very expensive to call a domestic worker to clean. But in India, there is so much poverty, so much unemployment, that's why we can auction off our labor. You can get your home cleaned even with a very low price.

I would like to ask you a question here. The one who comes to work in your house, do you respect her? Do you treat her respectfully? In most of our societies, in our apartments, we have made separate elevators for them.

If they drink tea or water, we keep separate utensils for them. This is where the wrong mindset starts. People don't consider cleaning their own responsibility. In schools, homes, offices, there is always someone else who comes to clean.

The ones who come to our homes to collect garbage, we don't call them cleaners, but garbage collectors. It's a great irony, we spread garbage, but we call them garbage collectors.

Who are these people? Where do they come from?

People mentally and physically dissociate their identity from cleaning. This is a big difference from developed countries. Whether it's Canada, Germany, Japan or Australia, people separate their garbage from there. Most people clean their homes by themselves.

But in our country, a person stands on top of a garbage pile and collects garbage. And what is the plan of our politicians for cleaning? Now every 15 days, our minister goes to the garbage pile and tells him to stand up.

You have to go.

The second problem here is the government system. Have you seen clean public toilets in your city? I'm not talking about malls. I'm talking about public toilets. Most of the public toilets don't even have water.

You have to get water from home.

You have to get water from home. Even in the washroom. This is a washroom where you have to get your own water and pay for it.

Think about the toilet point. It stinks so much that either you die from the smell or you get a urinary tract infection.

Look at the condition of this place. Everyone is urinating here. It smells so bad here. Think about the civic sense of the people who are urinating here. But let me tell you a sad reality. This is actually a washroom which is locked.

Okay?

People have to urinate here out of helplessness. And think, if the female is also locked, where will she go? People say that there is no civic sense. People urinate openly. But think about it,

the street vendors who have been out of the house all day, they will definitely urinate somewhere. Or you can give them access to clean public toilets in malls. Or give them space in the market for their raiding. Put common toilets in those markets. But that's not it either. Think about it from their perspective.

When there is no option, they will obviously urinate on the roadside. Similarly, are there footpaths on the roadside? Are there zebra crossings everywhere? No. Are there lane markings and signs properly placed on the roads so that people know

where to take which turn? No. On the contrary, in our country, there are flyovers where a 90-degree turn suddenly appears. Or this flyover,

which suddenly became a two-lane from a four-lane. How can you expect people to drive cars in the lane amidst all this infrastructure? Surprisingly, The surprising thing is that the river Ganga is flowing in our country.

People are not asking for their rights. They are blaming each other. Zero sense.

Zero sense. Someone is making a video. Get lost.

Where is the civic sense? I agree that many people don't have civic sense. I will talk about the reasons later in the video. But what sense did it make to just say that they don't have civic sense.

They don't have civic sense. They don't deserve you. Modiji, it's the people's fault. You should throw them in the sea of India.

And order a new public on Amazon or Flipkart.

I hope you understood that this video was a satire. Of course, we can't bring a new public from anywhere. We have to teach the people of this country. But who will teach? How will we get civic sense? The influencers and content creators who talk about this

are doing their best. But you or I can't force anyone to learn. We are not police officers. Nor are we a government that can make new laws. Nor can we impose a fine fine anyone for doing something wrong. So obviously, the government will have to do this.

Whether it's the teaching of civic sense in school curriculum or fining people for spreading filth. But you will fine people for spreading filth only when there is cleanliness somewhere. When there is a system somewhere. Think about it. A person who lives in a smelly settlement,

whose streets are full of garbage, whose streets are littered with garbage, whose streets are filled with filth, whose streets are filled with dirty water, whose kids don't have clean toilets in public schools.

How much smell do you get from this?

A person who has never seen cleanliness, how will you teach him the lesson of civic sense? Once there is cleanliness in his place, only then will you tell him not to make it dirty. First, put a dustbin. Then only you will tell them to put the garbage in the dustbin. Public toilets should be made where there is cleanliness, water and soap.

Then only you will tell them to use the toilet. After that, it is flushed. There should be footpaths on the roadside. There should be lanes for cycling. There should be beautiful flowers everywhere. That's when you'll say, don't pluck flowers. But if this man living in this dirty settlement goes to a clean and clean society where he sees flowers, then obviously he'll want to pluck those flowers

because for him, this is the first exposure to beauty. I'm not justifying the plucking of flowers. I'm just saying, think about it from his perspective. A person who has never seen clean and beautiful things in his life, what will be his behavior? The thing is, people here have a herd mentality.

A behavior of discrimination. Where there is dirt, everyone is spreading dirt, so they too don't hesitate to open their car window and throw a wrapper on the road. But where there is cleanliness, where they feel that they have made the place dirty,

everyone's eyes are on them. Then the same person is afraid to throw a wrapper of chips. You can see this example in Indian cities as well. Like Delhi Metro. Or at airports or malls. If a few stubborn people are left out, then most people don't actually spread filth in these places.

They are afraid of what people will think about them. They don't want to be noticed by everyone. And this is only because there is already cleanliness in these places. A system is set. That's why until the government takes the first step, it is very difficult to achieve anything. And unfortunately, the situation is so bad that it is not even in the manifesto of the government that there will be cleanliness in your area.

And even the poor people who deliver Zomato Blinket for Rs.10, who are forced to eat free grains, they don't even dream of cleanliness. There will be trees, flowers and dustbins in the streets. So it is clear that if the system is right, the right tools are available, the results will come automatically,

even if people's civic sense is not. You will understand this better when I explain the example of Denmark in detail in the next video. But this is also applicable to AI. Most people just ask 2-3 questions in the chat GPT and think that this is AI. But if you get the right system,

you can write a full working website without a single line of code. No technical background is required. Similarly, without knowledge of design, you can make full PowerPoint presentations, reports. And these are just a small example. I personally come and teach you more than 25 AI tools

in my AI Masterclass live. This 3-hour live workshop is for non-technical people. Students, professionals, creators and business owners. The cost is only as much as two movie tickets. And more than 50,000 people have attended it. You can see the reviews on the screen.

And the next session is on Sunday. But if you can't come live for any other reason, you can watch the recording for 7 days. You can find the link to join in the description below. Or you can scan this QR code. Now let's talk about the third problem behind Civic Sense.

Which is Empathy. What do the rich people care about these settlements? They talk about cleanliness from the top, but how to reduce waste, how to make better waste disposal mechanisms, how to make compost pits, how to make better urban planning, they are not ready to talk about all this in detail.

They are happy to live in their own bubble. They will buy flats worth crores, there will be a swimming pool in the apartment, lawn, tennis ground, gym, everything. But the surrounding villages would be filled with garbage. There would be piles of garbage. In the drone images of many cities,

we can clearly see the difference between the rich and the poor. A wall is clearly visible. The rich people living on this side of the wall have never dreamt of a beautiful city. The feudal mindset is embedded in people's minds. They have no community feeling.

Think about it, billionaires like Ambani Adani have so much money that they can make a large part of a city clean and tidy. But they won't spend money on it. They will build a tall palace amidst this filth. They will put all the luxury things inside their palace. But they won't have any problem with it.

The filth and garbage that are visible from the window. Garbage and filth. Everything is fine. To put this community feeling in people, no God is going to take incarnation. I will tell you their message. You have to have empathy towards others. You have to think that someone else will have to clean my mess.

So I shouldn't do the mess. And you will think about this And once you leave the house, you'll think later. This mindset should be in your house too. Everywhere you litter, scattered stuff,

fake utensils, calcium in the bathroom, take responsibility for it and think about it. While checking out from the hotel, your empty water bottle, empty packets should be put in the trash can.

After eating in restaurants, collect all the utensils from your hands in a corner of the table, so that it is easier for the waiter to take them. Next time when you leave the building, hold the door for the person behind you.

The day these small changes come into your behavior, that day your empathy will awaken. You will feel concerned for others. And that is called civic sense. But people often comment on such videos that the people who should watch this video are not watching it.

So for those people, as I said, the government will have to do this work. By teaching civic sense in school curriculum, by explaining in class that casteism is a mental illness. It is not a matter of shame to clean up, it is a matter of pride. It should be taught to respect cleanliness. How to separate your garbage. If you're watching a video in a public place,

put on earphones so that others don't get disturbed. All this has to be taught in class. Second, a system has to be made and finally, to maintain that system, rules have to be made. There are stubborn people in every country, even in developed countries. But the difference is that the system is such that they get punished and there is no disturbance for the rest of the people.

There is no need to give a very severe punishment here. Rather, the possibility of getting punished is very high. Even if you keep a fine of only 500 rupees or keep a jail for just one day, but there should be a high probability that if someone has spread filth somewhere, then you will not be able to save yourself. You will have to pay the fine. You will have to go to jail for a day.

By doing this, the habit of civic sense will come to you. Gradually, people will have a concern for others and a feeling of community will also arise. The people of Denmark have a feeling of community. This is called Samfundsinn. It means social mindedness. Keeping the interests of the society above yourself.

This feeling was seen in Denmark during the Corona period. In India, some people say that to bring civic sense, you need to beat people, fine them, send them to jail. But the most impactful thing is empathy. To raise the feeling of empathy among people.

In Denmark, people have concerned about each other. They follow the rules in shared spaces. Maintain public hygiene. They behave respectfully towards others. This is because they have social awareness. And this is enough to bring in civic sense.

Actually, there is another reason too. There is no casteism there. A poor person, a cleaner, a housekeeping staff in a hotel, is seen from a human perspective. The work of cleanliness is given respect.

In India, people are still confused about sorting garbage in dry and wet garbage. But in Denmark, garbage is sorted in 10 different categories. For glass, different. For dustbin, different. For metal, different. For plastic, different. For paper, different. For food and drink cartons, different. For cardboard, different. For textiles, different.

For food waste are different. Cardboard is different. Textiles are different. Food waste is different. Hazardous waste is different. And residual waste is different. People don't wait for someone to come who will come with a garbage bag and sort my garbage in 10 different ways. No.

People install dustbins at their homes to sort the garbage in 10 different ways. 10 different compartments are made at their homes. And it doesn't end here. Only the most generated waste is collected by someone. But hazardous waste, textiles, electronic waste,

you have to collect them and take them to a recycling centre. In a city, usually, there are 3-4 recycling centres to collect waste. People have to go to the recycling centres

to deposit the waste. If this was in India, people would be lazy and dump the hazardous waste in normal garbage. Which they do now. But in Denmark, people struggle to go to the recycling centers. Because they know that if the hazardous waste goes to our environment, and spreads in our city, they will be the ones to suffer.

And it's not just Denmark. This is what happens in Germany, Switzerland, New Zealand and most developed countries. Trash disposal is a cost in Switzerland. You can only dispose your garbage in municipal bags. And you have to buy these municipal bags. On the other hand, you are given free recycling facilities

so that people can be encouraged. The biggest challenge in recycling is plastic bottles and aluminium cans. In India, the problem of plastic is so big that whether it is the Pangong lake of Ladakh or the Sukhna lake of Chandigarh, whether it is Kerala or Manipur, the problem of plastic waste is seen everywhere. But you will not find this problem in most of the European countries. Because in countries like Denmark and Germany, there is a PAN system for plastic bottles.

You must have seen vending machines where you put money and the bottles come out. Here, reverse vending machines are installed. Where you put an empty bottle and you get some money in return. Actually, whenever you buy something in a plastic bottle, you always have to pay some extra money. Which is like a deposit. which are like deposits. Later, when you return the empty bottles

in reverse vending machines, you get your money back. This whole system is not based on fines, but on rewards. This motivates everyone to not throw plastic bottles anywhere.

Because they have money. You will get money when you return them. Denmark's Bornholm Island is being made completely waste-free. Everything that is produced on that island will be reused or recycled. Their aim is to make it the world's first waste-free community by 2032.

How exactly they will achieve this is an interesting story. We will talk about it later. But this attitude is seen in everything in Denmark. Cycling is very common in Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark. It is one of the most bicycle-friendly cities in the world. 64% of commuters travel here by cycle.

They have also built sustainable 5-minute neighborhoods. Where you can go to your workplace, school, or shopping with the help of public transport and cycle. Everything is within your 5-minute radius. This makes people travel more. People are healthier and cars are used less.

In Denmark, to cut down CO2 emissions, climate-friendly asphalt is also being used. Trees are planted on the roadsides to create shade and to control the temperature. In most developed countries, there is a policy of pedestrian first.

That is, if a pedestrian is about to cross the road, the cars will have to stop in front of him. Whether there is a traffic light or not. Apart from this, no one will honk. In fact, this thing about honking is so interesting that India is one of the only countries in the world

where people keep honking for no reason. Playing the horn in other countries is so rare that you will hardly hear the sound of the horn once or twice a month. This keeps the streets very quiet. In India, we normally see that to develop an area, to make residential areas, the nature is completely removed from there.

And then the building is built and grass-lawn parks are built in the middle. But in Denmark, we see climate parks. Where nature is allowed to live in its natural form. All these things work as a holistic solution. People think about them only when they have empathy for their community. For the people around them.

And this is a positive feedback loop. When there is cleanliness, good environment, clean air, climate change is being stopped, noise pollution is being reduced, then the community feeling increases. There is a Restroom Association of Singapore

which examines public toilets and gives them 3, 4 or 5 stars. The one who scores well in the toilet gets the Happy Toilet logo and RAS promotes them on their website. Similarly, in Japan, civics are taught in schools. The children clean the classroom corridors and toilets themselves. For this, they are given 15-20 minutes after lunch or at the end of school.

This is called Osoji. This is inspired by the philosophy of Buddhism and Shintoism. Where respect is encouraged for cleanliness, mutual kindness and shared spaces. Similarly, in schools in European countries like Germany, Sweden, Czech Republic, Netherlands, children are taught recycling and waste management practices since childhood. Similarly, getting in line properly runs in the blood of England.

In the citizenship test, you can be asked questions about getting in line properly. People of Canada are known to make a neat and orderly queue. In many countries like Russia and the UAE, we can see escalator etiquette. One side for standing and the other side people to walk on the escalator. A system can be made for all this. Like the queue manager at the fastener.

You must have seen it at the airports. Why don't they do the same at the railway station? Why don't they do it in a bhandare or a temple? Why do we think that these poor people should be allowed to climb on top of each other? Why do we let a stampede happen there?

At least 30 dead, more than 60 injured. The world's largest religious congregation turned into a nightmare in the wee hours of January 29.

Municipalities and police can make this a part of their clearance procedures. Showing the entrance and exit plan. Showing the sitting plan. Showing the crowd management mechanisms, queue managers. So, you can see the whole picture here. Clean roads without any holes.

Zebra crossings, pavements, greenery, trees, flowers, clean air, no noise, no alcohol. Toilets and dustbins everywhere. Separating your own garbage from yours. Forcing people to recycle. Can't all this done in India?

Of course it can. Anything can happen if the politicians have the right intention. This is the way to make systems. And then to maintain them. And people can be employed for this. I request all the Chief Ministers of the country

to take this step forward. Make your place beautiful. Make our country beautiful. This will boost the tourism of the country and people will be happier. We need to do all this urgently. Countries in Africa that were once so far behind India,

have become cleaner than India. There is a country in Rwanda that is considered the cleanest country in Africa. If you want to know how they achieved such cleanliness and civic sense, I have told you in this ground report video. You can click here to watch it. And by clicking here you can join AI Masterclass.

You will also find its link in the description below. You will also find its link in the description below. Thank you very much.