Lack of Civic sense: A mere obligation or a mere inconvenience

Lack of Civic Sense has been a topic that’s been argued, debated on in India with no results, as most Indians do not care for civic sense, people today are so driven towards their personal goals that civic sense takes a back seat and is a nuisance and bother.

Many believe that civic sense is just about keeping our roads, neighbourhood, public property, etc clean and neat but its more than that…it has to do with law abiding, respect for fellowmen and maintaining decorum in public places. A total disregard and lack of civic sense comes from separatism, vandalism, intolerance, road rage, etc, people are becoming less and less tolerant of each other, of other cultures, backgrounds etc and have no consideration of fellow city dwellers. Passing by a bus, a car one is not sure that one will be safe from spit flying from a moving bus, packets and bottles being thrown by a moving car, and sometimes food being littered on the roads, the stench and garbage lying unattended for days together leading to diseases like Dengue, Typhoid, Jaundice etc.

Everywhere you go, you are witness to spit marks, urine marks, vulgar graffiti’s, monuments and building being scribbled on, marble stones broken and names scribbled on. The term “everybody does it so why blame me” is an excuse, it’s difficult for a country to change its mindset when its leaders are setting bad examples round the clock.

So let’s face it: there is no denying that we Indians lack the basic civic sense whether it is our roads, bus stops, railway stations, ticket queues, public places, etc. Lack of civic sense is not far to seek, we find it all pervading no matter where we go, be it our own home, our neighbourhood colony roads, office, theatres or restaurants.  The very fact that even with garbage bins being put up at public places by the government we tend to litter the roads...dirtying and damaging our monuments is our birthright and no one can stop us….that’s the attitude. “kya kar Lega”.

The reasons for all this are that we have never been taught to treat things that belong to us and others nicely, kindly and well. We never educate our kids to treat neighbourhood, society, public property as something meant to be kept clean and neat. We clean our homes and throw our garbage in front of our neighbours’ house, we eat sweets, chocolates, chips and throw the wrapper on the roads, rivers, etc.

In the end without civic morality….communities perish. It’s time we got our acts together and truly change our habits and ways of life. It’s the small things that make a big difference. We refuse to learn and do anything positive yet claim we are proud Indians. When we should be ashamed that we can’t keep our country, cities, towns and villages clean. It’s all in the mind and to make a difference we have to look into our own conscience before blaming or pointing a finger at our neighbour. Clean up our dirty filthy minds first before cleaning the nation.