A hackish approach to Indian public hygiene.

As someone with limited yet worthy experience with software development, I appreciate hackish approaches with especially legacy software. Not much one can do otherwise either. But the significant change that even the tiniest of hacks can bring about in some legacy software is wonderful. They can either bring an entire multi-million dollar system down in seconds, or successfully troubleshoot them to run in seconds. Let's break to Indian public hygiene. Quite a break, I admit - but the environment is the same. A legacy system full of issues and wide ranging consequences, but still let to run because its end users take its hapless existence for granted, while its administrators - the government's health ministry work never mind, or at least mind with little significance. Why don't we try a hackish approach to this too?

Most would disagree with me, for they believe that such a really broken down system needs to remade from scratch for it to function properly. I too shared their views, until I entered the field of software development. Public hygiene isn't a piece of code which can be erased and rewritten. Firstly, its current version can't be erased and secondly, it isn't a thing to be made. Its a bunch of principles together that constitute a healthy and safe environment for all around. In India, given her diversity and long standing history of ignorance, it is difficult to revamp such a system on a large scale. It needs to be done on a micro level, and in a subconscious way.

The first issue in public hygiene in India, is waste disposal. There is no use in just collecting garbage together and burning it where there is no or little human presence. It just adds up to even more smoke and air pollution. In short, solids and semi-solids become gaseous, but stuff still remains! One clever way to fix this would be to levy an inhuman penalty on anybody who doesn't adhere to garbage segregation policies. In India, everybody is after the cheapest item - nobody wants to pay if possible. So, we must attack those non-aligners with tough penalties. Singapore is the best example of such litter-based penalty enforcement. Seems, if someone drops a tiny item of garbage, they pay up 500$ immediately. Indian police would love more money through such official outlets. Citizens don't litter, enjoy healthy air and surroundings, and the government saves millions on useless garbage management issues. Let's bring some common sense via such a hack, and we would be amazed at the large scale change it results in. If everyone were to observe this, India would go way behind in her malarial, and other waste-borne diseases woes. This is the first hack, because it concerns everyone in India.

Next up, is the issue of public urination/spitting/excretion. As a civilization, we have lived the longest (The Chinese might contend with this statement) and therefore we must expect ourselves to have identified and developed best practices with respect to most aspects of life - not just spirituality or religion or such non-existent but academic entities. Just as in software development, how large corporations like IBM, Microsoft and Oracle are famous for defining best practices for almost everything concerning software and hardware, by virtue of their length of existence in this area. Such an issue of public exhibition of bodily waste is unacceptable, but unstoppable. Our bodies aren't of infinite storage, and we unfortunately don't have swap space either (:-P, for the systems folks). My hack for this would be to teach people how to release their burden in a public space. Not stop them from doing so, which would only lead to severe public outcry :-D. I'm sure that best practices can be easily identified with just simple thoughts for this hack. For instance, teach everyone that if they want to urinate in public - they could do so in places where there is soil or vegetation to absorb the liquid. Urination on concrete or roads or any other element is only going to cause stagnation. The same applies to the other two. Mother earth is not just a strata for support, she also absorbs things. Such things are good for soil fertility too, as explained by Science. I know it would seem ridiculous to think that we could police people who don't follow these best practices, but unfortunately we have come to a state in environmental conditions that unless we crack down on such deviations from convention, we would end up the dirtiest and most unhygienic place and people on earth. Incredible India would be renamed Indifferent India.

In rural areas, people are closer to nature than those in urban areas. They thus prefer to co-exist with nature closer than urban citizens can do. The morning routine is thus realized outdoors, with nature's warmth all around. A simple best practice for this would be: 'Just create a small pit, finish your routine into it and close the pit with mud/soil from nearby. Not only does this ensure the soil gets to absorb the excreta, but it is closed to possible disease carriers. Similarly, compost waste from the kitchen can be buried underground like this. This would make the surrounding soil quite fertile and also help in a greener livelihood.

India has a health budget. The health ministry rarely announces schemes to bring about efficient waste disposal and management systems or patch up the existing one(s). This would create national frustration, but patience for two years as in most other schemes would yield fantastic results. These hacks are simple to both enforce and uphold as well as don't interfere with the existing system. I only hope that those with authority implement such policies as soon as possible, else get to read this piece and be encouraged to do so!