Here's a Reuters' blog post on lack of hygiene in India:
My Indian friends and I joke around a lot about me as the typical white American guy visiting India. Cows! Con men! Colors! Most people Ive met in India have restricted their reactions to my westerner-in-the-east experiences to gentle teasing. When I stuck a picture of a man urinating in public on my Facebook page, calling it one more picture of what you see everywhere you go in India, people werent as patient. What was I doing? Insulting the nation? Focusing on the ugly because its what all the westerners do when they visit India? Why does India provoke such visceral reactions in visitors?
Public urination, public defecation, dirt, garbage, *****, the poor living on the street talking about these things, even acknowledging that theyre in front of your face, risks making your hosts unhappy, and possibly angry. Its the third rail of India, and the voltage can be lethal. Thats why I was surprised when B.S. Raghavan decided to touch it with all 10 fingers.
Raghavans column in The Hindu Business Line newspaper begins with this headline: Are Indians by nature unhygienic?
Consider these excerpts:
From time to time, in their unguarded moments, highly placed persons in advanced industrial countries have burst out against Indians for being ****** and dirty in their ways of life. A majority of visitors to India from those countries complain of Delhi belly within a few hours of arrival, and some fall seriously ill.
There is no point in getting infuriated or defensive about this. The general lack of cleanliness and hygiene hits the eye wherever one goes in India hotels, hospitals, households, work places, railway trains, airplanes and, yes, temples. Indians think nothing of spitting whenever they like and wherever they choose, and living in surroundings which they themselves make unliveable by their dirty habits.
Open defecation has become so rooted in India that even when toilet facilities are provided, the spaces round temple complexes, temple tanks, beaches, parks, pavements, and indeed, any open area are covered with faecal matter.
Even as Indians, we are forced to recoil with horror at the infinite tolerance of fellow Indians to pile-ups of garbage, overflowing sewage, open drains and generally foul-smelling environs.
Theres plenty more that you can read in that story, but Ill direct you to the article. Ill also ask you some questions:
Some people say you shouldnt point out these problems, and that every country has problems. Do you agree with this statement? Why?
Does anyone disagree with Raghavans descriptions of these sights and smells?
Is this even a problem? Or should people get used to it?
Should visitors, especially ones from countries where people are generally wealthier, say nothing, and pretend that they dont see unpleasant things?
As for me, I can say this: I got used to it, but I would be lying if I said I didnt notice it. Indians notice it too. Otherwise, people wouldnt suggest public shaming campaigns against people urinating in public, they wouldnt threaten fines for doing it, and they wouldnt respond with relief to plans to finally make sure that toilets on Indias trains dont open directly onto the tracks. Of course, these are people in India. Its a family, taking care of business the family way.
As for me, the message usually seems to be: If you dont love it, leave it. It would be nice if there were some other answer. Acknowledging problems, even ones that are almost impossible to solve, makes them easier to confront.
Indians: inherently unhygienic? Indian writer touches third rail | India Insight
My Indian friends and I joke around a lot about me as the typical white American guy visiting India. Cows! Con men! Colors! Most people Ive met in India have restricted their reactions to my westerner-in-the-east experiences to gentle teasing. When I stuck a picture of a man urinating in public on my Facebook page, calling it one more picture of what you see everywhere you go in India, people werent as patient. What was I doing? Insulting the nation? Focusing on the ugly because its what all the westerners do when they visit India? Why does India provoke such visceral reactions in visitors?
Public urination, public defecation, dirt, garbage, *****, the poor living on the street talking about these things, even acknowledging that theyre in front of your face, risks making your hosts unhappy, and possibly angry. Its the third rail of India, and the voltage can be lethal. Thats why I was surprised when B.S. Raghavan decided to touch it with all 10 fingers.
Raghavans column in The Hindu Business Line newspaper begins with this headline: Are Indians by nature unhygienic?
Consider these excerpts:
From time to time, in their unguarded moments, highly placed persons in advanced industrial countries have burst out against Indians for being ****** and dirty in their ways of life. A majority of visitors to India from those countries complain of Delhi belly within a few hours of arrival, and some fall seriously ill.
There is no point in getting infuriated or defensive about this. The general lack of cleanliness and hygiene hits the eye wherever one goes in India hotels, hospitals, households, work places, railway trains, airplanes and, yes, temples. Indians think nothing of spitting whenever they like and wherever they choose, and living in surroundings which they themselves make unliveable by their dirty habits.
Open defecation has become so rooted in India that even when toilet facilities are provided, the spaces round temple complexes, temple tanks, beaches, parks, pavements, and indeed, any open area are covered with faecal matter.
Even as Indians, we are forced to recoil with horror at the infinite tolerance of fellow Indians to pile-ups of garbage, overflowing sewage, open drains and generally foul-smelling environs.
Theres plenty more that you can read in that story, but Ill direct you to the article. Ill also ask you some questions:
Some people say you shouldnt point out these problems, and that every country has problems. Do you agree with this statement? Why?
Does anyone disagree with Raghavans descriptions of these sights and smells?
Is this even a problem? Or should people get used to it?
Should visitors, especially ones from countries where people are generally wealthier, say nothing, and pretend that they dont see unpleasant things?
As for me, I can say this: I got used to it, but I would be lying if I said I didnt notice it. Indians notice it too. Otherwise, people wouldnt suggest public shaming campaigns against people urinating in public, they wouldnt threaten fines for doing it, and they wouldnt respond with relief to plans to finally make sure that toilets on Indias trains dont open directly onto the tracks. Of course, these are people in India. Its a family, taking care of business the family way.
As for me, the message usually seems to be: If you dont love it, leave it. It would be nice if there were some other answer. Acknowledging problems, even ones that are almost impossible to solve, makes them easier to confront.
Indians: inherently unhygienic? Indian writer touches third rail | India Insight
