There is a new revolution sweeping through the country – this time with brooms and dustpans in hand. Over the last few weeks, we have witnessed the cleanliness agenda capturing the national imagination, everywhere from the streets to the political corridors. Offering a befitting tribute to the Mahatma’s vision of a “clean India”, the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan was launched on the occasion of Gandhi Jayanti with a clear call for action.

Each of us must take the pledge and dedicate 2 hours a week towards what is being hailed as the biggest cleanliness drive India has ever seen. A 2012 report by World Bank says that India produces over 100,000 tonnes of solid waste per day, projected to more than double in the next 10 years. There is a staggering problem of open defecation across Indian towns and villages.

According to WHO, nearly 60% of the Indian population lacks access to proper sanitation with India being home to the largest number of people practising open defecation anywhere in the world. Cleaning India is a titanic task which will require participation from each one of its more than one billion inhabitants. But even as the campaign grabs eyeballs across quarters, it begets a personal question to each of us – “are we doing our bit?” In his characteristic style, PM Modi delivered an emotional speech as he launched Swachh Bharat on 2nd October, one that urged Indians to deliver on Gandhi’s dream of a clean India by his 150th birth anniversary in 2019.

Ministers stepped out in droves to pick up a broom and support the cause. But while these make for interesting headlines and striking photos, mere tokenism will not be enough to create the impetus for change. Even as millions of Indians get mobilised to answer PM Modi’s call, might we be missing out on the very ethos of Gandhi’s vision? Gandhi’s sentiment of a clean India encompassed a much wider definition of cleanliness, one that approaches cleanliness of body and mind – a cleanliness extended to not just the physical environment that surrounds us, but the morals and scruples that build our intangible societies. So let us ask ourselves these questions.

Can we truly avow a clean India while it stays in the shackles of corruption, social injustice and religious bigotry? With every sweep of the broom, must we not vow to also clear the cobwebs of iniquity which litter our homes, villages, cities and nation? The recent assembly elections revealed a squabbling lot of national parties. How can we speak of a clean India till we clean up our political landscape? Are we losing sight of the larger picture here?

Swachh Bharat has been launched to tie in with the larger vision which PM Modi has set out for India, one which looks at reinforcing the core strengths of our country to create what the government is calling the “Indian narrative for the twenty first century”. But building Brand India is not just about attracting investments and instilling reforms to accelerate growth. The twenty first century narrative calls for a profound change in the very tenets which bind India to its corruptive roots.

The tangles of communalism, casteism, prejudice and inequality which ensnare our nation are the biggest obstacles in India’s path towards emerging as a power house on the global stage. This requires a radical change in mind-sets and a more holistic approach to the concept of cleanliness, one which extends to our homes, work, social interactions and right to the core of our value structures.

When Gandhi spoke of cleanliness, he spoke of it as an individual responsibility. He advocated that each person clean their own toilets, a concept which calls for much a larger change in attitudes in a country where we are trained since childhood to consider toilet cleaning as a mean job to be carried out by the lowest rungs of society. Despite the introduction of the 2012 bill to eliminate manual scavenging and provide rehabilitation for manual scavengers, the practice continues in many quarters of the country, often with people threatened into doing the job.

Delivering the vision of a clean India requires not just clean streets but clean minds and an untainted societal structure where the concept of “untouchables” is banished forever. Education can play a key role in changing these behaviours and age-old thinking. The Modi government is committing to invest in education and skilling, recently with a call to revise the National Skill Development policy.

The time is ripe to realise that this education needs to extend to important areas such as creating awareness about caste discriminations which have warped our attitudes towards sanitation for far too long, about basic civic duties which must be pledged by every citizen and promoting research and innovation towards modern sanitization. We could take a page out of our armed forces personnel; the disciplined life of our soldiers is all pervasive, in their thoughts and actions and foremost in their patriotism. I have never come across a dishevelled soldier nor have I ever seen a dirty cantonment area.

Self-discipline is a life style; if our brave soldiers can adhere to this, then why can’t we collectively as a nation inculcate this discipline. Consider this – what if we encouraged every individual to spend 1 year of their life serving the country; the structured approach, vigorous routine and self-discipline taught in defence training can help build an entire generation which is cleaner and more respectful of their surroundings and the country.

So while the PM urges us towards our patriotic duty of working towards a cleaner India, let us not forget that the task at hand calls for a much more personal effort and commitment. We need to pick up cleanliness as an individual mission to be imbibed within our own person and passed on with vigour to every other person we come in contact with. We can only achieve our dream of a clean India if each of us picks up the broom and sets out heartily on the mission with a do-it-yourself spirit.

Each one of us must take it upon ourselves to change the very mind-sets, behaviours and norms which have created India’s “dirty” image – from the vibrant splashes of paan-stained walls and public disregard for cleanliness to the violent prejudices against caste, gender and sexual orientation. Let us not lose sight of the larger picture here. It is time to clear the dusty old files of conformist thinking. Replace the old customs and conventional wisdom with a revised set of norms, which place a cleanliness of body, mind and soul above all. This is what we need to weave the Indian story for the twenty first century. There is a new India emerging and it needs new ideas and a clean slate.

This article was first published in Business India magazine