From the very beginning of the Indian railways post the British reign, we have fondly been proud to leave our mark all over the country. With a little more than 25 million people travelling every day in the Indian railway network, it is safe to estimate that atleast 24 million of them (spare those 1 million with strong bladders) need to answer to their periodic call of nature atleast once during their journey, not forgetting those few millions who have had a digested meal of the Indian masala the previous night and need to sit on their ‘twos’, ahem, sorry, ‘toes’ to give in to the pressure.
With over a thousand diseases that come from human waste and not to mention the added tickle of the nose, the Indian railway line is known for the innumerous and uncountable amounts of waste deposited on its tracks by the ‘lavatory service’ in the Indian Railways. Besides, most of the little slums in large cities such as Mumbai, house over 10 million people near railway tracks who have to bear the scent even in their sleeps. Perhaps the most convenient explanation for the railway department to this problem would be that ‘they are used to it’. Yes, so why bother about public sanitation and health when that money can be used to construct another M. G. Road in the city?
Looking at the big picture and getting serious for starts, I think the biggest problem of our country is not just poverty. Why blame the people when they have urges? The biggest problem, to put it straightforward is that we have strong DNA threads down our systems that have ‘ignorance’ written all over them. Yes, we are simply known for how ignorant we are to the fact that it is okay to breathe the fresh feces of a million people, and let the universal gas be a constant everywhere we travel by train. Besides, who wants to spend billions of rupees on attached septic tanks to trains and take the trouble of vacuuming all the waste into a waste hole away from a city? Nah, too much effort from the government. We’d rather spend another billion on bringing a new “Ananto Express” that connect people from Mumbai to Dadar. It’s just how smart we are. We love living it the Indian way and there is no one going to stop us from doing so.