The Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) has warned of acting tough on litterbugs, fining and even detaining for a couple of hours those who throw garbage on the streets and in public places. Let’s see if I can convince KMC officials that fines and punishments alone can’t change how city residents behave.
I’m back from a visit to the Indian capital, New Delhi. I had first visited Delhi in 2000, in the initial days when the Indian government was cautiously opening itself to outside economic forces by letting in foreign direct investment (FDI). I went on to live in Delhi for the next eight years, and know from the debates going in the media back then that in order to keep up the flow of incoming foreign dollars, India desperately needed infrastructure that supported the economic expansion the country was aiming for.[break]
Thus came about sprawling roads dotted with flyovers, underpasses and elevated as well as underground tracks for the Metro Rail, a coming-of-age mode of transportation only the world’s highly developed cities boast of.
But the Metro is a boon for Delhites, and India as a whole, in more ways than one, and it’s not just about transportation.
In order to make the country friendly to foreigners who brought in investments, India also needed a citizenry who understood and imbibed certain global values. The Metro, as I discovered during my latest visit, has played an important role to instill those values in Delhites.
URBANRAIL.NET
Knowing the uncouth, rule-averse people of Delhi, there were speculations that the Metro would be in a bad shape in a matter of a few months. One could visualize its dented carriages as a result of pushing and kicking by rowdy passengers and its compartments stained with betel nut squirts and vulgar figures and texts, and all sorts of garbage like banana peels, peanut shells, empty food packets, etc., under its seats.
But Delhites have proven critics and, in a way themselves, wrong. After all, it’s so unlike Delhites to dance to the official tune and to love and preserve their public infrastructure.
And how did this change come about? Here’s what I think has happened.
There are hardly any Delhites who haven’t traveled by the Metro. Those who do naturally feel captivated by its sheer elegance, comfort, and the precision with which it operates. For ordinary citizens, the Metro is a sheer luxury and they easily come under its awe. So they feel the need to preserve the service which is clearly for their convenience and benefits.
Then there’s a recorded announcement playing every two minutes, which, apart from alerting the passengers about their stops, also tells them how they are expected to behave in the Metro cars and at the station premises.
Those recordings, dished out in a polite and respectful tone, has worked as a behavior therapy for the Metro travelers who are mostly residents of Delhi.
Here’s how some of the recordings speak to the Metro travelers:
• Male passengers are requested not to enter the first car in the moving direction which is reserved for women.
• Passengers are requested to vacate seats for disabled, elderly and women.
• Please don’t lean on the doors.
• Passengers are requested to cooperate with the Metro staff to maintain security.
• Spitting and littering inside Metro premises is a punishable offence.
Listening to these recordings as they commute to office and back everyday alone is enough to unwind some of the hard-set coarse mannerisms that were easily noticeable among Delhites only a few years ago.
The Metro has also worked as a kind of leveler, as polished citizens belonging to high class travel in the same cars as those who come from less fortunate backgrounds. As a result, those coming from lower classes are gradually learning the ways of the more refined citizenry.
Delhites are now more conscious about their surroundings and aware that they need to behave in dignified manners in public places. They also seem to realize that by following rules, everybody can live in peace.
My point is that if Delhites are acting in a more responsible and refined manner, it’s because the city’s government has given them reasons for that.
What has the KMC done to show that it’s committed to improving the lives of people?
Its officials engage in corruption in the name of campaigns, extort citizens under the guise of stricter rules and lets its staff take bribes for helping people get around them.
That’s not all. The metropolitan authority has already proven itself inept time and again to exert itself firmly by failing to implement a Supreme Court verdict against smoking in public places and the use of non-degradable plastic bags.
The KMC must realize that only a responsible government can breed a genteel citizenry. If force and fines could bring real changes in populations, countries ruled by hard-line fundamentalists and dictators would’ve created the best citizens in the world.
In the name of punishing offenders of city rules, the KMC police will only antagonize the masses. While I’m not against punishing offenders, the KMC must understand that punitive actions alone won’t change things in the long run.
The KMC has to first prove that it’s serious in its intent to create a capital city that’s truly metropolitan in its outlook by building facilities that people would love, respect, use and preserve.
Otherwise people will continue to take its warnings for what they always have been: a bluff.
The writer is a copy editor at Republica.
amendrapokharel@gmail.com
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