Uchit Singhal, Dr Shally
Railway stations are the face of any region. These are the first and the last point of contact for the people visiting that region from across the nation and even from abroad. So, these portals of transport have a lasting impact on the minds of the visitors about the overall travel experience of their journey. Jammu Tawi Railway station is one such important doorway into this region where thousands of people arrive daily whether for the purpose of tourism, education or employment. Jammu is the winter capital of sorts for the UT of J&K and is home to the largest railway station of the erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir. Thousands of people throng here to visit the majestic City of Temples and the station also serves as a getaway point for Sri Mata Vaishno Devi shrine at Katra. Passengers often cling to their seats to have a first-hand glimpse out of the windows as the station is about to arrive but the sight is not something to behold. What welcomes is garbage heaps, illegitimate and shabby Jhuggis, wild vegetation with an overwhelming smell of public and animal excreta. Even after arrival at the station, the experience gets further affected by the betel leaf stains marking the walls, public spitting and littering here and there and drains getting clogged due to throwing of garbage in them and as a result overflowing while emitting foul and unhealthy odour. Outside in the circulating area, one can even witness passengers answering to the natures call in open even when the public urinals lie vacant. All this shabby building and infrastructure is set to go with the station redevelopment plan in place but what good the redevelopment will do to the diseased civic sense which despite opening of so many schools and colleges and spending thousands of crores of Rupees on infrastructure development is still at an arm’s length from the majority of the populace. Jammu is gearing up to be a smart city soon with the multi modal transit plan along with road connectivity plan and city development plan in place but for a city to be smart in true sense it is required that the people of that city get smart. And by city here, it is not the top 10% people that are being referred to but the lower half of the pyramid which constitutes a majority of population of that area. Definitely the punitive methodology has been adopted in form of fines and other penal provisions to serve as a deterrent to all the above uncivil practices that render the station a bad look but unless the overall psyche gets reformed and a sense of belongingness to the station gets developed, we are on a road to nowhere. Now the most difficult question is how to go about that. For this we need to follow a multi-pronged strategy as discussed one by one.
First and foremost is our education system. Our present education system will have to move from a mere emphasis on rote learning and text book culture to a healthier inclusive education system which should be holistic, engaging,
equitable and multidisciplinary while simultaneously fostering an optimal learning environment with a motivated, energized and capable faculty with a special focus on life long learning and Indian culture. The values of civic sense and civility will have to be imbibed in the students while in the school itself.
Second focus has to be on counselling and awareness campaigns. For this Nukkad Nataks using folk songs and local dialects among other IEC campaigns can go a long way in motivating the people to adopt a clean and healthy lifestyle and inculcate in them a habit to keep not only their surroundings clean but will develop a sense of belongingness towards the public places and properties. State Goverments and Local municipal bodies have to come to aid and rescue here and need to share this collective burden with the Railways as they being in direct relation to the local populace are better placed to change the mindset and psyche of the people. Involvement of Civil society and NGOs also needs to be sought for as they being closer to the people have better chances to first reach the hearts and the minds, the two places from where the change often begins.
Third comes the aspect of accessibility to the station. The railway station unlike its counterpart airport is not a closed complex and access to the Platforms can be obtained by spending a miniscule amount on Platform Ticket which also is bought rarely by the commuters. The station is mostly an open area which can be accessed from multiple sides with almost no restriction on the luggage one is carrying and without specifying any purpose. Rarely you see people sleeping their nights inside an airport but such a scene is very common at the stations. Even with this much accessibility to the stations and their circulating areas, the amount that is spent on the cleanliness and hygiene is nowhere in comparison to that done at Airports which is mostly an air-conditioned closed environment. As this passenger inflow at stations can not be much regulated with obvious reasons pertaining to social obligations, what is required is that we provide an adequate holding space for this influx with adequate provision of toilets, washrooms and dustbins.
Lastly comes the punitive aspect. Punishments and fines can be a strong deterrent only for short term till the above two efforts start bearing fruits. Although long criticised by Marxists and Leftists, but this strategy is definitely needed for a country like India where people wear the helmet, which is meant for their own safety, just for the simple reason that they don’t get challaned. The specific deterrent punishment theory in based in the fact that the fines/punishments reform the offenders by creating a fear psychosis that these fines/punishment might be repeated in case they do the said offence and thus also creating an atmosphere of general deterrence.
Indian Railways translated the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched in 2014 to Swachh Rail Swachh Bharat campaign with a mission to improve cleanliness at the stations. A series of initiatives like outsourcing of cleanliness with mechanized cleaning techniques, segregation of waste, installation of bio-toilets, introduction of Pay and Use toilets, installation of Plastic bottle crushing machines among others have been taken so far along with various special cleanliness drives and Swachhta Pakhwadas. QCI conducts annual cleanliness surveys across Indian Railways in an effort to monitor the progress of the mission and promote healthy competition among the railway stations. Jammu Tawi station ranked 4th in last such rankings which happened in 2019 with Northern Railways as a whole showing considerable improvement in rankings but still we have a long way to go. These ratings should in turn be linked with the performance linked incentives cum awards and should feature as a key performance indicator in the annual appraisals.
Jammu is better known as the City of Temples and Cleanliness is next to Godliness. Cleanliness has been termed so high a virtue that it has been ranked almost next to the virtue of worshipping God. It must be times and again, one has seen or overheard the above maxim but it is high time one starts living and practicing the proverb in both letter and spirit. Whether we want to keep ignoring the writing on the wall and drown in our own garbage or take a corrective action to set upon a course of hygiene and sanitation, the choice is ours. Railway stations are of the people and for the people, and it is high time we start fulfilling our collective responsibility towards them. Unless we do so, the goal to have a clean and green station in any locality will just remain a far fetched dream than becoming reality.
(Uchit Singhal is an IRTS officer serving in J&K in capacity of Station Director Jammu and Dr. Shally is a Ph.D holder in Economics from K.U.)
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