From national crisis to national cure: Lessons from Indore's clean sweep
We are a nation of stark contradictions: deeply spiritual, revering rivers like the Ganga and Yamuna in our mythology and rituals yet ranked among the world's most polluted nations. If we are ashamed, it's not showing. At least not enough.
Our sacred rivers are heavily contaminated by untreated sewage, industrial effluents, and religious offerings. Urban drainage systems remain outdated, and sanitation workers –many from marginalized communities – risk their lives cleaning sewers without proper safety gear, reflecting systemic neglect and caste-based discrimination. Air pollution, especially in Delhi, and streets clogged with garbage and stench further underscore the crisis. Even India's proud railway network discharges waste directly onto tracks, exemplifying systemic neglect. Despite ambitious initiatives like Swachh Bharat, many toilets remain unused, and waste management remains primitive, burning, burying, or dumping refuse in open spaces. Public areas are overwhelmed with plastic, food waste, and debris, driven by cultural laxity and apathy. Education campaigns alone have limited impact without enforcement or civic pride. Ultimately, India's sanitation challenge isn't just infrastructural; it demands a cultural reset, transforming slogans into ingrained civic habits.
But amid this pervasive gloom, there is a shining beacon: Indore. Once a typical mid-sized city plagued by waste, stench, and civic apathy, Indore has redefined what's possible. It has topped India's Swachh Survekshan rankings for six consecutive years, proving that cleanliness is not a fantasy but an achievable reality. This success didn't happen by chance; it was the result of deliberate design, relentless execution, and a profound cultural shift. India doesn't lack the knowledge or technology; it lacks the will and persistent effort. Indore demonstrated that with political resolve, professional leadership, and active citizen participation, transformation is inevitable.
So, what exactly did Indore do right? Can its model be replicated across India? The answer lies in a series of strategic steps:
A mission-oriented approach
Indore's core strength was establishing a unified, empowered, and accountable sanitation task force. Instead of responsibility being scattered across multiple departments, the city brought together municipal officials, private waste contractors, sanitation workers, engineers, health officials, and citizens. This was more than creating committees; it was about making cleanliness a civic mission. Targets were set, budgets allocated, and results tracked. The city's leadership, from the mayor to the frontline workers, embraced the vision of making Indore India's cleanest city, and they delivered.
For other cities, a similar Decentralised Urban Sanitation Mission (DUSM) should be established – an autonomous, professional body with a dedicated chief sanitation officer and cross-functional teams. Funding from the Centre and states must prioritize sanitation as a core public health issue, not an afterthought.
Segregated at source
Indore broke new ground by enforcing 100% household segregation of waste into wet, dry, and hazardous categories. It was not just about distributing coloured bins; it involved sustained public education, strict penalties, and daily feedback. Over 1,600 'safai mitras' or sanitation ambassadors, were deployed, each assigned specific households and trained to promote cleanliness. GPS-tracked waste collection vehicles monitored punctuality and coverage. Wet waste was processed locally through composting and bio-methanation, dry waste was sorted for recycling, and hazardous waste was carefully disposed of. This professional backbone and community buy-in reduced landfill dependence, increased recycling, and restored dignity to sanitation workers. India must emulate this model, not with promises, but with on-ground action.
Professionalisation of sanitation services
Dependence on contractual labour and outdated methods hampers progress. Indore invested in professional facility management firms, performance-based contracts, and tech-enabled monitoring. Workers received protective gear, uniforms, insurance, and training. Routine cleaning, proactive drain clearance, and emergency response systems became standard. India needs a National Institute of Urban Cleanliness Management to train municipal leaders, engineers, and frontline workers. Sanitation must become a science and profession, not caste-based toil. Staff must be paid better, insured, housed, and protected; dignity and safety are non-negotiable.
Upgrade Infrastructure
Physical infrastructure is vital. Indore replaced open drains with covered sewers, built public toilets every 500 meters, and installed modern dustbins based on data, not politics. A central control centre monitored real-time operations, waste vehicle movements, and public complaints. QR codes allowed citizens to rate toilets; apps and helplines made reporting issues easy. Transparency built trust, encouraging usage. Every city must conduct ground-level audits, prioritize maintenance over new construction, and ensure infrastructure supports daily cleaning and waste disposal.
Behavioural change: As in the 'Roko-Toko' revolution
Perhaps Indore's most understated achievement is the cultural shift it inspired. The 'Roko-Toko' campaign, meaning 'Stop and Remind', encouraged children, shopkeepers, and volunteers to politely stop people from littering, offering chocolates or tokens as incentives to do the right thing. This simple act fostered pride and made cleanliness a matter of honour. Schools actively engaged students in cleanliness drives, while local celebrities, radio shows, and community events helped reinforce the message. To deepen this impact, India should emulate the Japanese model by mandating schools, both government and private, to involve staff and students in maintaining cleanliness, including proper waste disposal and toilet hygiene, with staff equipped with protective gear like gloves and masks.
This requires a serious overhaul of school curricula to include environmental civics and sanitation ethics. Public campaigns must move beyond preachy slogans; humour, pride, and community ownership should become the driving forces. 'Swachh Bharat' will only succeed when cleanliness becomes a daily habit, ingrained in the cultural fabric rather than just posters and slogans.
The War on Plastic and Air Pollution
Plastic waste must be tackled at the source. Indore promoted cloth bags, ran buyback schemes for plastic, and encouraged eco-friendly packaging like areca leaves and coconut shells. Strict enforcement of single-use plastic bans is essential. Additionally, air quality must be integrated into sanitation efforts; dust suppression, mechanized street sweeping, and emissions control are public health priorities, not luxuries.
Railways and rural adaptation
Railways and transit hubs are critical fronts in the fight for hygiene. All trains must adopt bio-vacuum toilets with automatic locks when stationary, preventing waste discharge onto tracks. Major stations should be managed by professional cleaning firms under strict service-level agreements, with regular audits to ensure standards. Tracks must be maintained like hospital floors – clean and hygienic.
In rural India, the focus must go beyond toilet construction. Toilets must be functional, with reliable water supply and maintenance. Village-level composting, segregated waste collection, and panchayat-linked funding can incentivize sustained performance. Awareness campaigns should address behavioural taboos respectfully, fostering long-term change.
In conclusion, Indore is not a miracle; it is a model. If a city with all its complexities can lead the way, every municipality, district, and state in India can follow suit. But this requires political resolve, civic participation, and consistent, professional execution. The real lesson is not just how to clean a city but how to build a culture of cleanliness, one that endures. If India can do this, we can finally stop bowing to the Ganga with one hand while poisoning her with the other.
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V. Raghunathan is a former Director of the Schulich School of Business (India Program), York University, Toronto, a former professor at IIM Ahmedabad and a former President of ING Vysya Bank. A prolific author, he has written over 15 books, including the national bestseller Games Indians Play (Penguin). With more than 600 published papers and articles, his latest books include The Lion, The Admiral, and A Cat Called B. Uma Vijaylakshmi (Westland, 2025) and To Every Parent; To Every Child (Penguin, 2025) and Irrationally Rational: 10 Nobel Laureates Script the Story of Behavioural Economics (Penguin 2022), among others. LESS ... MORE We are a nation of stark contradictions: deeply spiritual, revering rivers like the Ganga and Yamuna in our mythology and rituals yet ranked among the world's most polluted nations. If we are ashamed, it's not showing. At least not enough. Our sacred rivers are heavily contaminated by untreated sewage, industrial effluents, and religious offerings. Urban drainage systems remain outdated, and sanitation workers –many from marginalized communities – risk their lives cleaning sewers without proper safety gear, reflecting systemic neglect and caste-based discrimination. Air pollution, especially in Delhi, and streets clogged with garbage and stench further underscore the crisis. Even India's proud railway network discharges waste directly onto tracks, exemplifying systemic neglect. Despite ambitious initiatives like Swachh Bharat, many toilets remain unused, and waste management remains primitive, burning, burying, or dumping refuse in open spaces. Public areas are overwhelmed with plastic, food waste, and debris, driven by cultural laxity and apathy. Education campaigns alone have limited impact without enforcement or civic pride. Ultimately, India's sanitation challenge isn't just infrastructural; it demands a cultural reset, transforming slogans into ingrained civic habits. But amid this pervasive gloom, there is a shining beacon: Indore. Once a typical mid-sized city plagued by waste, stench, and civic apathy, Indore has redefined what's possible. It has topped India's Swachh Survekshan rankings for six consecutive years, proving that cleanliness is not a fantasy but an achievable reality. This success didn't happen by chance; it was the result of deliberate design, relentless execution, and a profound cultural shift. India doesn't lack the knowledge or technology; it lacks the will and persistent effort. Indore demonstrated that with political resolve, professional leadership, and active citizen participation, transformation is inevitable. So, what exactly did Indore do right? Can its model be replicated across India? The answer lies in a series of strategic steps: A mission-oriented approach Indore's core strength was establishing a unified, empowered, and accountable sanitation task force. Instead of responsibility being scattered across multiple departments, the city brought together municipal officials, private waste contractors, sanitation workers, engineers, health officials, and citizens. This was more than creating committees; it was about making cleanliness a civic mission. Targets were set, budgets allocated, and results tracked. The city's leadership, from the mayor to the frontline workers, embraced the vision of making Indore India's cleanest city, and they delivered. For other cities, a similar Decentralised Urban Sanitation Mission (DUSM) should be established – an autonomous, professional body with a dedicated chief sanitation officer and cross-functional teams. Funding from the Centre and states must prioritize sanitation as a core public health issue, not an afterthought. Segregated at source Indore broke new ground by enforcing 100% household segregation of waste into wet, dry, and hazardous categories. It was not just about distributing coloured bins; it involved sustained public education, strict penalties, and daily feedback. Over 1,600 'safai mitras' or sanitation ambassadors, were deployed, each assigned specific households and trained to promote cleanliness. GPS-tracked waste collection vehicles monitored punctuality and coverage. Wet waste was processed locally through composting and bio-methanation, dry waste was sorted for recycling, and hazardous waste was carefully disposed of. This professional backbone and community buy-in reduced landfill dependence, increased recycling, and restored dignity to sanitation workers. India must emulate this model, not with promises, but with on-ground action. Professionalisation of sanitation services Dependence on contractual labour and outdated methods hampers progress. Indore invested in professional facility management firms, performance-based contracts, and tech-enabled monitoring. Workers received protective gear, uniforms, insurance, and training. Routine cleaning, proactive drain clearance, and emergency response systems became standard. India needs a National Institute of Urban Cleanliness Management to train municipal leaders, engineers, and frontline workers. Sanitation must become a science and profession, not caste-based toil. Staff must be paid better, insured, housed, and protected; dignity and safety are non-negotiable. Upgrade Infrastructure Physical infrastructure is vital. Indore replaced open drains with covered sewers, built public toilets every 500 meters, and installed modern dustbins based on data, not politics. A central control centre monitored real-time operations, waste vehicle movements, and public complaints. QR codes allowed citizens to rate toilets; apps and helplines made reporting issues easy. Transparency built trust, encouraging usage. Every city must conduct ground-level audits, prioritize maintenance over new construction, and ensure infrastructure supports daily cleaning and waste disposal. Behavioural change: As in the 'Roko-Toko' revolution Perhaps Indore's most understated achievement is the cultural shift it inspired. The 'Roko-Toko' campaign, meaning 'Stop and Remind', encouraged children, shopkeepers, and volunteers to politely stop people from littering, offering chocolates or tokens as incentives to do the right thing. This simple act fostered pride and made cleanliness a matter of honour. Schools actively engaged students in cleanliness drives, while local celebrities, radio shows, and community events helped reinforce the message. To deepen this impact, India should emulate the Japanese model by mandating schools, both government and private, to involve staff and students in maintaining cleanliness, including proper waste disposal and toilet hygiene, with staff equipped with protective gear like gloves and masks. This requires a serious overhaul of school curricula to include environmental civics and sanitation ethics. Public campaigns must move beyond preachy slogans; humour, pride, and community ownership should become the driving forces. 'Swachh Bharat' will only succeed when cleanliness becomes a daily habit, ingrained in the cultural fabric rather than just posters and slogans. The War on Plastic and Air Pollution Plastic waste must be tackled at the source. Indore promoted cloth bags, ran buyback schemes for plastic, and encouraged eco-friendly packaging like areca leaves and coconut shells. Strict enforcement of single-use plastic bans is essential. Additionally, air quality must be integrated into sanitation efforts; dust suppression, mechanized street sweeping, and emissions control are public health priorities, not luxuries. Railways and rural adaptation Railways and transit hubs are critical fronts in the fight for hygiene. All trains must adopt bio-vacuum toilets with automatic locks when stationary, preventing waste discharge onto tracks. Major stations should be managed by professional cleaning firms under strict service-level agreements, with regular audits to ensure standards. Tracks must be maintained like hospital floors – clean and hygienic. In rural India, the focus must go beyond toilet construction. Toilets must be functional, with reliable water supply and maintenance. Village-level composting, segregated waste collection, and panchayat-linked funding can incentivize sustained performance. Awareness campaigns should address behavioural taboos respectfully, fostering long-term change. In conclusion, Indore is not a miracle; it is a model. If a city with all its complexities can lead the way, every municipality, district, and state in India can follow suit. But this requires political resolve, civic participation, and consistent, professional execution. The real lesson is not just how to clean a city but how to build a culture of cleanliness, one that endures. If India can do this, we can finally stop bowing to the Ganga with one hand while poisoning her with the other. Facebook Twitter Linkedin Email Disclaimer Views expressed above are the author's own.
