Pride of India, Sikkim

What lofty objectives to hold! While Maharashtra fights to remain the most expensive realtor in India while children die of malnutrition and Delhi grapples with pollution and crime, Sikkim has made a name for itself as the cleanest state of India.

Walk into any village in Sikkim and villagers will allow you use their clean toilets. It is India's first and only open defecation-free state, a record reiterated early this month by a nation-wide sanitation survey undertaken by a Central government agency, the National Sample Survey Office.  And not just this, no one litters there, no one smokes in public places and no one uses plastic. How many of our so called urban and modern states talk about such maturity?

Its Clean Sikkim Mission began way back in 2003,  11 years before we ushered in the Swachh Bharat move. That’s not all – Sikkim also holds the distinction of being the first organic state of India and has set itself the lofty target of becoming poverty free by 2019 as currently 8% of its population lives below the poverty line.

If only every state of India set for itself these basic objectives first rather than emerge as the most modern or smart?