Small towns do much better

The Swacch Bharat rankings are out not surprisingly, not a single metro figures out in the top 5 – it is dominated by small towns. A list of 476 cities and urban local bodies, with a population of more than one lakh were shortlisted by the Ministry of Urban Development. The rankings were made on the basis of adoption of solid waste management practices including door-to-door  collection and disposal of municipal solid waste in cities. Cities and towns where open defecation is less and better solid waste management practices are adopted were ranked as better performers.  

Mysore topped the list, followed by Thiruchirapalli (Tamil Nadu), Navi Mumbai, Kochi (Kerala), Hassan, Mandya and Bengaluru from Karnataka, Thiruvananthapuram, Halisahar (West Bengal), and Gangtok (Sikkim).

Right at the bottom of the list was Damoh (Madhya Pradesh) at 476th position. Others right at the bottom were Bhind (MP), Palwal and Bhiwani -- both in Haryana, Chittaurgarh (Rajasthan), Bulandshahr (UP), Neemuch (MP), Rewari (Haryana), Hindaun (Rajasthan) and Sambalpur in Odisha at 467th rank.

And if one looks at the rankings on the basis of states, South India does very well -  39 cities from the southern states were among the top 100, followed by 27 from East, 15 from West, 12 from North and seven from the North-Eastern states. Does this give us an indication of the mind-set of the people in those regions and their attitude to hygiene? It is also an indication that smaller the population, better are the sanitation and hygiene conditions which is why none of the metros figured high on the list.