Mahatma Gandhi: Mission Health & Hygiene

During his historic tour in riot-torn Noakhali on 19 January, 1947, Mahatma Gandhi was seen removing excreta from the road with the help of some dry leaves. Urchins wanted to make it inaccessible for him. The companions objected to the 78 year old man clearing the thoroughfare of human excreta. He replied, You little know the joy it gives to me. Cleanliness was his obsession. He did not hesitate to clean horrifying insanitary condition of camps or public places with broom and bucket in hand. He loved to call himself a bhangi (a scavenger). It was no attention-grabber. It had nothing to do with the promotion of his political career as his mission cleanliness started more than three decades before he joined politics. Initiation to sanitation came to him as a natural corollary quite consistent with the basic philosophy of his life. His contemplation of ecological cleanliness with a scientific bent of mind so early was amazing. The world picked up the issue long after him. The inimitability of his approach was that he did not preach with others to do what he himself did not do.