Should cleanliness drives be incentivized to encourage people?

Should cleanliness drives be incentivized to encourage people?


Introduction

The Central Government of India launched the “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan”- a cleanliness drive program. The BJP-led government took the initiative to make India a cleaner and a better place to live in.

The concept of a clean India was started by Mahatma Gandhi. Today, the government is trying to bring it back to our society.

Today, the whole nation is taking part in this cleanliness drive and is contributing in keeping our country clean. But should these cleanliness drives be incentivized to encourage people? Let's have a look.

Yes – Cleanliness drives should be incentivized.

1. As a policy – The habit of cleanliness is inculcated within each one of us since childhood. If the government initiates such policies, like giving incentives, it will make the public act more readily.

2. Removes diseases – A lot of diseases caused by uncleanliness are invading the lives of people. A proper cleanliness drive with incentives to people can chase away such diseases from our society.

3. Awareness – People should be educated about the concept of keeping the environment clean. They should be made aware of the advantages of a neat and clean environment.

4. Benefits- Every one expects some sort of benefits from whatever they do. Providing incentives will definitely encourage people to keep our country clean.

5. Mutual responsibility – It is a responsibility of the government as well as the people to keep our country clean. The cleanliness drives should provide some incentives or act as motivators to bring the public together.

No – Cleanliness drives should not be incentivized.

1. Right path – People should be educated about cleanliness in a proper way. They should be given proper education and demonstration instead of incentives, to keep places clean.

2. Impact – Cleanliness drives should try to change the lifestyle of people in a positive way. If it is incentivized, people will only try to gain benefits.

3. Bring change – If incentivized, it will not be a cleanliness drive anymore. Do we expect any incentives to clean our home? Such drives should aim at bringing about a change in the society as our home.

4. Responsibility – it is the primary responsibility of each citizen to keep their country neat and clean. Instead of incentives, punishment and strict laws should be formulated for people trying to spoil the environment.

5. Increase corruption – By incentivizing the cleanliness drives, we are promoting corruption. It is like bribing one to do one's duty.

Conclusion

The government's initiative to achieve a clean India has received mixed responses. It is an initiative to make the public realize about their responsibility. But providing incentives to make them do their duty will lead to heavy corruption. Hence, a clean and better India should be achieved without incentivizing the cleanliness drive.
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    Discussion

  • RE: Should cleanliness drives be incentivized to encourage people? -Deepa Kaushik (01/16/15)
  • Cleanliness, especially when it comes to the nation, is the responsibility of each and every citizen of the country. And there cannot be or in other words, should not be any incentive to perform our duties in the righteous way. People should have the feeling of ownness for the country. Any drive for the welfare of the country and thereby its people can prove to be fruitful, if the citizens recognize the nation as their own.

    The selfless attitude is all that every person should possess to have good, healthy and joyful living. The day when we start caring others over us would be the preliminary step towards the success of any such drives across the country. We all need to clean our brain and soul of the scum of selfishness and dishonest attitude which has infested the citizens of our country as a pest. These attitudes are slowly eating up the nation. Cleaning these could help in having a clean India.

    An incentive is given for better performance when someone excels in the field of work. An outstanding performance is eligible for the incentives. But when we closely analyse, these incentives are one of the factors that inculcate greed within the person. When a person is paid for his job, he needs to perform his duty to his level best, whether or not there lies any incentives for the same. Same is with the cleanliness drive. We should be having our environment and country clean, which is our social responsibility. An incentive programme for the same would be similar to bribing a person to get the work done. The only difference between the bribe and incentive is that incentive is given for a work done legally while accomplishing own duties, and bribe is given to get the work done illegally out of the way of morality. But both these infuse a common trait of greed to a normal person. And the incentive programme would also make people more stubborn and they would eventually miss to fulfil their responsibilities without the incentives. This would slowly lead us to the state where we stand now and the vicious circle will keep on continuing the same way. Hence, the cleanliness drives should never be incentivized.