DU students to study impact of ‘Clean India’ campaign

In a bid to take forward the recently-launched Clean India campaign, the Anthropology department of Delhi University (DU) wants to make ‘Swachhta’ a symbol of internal and external cleanliness. 

The students of department will also conduct a study to see the impact of the cleanliness campaign.

‘Usually projects are launched by the government but this is a one-of-its-kind campaign. It is important to study its impact and success rate. Therefore, DU students will undertake this study for five years and suggest the policy makers about aspects where there is room for improvement,’ said PC Joshi, professor in Anthropology department. The project will begin in February next year.

‘We will study the problem areas identified during earlier research and will observe the changes — positive or negative, over the period of five years in those problem areas. After the completion of five years and culmination of the cleanliness campaign in 2019, we will prepare policy making documents and send them to environment ministry for their consideration,’ Joshi said. The study will be limited to the campaign’s impact in Delhi and will also take note of contribution of various stakeholders in the success of the campaign.

The anthropology department had previously conducted a four-year-long study during 2004-2008 on the ‘human civic behaviour in public places’.

‘We surveyed over 120 localities and interviewed over 10,000 people in Delhi, Lucknow, Kohima, and Guwahati and studied the patterns of how people behave in terms of civic etiquettes in public’, he added.