Civic sense in India - Indians speak out!

Recently, I started a discussion with my social media friends on this topic - "Indians lack civic sense - basic manners in public places that keep civility alive. Suggest one thing you wish to change in Indians' habits, that would improve civic sense and civility."

The list of answers I received reflected pain, hope and frustration in almost equal measure. Here I present the entire range of opinions expressed  by various individuals. It makes a fantastic read.

Indians lack civic sense - basic manners in public places that keep civility alive. Suggest one thing you wish to change in Indians' habits, that would improve civic sense and civility.

Rohit Vyas VALUE BASED EDUCATION

Shoaib Ahmed If everybody loses "I am the king, no one messes with me or talks in even a lil higher voice with me" then India or atleast Indore would be, atleast, a place to live in.

Nikita Phadke I think talking loudly on phone in places is a habit people should try to improve.

Navneet Bajaj Every Tom, dick & harry in India has some 'Neta' connection, which not only empowers them to keep their civic sense at home but also enables them to take law in their hand...

Rahul Sinha the correct word is nepotism :)
Menal Lunawat The mentality of the people and would like to widen their thinking...people want all the luxury but dont want to make any efforts from their side....like people love living in clean city but still will throw wrappers n stuff on road even when proper place to discard them is there...but people should understand that make some efforts because 'boond boond se gadh bharta hai'
Yuvraj Jaipal staring @ people..
Anurag Mangal As a resident of Delhi, I believe that people should get themselves more calm. Unnecessary aggression especially in north India is very high. Which reflects on traffic lights, que of metro, buses etc. Those who are not a part of this aggression while watching others violating their rights makes them also to be a part of this disease.

Giriraj Singh Chundawat recently some official (i dont know name) claimed that we Indians have inferior cleanliness sense than west. I felt bad but somewhere inside i thought that actually he is partially correct too. The way we spit on roads, throw garbage wherever we wish, etc shows how much we care for our prestige. We sincerely praise the clean foreign roads (yar UK ki roads to kaach jaisi hoti h!) and then turn away in disgust our face when it comes to clean our own house. i wont suggest some law or something else to ban spitting etc bcoz thats very difficult to implement in the country of our proportions. But i think it can't be done unless we realise the moral responsibility of keeping our country clean. And we can do it. Why cant we keep our roads clean when we think twice before spoiling a five star hotels' floor? We are one of the oldest civilisations on earth. We have taught the world how to live. Cant we do it again??

Menal Lunawat And now being in Indore for almost 2 years.....i would appreciate if people here learn some traffic sense and at the same time follow the traffic rules because in the present situation it is really frustrating driving a vehicle
Anurag Mangal This improves civic sense in every manner. No doubt Delhi people showed drastic change in themselves while games but that was limited to end of the games. It is resuming now. Even a small cab driver to a business guy both have hurry to cross road at traffic light when it is red. I must some how their personal managements is too low and weak.
Anurag Mangal This improves civic sense in every manner. No doubt Delhi people showed drastic change in themselves while games but that was limited to end of the games. It is resuming now. Even a small cab driver to a business guy both have hurry to cross road at traffic light when it is red. I must some how their personal managements is too low and weak.
Rahul Jain I think that this is due to the typical Indian Attitude inside every Indian. These values can be inherited into them only from childhood. Education system and associated institutes have to work as the backbone if we want to see the civic sense in people.

Chetan Chaudhary Well we Indians are very hard working but if we start Respect the Value of Time our productivity will increases by many folds.....

Munish Sharma One of the basic etiquette has been found missing in youth as is reflected in their mannerism that they have grown impudent. The refinement in the language has been replaced by slang usage and impoliteness while conversing with the elderly strangers. This is what really hurts.

Nidhi Agarwal There is problem of implementation/execution with the thoughts that are coming. As a start, introduce a course book on civic sense right from Grade 1, with practical projects starting from Grade 4. Let it graduate into compulsory CSR activities at PG level. Follow developed nations. Bring it into law. Place the billboard display at traffic lights, displaying the increasing waste, pollution, deaths due to it every second. Organize the house-keeping/facilities labour, register them, increase their wages, seal them from hazardous working conditions with coorect tools, uniform etc. Let the people clean their houses themselves or approach the orgaizations. Municipal Corporations must be effective on its part. People make the dirty places dirtier.

Poorva Shukla At schools and home....we are being taught to keep our premises clean.... But people do not think that roads, gardens etc. belong to them......and its human tendency (or Indians' tendency) to not to take care of others' belongings......so the littering.... And for the youth.....rules taught at school are meant to be broken......then this becomes a habit.....and sticks with a person throughout their lifetime.... More rules won't achieve any purpose...... Right from the elementary level values must be inculcated to the children (both at home and schools).....so that they will learn to see rules not like imposed burden......but something which is going to provide them a better quality of life......

Girish Krishnani one thing to be changed is people not following the que, be it in the traffic or any other public place.
Annie Gupta Always throw garbage in their proper place.... Park vehicle in their proper place... Follow traffic rules...
Apoorva Saxena I personally think that civic sense can only come when you keep your home clean. If you love to see you home clean you will incucate the habit of keeping the your surrounding clean wherever you go.....and as a matter of fact home is the first place for learning and this how we learn ..

Aastha Chaturvedi spitting and peeing all over d roads !

Akshay Joshi strict control of law

Pradnya Bora having a step motherly treatment to public properties..! there is a clearr diffrence as to how we maintain our homes and our public assets.
Harsha Manjrekar I think that self decipline &civic sence goes hand in hand.Being upright & fighting anti social elements could b one of the ways.It can b taught at an early age of an child.Simple things such as avoiding spitting ,throwing the garbage inside the dustbin,respecting women & handicapps & most importantly following the traffic rules could be some of the ways...
Karan Mehta Stop there Spitting habits and atleast make them learn to use Dustbins.
Virendra Jain Respect women and honour their dignity. In day and in night time and let dem own the city and their neigbourhood as much as men..
Ved Jaiswal Where ever Indians gets place near by the road or any home, without any shame they do peeing........Indian citizen should take care of this dirty work........as well as Municipal Corporation should clean the toilet across the city...... Sourabh Jain I think that by making some law for the some good place atleast than we increases this area day by day and we are able to stoping such type of thing happen in India......!!!!!!!! Even the Historical place even not left by people of India they did what they want even writing such a rubbish thing on the wall and spitting on such type of places where the Indian Govt. get revenue from outsiders...........!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sunny Vohra THE HABIT OF SPIT IN CORNER INSIDE BUILDINGS if this habit will change then public places will remain neat and clean
Khalid Mohammad Qureshi ‎1)The habbit of littering garbage here & there.Wnevr,i eat a packaged snack,wn im out,i mk it a point2carry it tl my home2dispose it or2give it2a shop keeper who hs a bin. 2)Indians love wasting water2.Once@TI,2youths wr hvng fun ev1whle kpng the tap@full flow.I ws tkn aback & tld thm abt thr mistake.They cynically rpld,"Abhi toh paani... bohot hai bheeya".I ws shocked @their basic literacy. 3)No love for nature,trees,surroundings: I live along wth my maternal grandfather who happens to be a Retired Forest Officer.He had planted a huge Desi almond bearing tree in my house.Often,the main topic fr our neighbours to pick up a fight wth us is,"The leaves of this bloody tree fall into our house,V dnt gt proper sunlight in our house,Insects enter our house,etc etc".V ev1 had2fight petty litigations ev1.In summers,these vry neighbours park their cars beneath it.Ev1 a toddler wud knw th benefits of a tree. 4)Wasting electricity.....  5)No traffic sense. 6)Lack of Secular Spirit.
Keshank Soni Municipal Corp. is req to improved.. Some strict rules r der to make for cleanliness of place.
Narendra Kumar Pankaj Indians take all the proud when they got chance to pee in any open area. lolz........seriously!!! Lately, when i was in Germany i felt this. Indians were enjoying in doing such pity things like: peeing in open area, using bad words while talking. @Navneet bajaj - I appreciate ur thought. That's the big problem in India. 'Kuch mat karo - neta to zarur ban sakte ho' & 'padoge likhoge to banoge sirf naukar.'
Apurva Garg heavy fine on people you litter in public places and humiliating punishments like cleaning the public roads and toilets....!!
Rohit Gandhe The way of thinking...!!!
Manish Bhagtani They only pretend to b civilised..as a fact they r wild by default..Penalise them on every wrong thing they commit...bt..bt ..democracy and diplomacy.....Sir free world hai Margin of improvisation is too high for all to fill in...M sorry to say..let us keep ourselves Civilised n calm..

Nishant Longani The proud sons of mother India who consider their country as their home sound like hypocrites to me. Otherwise, there would have been no need to post such forums by intellectuals because civic sense is nothing but one of the basic manners of a civilized society. This puts a big question mark on those purporting to be civilized and educated. The answer to Sir's question is hidden in the lines above: Indians should just treat their entire country as their homes and everything will fall into place.
Arhum Khan  we need to understand d right thing n stand up for that....may it be a public urination prob or the traffic prob or d corruption or match fixin....we jus talk abt it ...n at times even contribute into it by sayin "chalta hai be" or "why shud i b bothered?" ...boss ...every prob has a solution...n jus writin or suggestin wont help...if the hi end ppl cant help...why cant the common JOE stand up n make a self help group......the right place to find a helping hand is at the end of ur own shoulder....charity begins at home........
Subodh Sahu Everywhere, specially in the corners of the wall, we find the spit of Masaalas & Pans which looks so bad & dirty. Even educated ones also do the same mistake again and again. so I wish to change this Indian habit & act like a good responsible citizen of 21st century.
Krunal Gurav Writing on historical monuments gives these beauties scratch forever, this has to be stopped.
Sunil Kumar Mistri they should stop littering.......
Prerna Sisodia the worst thing that could be changed is spitting all the stuff on the roads and public places...my father works in a factory making soya products.....he just exported a bag of soya chunks to australia....and guess what the manager of the company rplied..."there is a big insect/animal...found just on the outer cover of the bag....so ur bag cannot be accepted"...(that wasnt an animal indeed.....)so people need to have control over these habits.......they even spit on our monuments and our heritage.....sad but worth changing..... 

Herwig Streubel I would like the Indians start to see what is inside the borders of India (although not always under India's control) as Bharat Mata and not as a single dustbin. Unfortunately also many Indians - majority is male, chauvinistic - see also their own mothers/wives as dustbins or the cleaners of it. In the West tourists like to go tho nice, clean, good looking places. Here in India I cannot whole-hartedly suggest to my foreign friends places to go - except The Baha'i House of Worship (Lotus Temple) in Delhi and some Jain Pilgrim places - as everywhere garbage lays around and the sights are not properly maintained.
Deepak Singh i would like to change eve teasing behaviour of boys..... because of this teasing only gals r nt able to fully express themselve...... such guys hv to change their mentality.....
Shrenik Shah though we say that we are unity in diversity.. ppl of different states are always involved in ppl of other's of India itself..
Dipen Joshi STOP LITTERING.! The most imp 'cz good environ will motivate you to be a good citizen as is the case in developed countries. USE ME bins should be available @ ALL public places..and waste collections system should be followed effectively by ...Municipal Corps, as i have seen in Surat, Gujarat.
Anshul Jain dont interfere in other's matter,... apne matters hi solve karle bahut hai...
Hitesh Agarwal Indians should be punctual......!!
Ronak Nair Unnecessarily Interfering in others life....!!!!! Indians, stop this...!!!!
Raunak Jain Only one thing MUTRA-VISARJAN habit on road side
Rohit Agrawal only one thing can do it..... "compulsory military training"
Pratik Rathore Rather than being taught 60+ subjects in life(which are ultimately forgotten by the end of school or college), the focus should be on providing the most basic traits of human life- respect, patience, cleanliness, patriotism, mannners etc. That can surely change some if not all minds.
Mahesh Karamchandani Everyone should mind their own business
Salil Kakkar Charging penalties is the best way.... Round the world it has proved to be an ideal way of punishing...! And special teams must be made for it... like a team from north must be posted to south India so that no one can make an adjustment(like links n contacts) to quit from it....
Kanchan Premchandani The chalta hai attitude sir! Agar hamare liye sab kuch chalta hi raha to improvement ka koi scope hi nahi bachega.
 
Wasn't that absolutely fantastic? That's what Indians think about civic sense. Time we got our act together, and truly changed our habits. It's the small things that make a big difference!

Thanks for reading, and have a good day!

A comprehensive, topic-wise and useful collection of my various posts and answers can be found here. Enjoy.

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