“For-Profit” Cleanup of India: The Threshold of Social Campaigns and Profit

“For-Profit” Cleanup of India: The Threshold of Social Campaigns and Profit

This week’s theme of venture development and growth provoked me to think about a ‘for-profit’ cleanup of India. This piece is not an attempt to explicitly prototype a project. Instead, I aim to bring insight to the issue of trash disposal in India and make suggestions relevant to the theme of having successful social impacts and formulating growth in social ventures.

I spent my last summer, vacationing in India, unable to refrain from carrying public policy in my mind for the duration of my trip. During the course of my travels, I encountered an artistic project or innovation of some sort, vouching to clean up India. A combination of bright paintings and slogans portraying good moral standards were painted on large walls across the country. This, however, did not disrupt the unsanitary behavior of the country. The status quo of India in plain language: people are living in a garbage dump.

In my journey, I traveled to northern and southern parts of India for over two months and witnessed first-hand, rural parts of India and over-populated cities being central to this issue. As seen in the Washington Post article, India begins ambitious campaign to clean up dirty cities and villages; Prime Minister Modi attempts to tackle precisely these communities. The affluent middle class recognizes this issue and this is seen in the behavior and regional settings of individuals from the upper middle class (and of course the elite). 

Prior to reading this week’s articles, I assumed that the main concern of social organizations is to have an impact, not money. The articles, How Misinformed Ideas about Profit are Holding Back the World’s Poor and Profits at the Bottom of the Pyramid explain otherwise. Important aspects to success are changing consumer behavior and the way products are delivered. The current cleanup campaign ought to consider their product (art) and outcome (the behavior of citizens). The flowery art pieces across the country attempt to promote better sanitation standards yet the population has not budged.

Villagers, residents, and owners of rental properties should be held responsible for the cleanliness of the area in which they reside in or hold ownership to the property of. If this requirement is not met, they should be fined a penalty issued by the government. Having an on-spot fine for littering and overall a no tolerance approach to inappropriate garbage disposal will pertain to a disruption of behavior.

Opponents may argue that the government is profiting at the expense of poor villagers and struggling lower-middle class citizens. The larger impact of cleaning the country, however, spreads results in less pollution, better public health, efficiency, and an economically attractive market in the long term. Should we rely on citizen’s reaction to art in changing behavior against garbage disposal or should the government take a rather profitable measure?