Film Shooting for Swachh Bharat Mission

- By Deepa Krishnan

One of the nice things about living in the media capital of India is that you're always coming across all kinds of outdoor shoots. Yesterday I saw this advertising shoot in progress:

In a couple of minutes we figured out that it was a shoot for the new cleanliness campaign launched by the government of India.

How did we guess? Because of the "Gandhi Chashma" that the actor with the broom was wearing. The Gandhi spectacles are the logo for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, The Clean India Mission:

Here's a closeup of the spectacles :)

Lots of local people had gathered to watch the shoot; and I think everyone in the crowd realised what was going on. Of course, it had no impact on the actual mess of paper and plastic that was lying around the market area. I think along with positive messages we also need stiff fines. It will work better if we educate people, but also have Cleanliness Inspectors that follow through with monitoring measures. 

We need major re-thinking on urban waste management - so I am not really saying keeping the streets clean is going to solve our real garbage problems. But it's a start.