CLEANLINESS IN INDIAN RAILWAYS
CLEANLINESS
IN
INDIAN RAILWAYS
Major Project
Under the guidance of
Shri Atul Gupta, SPMM
Shri Rakesh Rajpurohit, PIM
By
Naresh Kumar
Hari Mohan Dubey
Nanda Kumaran M
Mukul Kumar Singh
Manoj Kumar Mahawar
IRSS(P) 2012
National Academy of Indian Railways
Vadodara – 390004
June 2015
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
We feel immense pleasure to express our sincere gratitude to our
beloved and respectful Course Director, Mr. Rakesh Rajpurohit
(Prof. Inventory Management) for his valuable assistance and
guidance that has helped a lot in gathering various data and
completing the objective of this project. Apart from the subject of
our project and centralized training curriculum, we have learnt a
lot from him, which we are sure, will be useful in different stages
of our professional and personal lives.
We would also like to thank Mr. Atul Gupta, (Sr. Prof. Material
Management) for his perseverance for out of box thinking and his
helpful comments.
We further extend our thanks to all the officers of various
major stations for their guidance and help in collecting the data
for the project.
We are grateful to our colleagues for their assistance,
criticisms and useful insights.
INDEX
S.No.
Content
Page No.
1.0
Introduction
1
2.0
Cleanliness issues
1
3.0
Root Causes
1
4.0
Scenario at Chennai Central
2
5.0
Current Cleaning Practices
4
6.0
Observations made at Various Stations
6
7.0
Steps taken by Government of India
9
8.0
Waste Management at Indian Railways
10
9.0
Recommendations for improving cleanliness
11
10.0
Conclusion
24
1.0 Introduction
Cleanliness has become priority issue in Indian Railways. In a
recent poll conducted in the 160,000 citizen strong circle
“Transform India with Modi”, 50% of the respondents suggested that
Improving Cleanliness of trains/stations should be the top priority
for Government, ahead of Safety (35%), Reservation Systems (9%) and
Hygienic Food (6%). This indicates that Indians are ready for a
Clean India and a Cleaner Railways. Over 35,000 citizens in the
Make Railways Better circle have given their inputs on various
aspects of cleanliness including:
1. Civic Sense in Trains
2. Cleanliness in Trains and at Stations
3. Restricting entry on platforms and railway stations
2.0 Cleanliness Issues identified
1. People stick bills/posters outside trains and on
platforms
2. Lack of cleanliness of coaches/ stations/ toilets
3. Using toilets when the train is stationary
4. People spitting on the station/on the tracks/inside the
train
5. People defecating in the open at railway stations and on
tracks
6. Travellers do not flush after using the toilet
7. Railways does not have adequate housekeeping staff to clean
toilets
8. Garbage is thrown anywhere
9. Dustbins are missing from compartments, inadequate or not
emptied timely
10. Rats and Cockroaches are common in compartments and
pantry
11. Smoking in train compartments
12. People sleeping on the floor and pathways
13. People sleeping on the platforms
14. Beggars with no Civic Sense found onboard in trains and on
stations
3.0 Root Causes identified
1. Railways has become too large an organization to be managed
by the Government
2. Cleanliness standards set for the railway employees to follow
are very low
3. The sense of cleanliness/ hygiene among the general public is
missing
4. The stations/platforms cater to huge numbers and hence become
tough to manage
5. Lack of accountability of cleaning staff, faulty/negligent
auditing system
6. Lack of awareness and civic sense
7. Lack of sense of hygiene
8. Not enough dustbins on the stations and inside the train
9. Insensitivity towards fellow passengers
10. No fine/punishment for civic offences
11. Al lot of people are plain ignorant
12. Passengers know that the TTE hardly ever comes in the
general class and hence they
don’t feel the need to purchase tickets
13. Number of people traveling in the trains is far more than
the capacity
14. Railways still has a very old style of working
15. A large population of people is still uneducated
16. Railways caters to a very large population and it becomes
tough to regulate them
4.0 Scenario in Chennai Central
Chennai Central suffers from lack of enough maintenance crews,
which lead to dirty and unhygienic trains. Chennai Central was 180
short of the sanctioned 405 maintenance employees, including
mechanical, electrical and general maintenance, required for
cleaning the interiors and exteriors of trains and undertaking
routine mechanical and electrical maintenance of trains. In
2014, the number of dustbins in the station was 28.50 per 10,000
passengers.
Roughly, on an average, about 51 train units depart and arrive
at the station from different parts of the country. Of the 102
trains, a 12 are sent during the day and another 7 at night to
the Basin Bridge Train Care Centre for primary maintenance,
which involves complete exterior and interior cleaning and total
mechanical and electrical overhaul. The rest of the trains go
through secondary maintenance or 'other-end attention' at the depot
or 'turn back train attention' at Chennai Central itself. Secondary
maintenance includes filling water, while the third is the
'other-end attention,' in which the train, especially the toilets,
is cleaned. The fourth category of trains, such as Sapthagiri
Express and Pallavan Express, are turn-back trains, which
arrive and leave in a short time from Chennai Central after
toilet-cleaning and water-filling at the platform itself.
Despite the ban on manual scavenging since 1993, men and
women continue to manually remove human waste lying on the tracks
in the Chennai Central Station. There is a list of sophisticated
cleaning machines Railways have purchased to prove how they have
done away with manual scavenging. Most of them were seen removing
excreta on the tracks with brooms and metal plates. High pressure
water jets are used to clear excreta and it is directed into nearby
channels which empty into the drains. But this arrangement was not
found working efficiently. Hose pipes supplying water often leaked
and the force generated was not sufficient for cleaning operations.
In the end, brooms and metal plates are only used for scraping the
dirt.
Even the channels conducting waste into the drains are not
well-dug and water mixed with excreta stagnates in them. The
workers have to drag their brooms along the channels to clear
them.
The station has been divided into two zones for mechanized
cleaning contracts. For now, the Chennai Central has about 30
sanitary workers employed on a contractual basis in Zone I
(platform 1-6). Zone II (platforms 7-12) is cleaned by close to 40
railway employees. Of this, only two persons are engaged for
removing excreta piled on a single track. This is an enormous task,
considering the tracks are 600 m long.
The sanitary workers are provided with gloves, gum boots or
masks while cleaning. But hardly have they used those protection
equipments.
Lack of adequate public sanitation facilities is to be blamed
for this state of affairs. For a station that sees nearly two lakh
visitors a day, the Chennai Central has only two pay-and-use toilet
complexes for public use. There are more toilets available in the
waiting rooms on the first floor. But then again, the station has
no sign boards to tell visitors where they are.
Hardly anyone would pay to answer nature’s call when toilets
inside trains waiting on platforms are available for use. The
public blissfully ignore notice boards that discourage them from
doing so. For example, Charminar Express, which pulls into the
Chennai Central by around 8 am, serves as a free toilet for several
early morning office-goers. It takes us an hour to clean up the
mounds of waste from its toilets, again to be dirtied by the next
train passengers.
Sanitation blame is on beggars, urchins and those who roam
aimlessly inside the station for dirtying train toilets and tracks.
But a large number of passengers boarding trains in the morning use
train toilets.
The problem lies with issuing low value tenders for sanitary
work as professional contractors would not come forward in such
cases.
4.1 Comparison to a foreign Railway Station
The Chinese railway system is maintained by the management and
is duly supported by the political class.
An architectural delight of stainless steel columns, aluminium
struts, fiber glass seats, and sheet glass frontage are visible.
The station could be easily mistaken for an airport terminal rather
than a railway facility. Moreover, the premises, including the
platforms, are spotlessly clean and so are the tracks and the
trains. So how do they do this? Is there some draconian law to
ensure it or it is simply a case of smoke and mirrors at Nanjing
only? Far from it, far apart from the inherent discipline observed
by the common citizens, the rigid system enforced helps to keep the
railways environment clean.
First, the scheme of things in Chinese railways are such that a
person visits a railway station primarily to board a train to reach
his destination, and not to see-off or receive friends and
relatives etc. It’s a practice introduced by the European pioneers
who years ago, built most of the dozen or so railway systems in
China and maintained by the present day management duly supported
by the political class. Thus, access to the station premise —
not just to the platform — is restricted to ticket-holders only. In
the absence of platform tickets, the mass of well-wishers, friends
and relatives who visit the station premises — as is a common
sight in India — is simply not there. The platform never gets
converted into a vast camping area.
Second, vendors and all kinds of food stalls are available at a
central food court that is a part of the station premise, which
also houses waiting rooms, left luggage lockers, rest rooms and
other conveniences. Since there are no vendors on the platform,
they are garbage-free, and so is the track which often becomes a
dumping ground for the passengers here in India. Last but not the
least, travel discipline at the railway stations involves asking
passengers to mark time in waiting rooms: Four of them at all major
stations, each one designated to hold one of the four classes of
passengers common in China, Rs hard seating, hard sleeper,
soft seating and soft sleepers, somewhat akin to our own second
general, second sleeper, two or three tier AC and first AC.
The passengers are permitted to enter the platform only when the
train they intend to board arrives. Hence, they have no time or
opportunity to litter the platform or the track. Chinese trains
also sometimes run late during heavy winter fog, yet the passengers
patiently bide their time in the waiting rooms. Such a radical
departure in travel habits, and enforcement of restricted access to
platforms, will indeed be a herculean task, though some efforts
have been made to manage the crowd, such as during a mass exodus
from stations in Delhi on trains for the Chhath festival.
Food courts will need to be set up before removing the vendors
from the platform area, a move which could prove to be highly
unpopular and which undoubtedly will result in political
intervention. Moreover large number of waiting rooms will need to
be built to handle the huge passenger volume particularly at major
stations.
5.0 Current Cleaning Practices in Indian Railways
Indian Railways have planned multi-pronged action by synergizing
technology, education of users and provision of mechanized
equipments. Various measures taken include introduction of
mechanized cleaning process, award of rag picking/garbage disposal
contracts, pay & Use toilet scheme etc. Besides, inspections by
various officials at the railway stations are also conducted to
monitor cleanliness, to identify weak areas and take remedial
measures. Additional posts of Health Inspectors have been created
during the last four years to ensure better supervision of
cleanliness at railway stations.
Constant efforts are being made to improve the level of
cleanliness in coaches. Following initiatives for improvement of
hygiene and cleanliness in the trains have already been taken:
5.0.1 Intensive Mechanized cleaning of coaches in the
coaching depots through professional agencies is being carried out.
Heavy duty machines such as high pressure jet cleaners, floor
scrubbers, vacuum suction cleaners etc. are deployed for the
purpose. Presently a total of 115 depots have been identified for
this work and this has already been implemented in
89 coaching depots on different Zonal Railways.
5.0.2 On Board Housekeeping Scheme (OBHS) has been
prescribed in
all Rajdhani, Shatabdi, Duronto & other
important long distance Mail/Express trains for frequent cleaning
of coach toilets, doorways, aisles & passenger compartments
during the run of the trains. Under OBHS, the cleaning staff will
be on-board. Passengers can call them to clean the coaches and
toilets, if they are found dirty. A total of 535 trains
have been identified for providing OBHS services. This scheme has
been implemented on about 335 pairs of trains.
5.0.3 Disposable Bed Linen: The biggest problem with the
existing cotton sets is their worn-out look due to repeated use.
The zonal railways can buy bed linen only from the outlets of Khadi
and Village Industries Commission and Association for Consumer
Action on Safety & Health (ACASH). These organisations,
sometimes, are not able to meet the replacement requirements.
Hence, Synthetic disposable bed linen, instead of cotton ones, to
be used; this could add to the fire load 64 mechanised laundries to
be set up for washing cotton beddings. The Railways is planning to
soon try disposable bed linen, on an experimental basis, in the
Bangalore Rajdhani Express.
5.0.4 Bio-Toilets: However, bio-toilets are arguably
the most complicated part of the Railways' cleanliness drive. A
stainless steel bio-toilet set - with six chambers and costing Rs
90,000 is to be fitted beneath each of the four rest rooms in a
train coach. These toilets have a colony of anaerobic bacteria that
do not require oxygen to breathe. Aerobic bacteria, which survive
on oxygen and have been used in some foreign trains, have proved
unsuccessful in the Indian system. The friendly-bacteria
technology, developed by the Defence Research and Development
Organisation for use in such toilets, breaks down faeces into
methane and portable odourless liquid. This takes care of not only
cleanliness but corrosion caused on railway tracks due to human
droppings.
Though the Railways is installing bio-toilets on both
conventional train coaches and the latest Linke Hofmann Busch
(indigenised German technology) ones, it is only by 2016-17 that
all new coaches will have such toilets.
5.0.5 Clean Train Station scheme has been prescribed for
limited mechanized cleaning attention to identified trains during
their scheduled stoppages enroute at nominated “Clean
Train Stations” with focus on cleaning and disinfecting of toilets,
doorways and aisles. 30 Clean Train Stations have been nominated by
Railway Board on different Zonal Railways. 28 of these
have been commissioned and are functional.
5.0.6 Setting up of mechanized laundries for washing linen: 54
locations have been identified to set up Mechanized laundries for
improving the quality of washing of bed rolls. While
29 numbers shall be managed departmentally,
21 numbers are being outsourced. Mechanized laundries
have already been set up at 16 locations. Contracts for setting up
laundries at 7 locations are in advanced stage and tender are under
process at 12 locations.
5.0.7 Pest and rodent control in
trains: The contract for pest and rodent control
in coaches is already in place in 125 coaching depots out of 127
identified coaching depots on IR. To improve effectiveness of the
pest and rodent control, measures are being regularly reviewed.
Major constraint is vulnerability of coaches for entry of pest and
rodents at coaching depots, station yards etc.
5.0.8 Cleanliness at Stations: In view of the high density of
passenger traffic, maintenance of cleanliness at stations is a
major challenge for Indian Railways. However, Indian
Railways accord very high priority for ensuring proper standards of
cleanliness at stations.
6.0 Observations made at various stations:
· No separate dustbins were kept for degradable and non
degradable waste at railway stations; the solid waste at the first
collection point is not segregated. The collected waste from the
formal system finally goes to the municipal landfill for disposal.
Both the number of dustbins and vats were found to be inadequate.
Further, the Railway Administration frequently resorted to improper
disposal of waste by burning, dumping into adjacent canal, low
lying areas, and near the track, causing environmental
pollution.
· Dustbins were either without lids or were overflowing
· Dustbins were also found without poly bags or in a broken
condition. Plastic waste like carry bags and multilayered metalized
plastics which are left behind at stations go to the landfill
without any segregation.
· Plastic wastes generated from the Railway stations are not
collected, segregated, transported, treated, reused and disposed
properly.
· We observed that though garbage disposal system was in place,
the same was not effective enough due to lack of monitoring to
ensure compliance with statutory obligations and provisions of
contracts for proper disposal of garbage, deficiencies in
infrastructure like adequate provision of vats, dust bins etc.
· The commitment of Ministry of Railways for assessment and
implementation of remedial measures to overcome the shortcomings in
collection and disposal of garbage remained mostly unfulfilled due
to lack of focused approach towards healthy environmental at
station premises.
· Lack of modern and mechanized approach towards station
cleanliness at small stations.
· Railway stations lack the infrastructure to recycle. It
doesn’t matter whether your aluminum can or newspaper was separated
from waste on the stations and onboard. Those already refined
valuable materials will be mixed in with non recyclable trash and
end up in the same place.
· Waste management data are poorly maintained at the stations
and on board the trains.
· Inconsistent or more often, nonexistent data make it difficult
to estimate how much waste is generated and how much funding and
other types of resources need to be allocated to manage waste.
· No separate Waste Management Cell exists to look after issues
relating to solid and plastic waste management and there is no
proposal for under consideration with IR in this regard
6.1 Toilets in Trains
· IR transports about 14 million passengers on 9000 trains every
day. Travelling passengers generates approximately 3980 MT of human
waste per day that is dumped through 'open discharge' type toilets
of these coaches and directly goes onto the rail tracks across the
length and breadth of the country. This pollutes environment at
station as well as in the areas through which the trains pass.
Further this also creates problem of hygiene and has resulted in
filing of numerous legal cases against the Railways. toilet
droppings are one among the primary causes for rail corrosion and
resulting rail failure.
· Globally, there are different models of green / biological
toilets in use by various Railways. Zero discharge toilets, Aerobic
and Anaerobic.IR has conducted trials of these various models of
toilets.
The IR is experimenting with three types of toilets in
trains
· Modular Toilets
· Vacuum Toilets
· Chemical Toilets
6.1.1 Modular Toilets
The IR have redesigned coach toilets completely to make them
more comfortable and modern. The redesigned toilets have been
developed as fiber reinforced plastic built modules which can be
fitted directly inside coaches in place of conventional
toilets.
Modular toilets have been introduced in Jan Shatabdi train
coaches. Modular toilet is a controlled discharge toilet system,
which stores toilet discharge in a sealed tank in stationary
condition and avoids dirtying stations. The tank is empted slowly
when speed of train exceeds predetermined limit of 40 kms per hour.
The discharge begins in open area outside cities and degenerates
fast without creating any environmental concern. The modular
toilets will cost Rs.7.5 lakh per coach. It will form part of
operation cleanliness that IR have launched.
Research is being carried out under a technology mission as a
collaborative effort between Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur
and Research, Design and Standards Organization (RDSO), supported
by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) and Ministry of
Railways.
6.1.2 Vacuum Toilets
The RDSO has come up with their specifications for the various
types of toilet systems in trains.
Vacuum toilet system is required for standard mainline rolling
stock to flush out the toilet waste with minimum water consumption
to a collection/retention tank mounted below the under frame. The
toilet system should provide a sealed commode with an efficient
flushing system and provide odour free interior of the toilets
applicable to Western and Indian style toilets of mainline broad
gauge (BG) coaches of IR.
The water consumption shall be minimum with 100% cleaning of the
commode (maximum 0.8 ltr per flush for Indian type and 0.8 ltr for
Western type). As the the air supplied from the coach may contain
dirt and moisture, toilet should include suitable filter and
moisture arrester.
Water Supply
(a) In AC coaches, one tank of 40 ltr capacity is available over
the toilet roofs at each end, at a height of about 2030 mm from
toilet floor. Water is pumped to these from underframe mounted main
water tanks. Water flow to the flushing valve is by gravity.
(b) In non AC coaches, one tank of 450 ltr services each toilet
at a height of 2030 mm from toilet floor. These tanks are not
pressurised and the water flow from these tanks is by gravity.
Duty Cycle
The toilet should be ready for use by the next passenger within
one to two minutes. The toilet shall be used upto approximately 150
times in 24 hrs. Journeys varying upto 77 hrs are performed by IR
coaches.
Waste processing
The effluents are collected in a tank which is under slung below
the WC. A pump mounted alongside the tank delivers the effluents to
the treatment system at a steady rate through a membrane sieve to
trap solids. A mixture of coagulating and disinfecting chemicals is
injected into the delivery line to promote coagulation while
preventing decomposition of organic compounds. Adsorption or
organic scavenging will also be needed to meet the quality norms
specified. Here, water entrained in the sludge trickles through an
SS304 mesh and is recycled. Dewatered sludge is to be removed
during the train cleanup operation. The residual pressure of 0.5 to
1 kg/sqcm is maintained by continuous recycle of excess treated
water for use in flushing.
The tenderer shall clearly indicate the system for rendering the
toilet discharge environmentally inert. Chemicals used in the
toilet if any, shall be dispensed so that there is no chance of
their contact with the user. The details of chemicals and agents,
along with their consumption rates and approximate costs, shall be
indicated.
7.0 Steps taken by Indian Government to improve cleanliness
More and more mechanical cleaning gadgets are being introduced
and better types of cleaning agents are being used to achieve
improved standard of cleanliness. Contracts are given
for supply of machines like scrubbers, high pressure jet cleaners,
mops, etc. Railways are also providing washable aprons (Ballast
less track) on platform lines at railway stations with jet cleaning
arrangements.
Periodic contracts for rag picking and garbage disposal are
awarded.
More and more toilets are brought under the purview of ‘Pay
& Use’ toilets, including deluxe toilets. At present, more than
850 stations are provided with normal ‘Pay & Use’ toilets and
more than 30 stations are provided with Deluxe ‘Pay & Use’
toilets on Indian Railways
Cleanliness awareness campaigns are also launched for education
of the rail users to ensure a satisfactory level of cleanliness at
railway stations.
Powers have been delegated to Divisional Railway Managers (DRMs)
for purchasing of tools and plants required for carrying out
various sanitation related activities, awarding of pest control
contracts, specialized contracts for mechanized cleaning and one
time cleaning.
The Station Superintendents/Station Managers are provided with
adequate cash imprest exclusively for cleaning of
approach to station.
A monitoring and reporting system has been developed and the
action taken by Zonal Railways for improvement in cleanliness is
reported on weekly and monthly basis for Board’s appraisal.
Inspections are conducted at various levels viz. General
Managers, DRMs, Service Improvement Groups and at other
Officers level to check the standard of cleanliness at various
stations. During these inspections, deficiencies are noticed in
various areas such as drainage, availability of dustbin, sewerage,
water supply, washable apron and garbage disposal. Steps are taken
to wipe out the deficiencies so noticed.
8.0 Waste management in Indian railways
Waste management is the collection, transport, processing or
disposal, managing and monitoring of waste materials. The term
usually relates to materials produced by human activity, and the
process that is generally undertaken to reduce their effect on
health, the environment or aesthetics.
IR generates vast quantities of different types of wastes. The
waste is mainly solid waste generated by train passengers, vendors,
hawkers etc., during the journey and also at stations across the
country. total quantity of waste generated at these(ndls,hzn,dli)
three railway stations is 23,250 Kg per day . This included
generation of plastic waste of 6758 Kg per day .
The garbage generated in trains and stations can be categorized
as-
Biodegradable- This consists primarily of left over foods, and
paper waste like newspapers, disposable cups, food containers etc.
and
Non-biodegradable- This comprises mainly of plastic waste from
mineral water bottles, aluminum foil etc.
8.1 Recommendations for Efficient Waste Management:
· A comprehensive waste management policy needs to be framed and
a separate waste management cell established in the Railway Board
for dealing with all related issues including minimization of the
use of plastics within the Railway stations and proper disposal of
plastic waste
· IR needs to put in place a system of estimation of waste
generated in IR and also a system for segregation of bio-degradable
and non bio-degradable waste.
· Separate dustbins for bio degradable and non bio degradable
waste should be used
· Maintaining accurate data is also essential for estimating a
program’s environmental benefits, and communicating information
about these environmental benefits can motivate participation.
· Formation of a green team; green team may include individuals
from inside and outside the railways. The green team plans and
implements the waste management program in the initial phase, then
maintains and monitors the program once it is in place.
· Bin Selection and Placement: Proper collection bins are vital
to the success of waste management program. For these reasons, the
decision of what bins to purchase, how they are labeled, and where
they will be located is the most important decision. Visual
inspections of the bins by members of the green team and
discussions with the custodial staff can help identify bins that
are not used or that are overfilling before collection. The
solution may be as simple as moving the location of the bins;
however, if resources are available you may also decide to add
additional bins to certain areas of the railway stations
· Monitor and Refine the Plan: During the life of the waste
management program, periodically evaluate how well your plan is
working and what adjustments are needed. Be prepared to make
changes to bins, collection schedules, and educational material.
Monitor the use of all bins to determine if they are being used
properly
· Railway stations serve as the gateway to cities, giving many
visitors their first impression of a city. Bearing this in mind,
local governments should promote the environmental sentiments and
goals of their community at airports. State and local governments
should offer recycling assistance to railway stations.
· Maintaining accurate data is also essential for estimating a
program’s environmental benefits, and communicating information
about these environmental benefits can motivate participation
· Considering in advance the space requirements for waste
management or renovation can simplify implementation in the
future.
9.0 Recommendations for improving cleanliness at railway
stations and on board
9.0.1 Littering behavior
In order to understand the littering problem, a group must be
constituted to study about not only littering behaviour itself and
what drives that behaviour, but also the proper disposal of litter
and what influences work for or against this desirable behaviour.
It is the tension between these two alternative courses of action
which may or may not result in the action of dropping litter.
Influences on behaviour were conceptualised in terms of
motivations – i.e. factors which make a certain behaviour more
likely – and in terms of barriers – i.e. factors which make that
behaviour less likely. Motivations were considered with respect to
both littering and proper disposal, as different motivations could
potentially drive behaviour in either direction on this dichotomy.
Barriers were only considered with respect to proper disposal, as
the concept of ‘barriers to littering’ was not deemed useful. The
review therefore considered:
· Motivations to litter;
· Barriers to proper disposal; and
· Motivations for proper disposal.
Policy makers and practitioners are drawing increasingly on
behavioural theories to help them understand such motivations and
barriers and to shape the design of interventions. There are many
strands of theory and behavioural models to choose from
(psychology, sociology, behavioural economics and so on) and no
consensus on which is ‘best’. The framework identifies four
different kinds of influence:
· The personal, which refers to personal attributes and
influences, including aspects such as values, attitudes, identity
and personal norms (e.g. feelings of responsibility and a sense of
agency)
· The social, which refers to the influence on our thinking and
behaviour from the wider social context, including social norms
(established or accepted ways of behaving), cultural conventions
and shared understandings;
· The material, which refers to the context in which behaviours
are formulated and acted out, which can enable or constrain
particular kinds of behaviour. It can include, for example,
services, infrastructure and technologies.
· Habits, which refer to patterns of behaviour which individuals
carry out almost automatically; in other words, unconscious drivers
of behaviour which result from becoming ‘locked in’ to certain
patterns.
· Age – younger people litter slightly more than older people,
and are more willing to admit to littering;
· Gender – men drop slightly more litter than women do, and are
also more willing to admit to littering; and
· Smoking – not only are smoking-related items littered more
frequently than most other litter items, but smokers also tend to
litter more in general, compared to non-smokers.
There is substantial evidence which indicates that sense of
personal responsibility varies between locations, and that where
people feel less of a personal responsibility for maintaining the
space they are in, they are more likely to litter. For example,
places where the public believe that someone else will clean up
after them, such as municipality-maintained sites and indoor public
spaces, are often seen as more acceptable places in which to
litter. Many openly admit that laziness prevents them from using
litter bins.
Social norms can be broadly categorised into injunctive norms,
which indicate what is considered the ‘correct’ behaviour, which
indicate what most other people are doing. For example, if a site
is already littered, people may infer from this that other people
normally litter in that space.
Anti-littering policies
Imposition of fines and other measures to deter people from
habit of littering
Adequate number of dustbins put up so that no one throws garbage
on other places.
When one needs to dispose of trash in public areas in any other
city in the country, one will have to walk for quite some time
before finding a dustbin or a designated waste disposal area.
However, most people do not want to go through the trouble of
carrying their trash until they find a dustbin to discard it. The
lack of dustbins at regular intervals is prompting the public to
litter, making the cities unclean and unhygienic.
Ensuring regular emptying of dustbin so that the dustbin does
not overflow. If regular emptying of dustbin is not carried out
then people will find the same problem of not having dustbin in
this way they will start littering the place
Children in schools in primary level are taught to discard trash
at the proper areas.
To ensure that the public is aware about the negative impacts of
littering, social awareness campaigns against it should be
conducted regularly
9.0.2 NGO Participation
· Inviting various NGO in cleanliness programs
· Providing them space and fund for recycling plants for trash
generated from various trains and stations.
9.0.3 RO plants
· Providing RO water plants on board coaches and stations to
eliminate the plastic waste generated due to water bottles.
· On other hand, this scheme will save water bottle costs and
provide revenue to railways.
· Passengers can also be sure of pure and have access to
unlimited drinking water.
9.0.4 Disposable linen
· Partially washed or dirty linens could be replaced by
disposable linens.
· Laundry charges could be saved.
· These linens could be recycled for further use.
9.0.5 Dustbin
In this era of recycling and sustainability many cities have
also provided separate bins for biodegradable waste and recyclable
waste. This on one hand raises awareness about recycling and the
environment among the public and on the other hand it makes it
easier for the management to separate the trash, making recycling
more efficient.
· Size should be increased
· Dry and Wet waste dustbins should be kept in place.
9.0.6 Use of modern cleaning equipments
Type of cleaning
· Routine/daily cleaning
· Intermediate cleaning
· Restorative cleaning
Cleaning Parameters
Quality cleaning includes following parameters:
· Time
· Chemical
· Manpower
· Machine
· Accessories
· Water
· Right temperature
Various automated equipments which can be used for effective
cleaning in railway premises:
Vacuum cleaning
Vacuum cleaning is process of collection of dust and liquid.
· Dry vacuum cleaner
Dry vacuum cleaner is used for collection of dry dust, sand,
leaves, powder, granules, pebbles, chips, small dry objects
etc.
· Wet and Dry vacuum cleaner
Used for collection of wet spillage of water, oil, coolant where
90% is wet in the liquid form i.e. free flowing.
Floor Care
Floor care is done for
· To prevent investment.
· Cleaned area
· Reflects good area
· Hygienic area
Machines used for floor cleaning
· Single disc
· Auto scrubber driers
· Ride-on scrubber driers ( for large areas )
· Burnishers
Single disc/Scrubber
Scrubbing is cleaning of floor with mechanical action of brush
or pad.
Auto scrubber driers
· Scrubber-drier is a machine which scrubs the hard floor with
water and picks up the water simultaneously.
· Scrubber-drier replaces MOP and BROOMS.
· It cleans floor twice and faster than manual system and far
superior in quality.
Ride-on scrubber driers
Its application is similar as auto scrubber drier but these
machines are more suitable for large areas like station platforms,
waiting halls, depot floors, go down floors etc due to high
productivity.
Burnishers
High speed single disc or burnisher is used for maintenance of
floors on regular purpose to enhance the life of polish,
crystallizers etc.
High Pressure Water Jet Cleaners
Types of High Pressure Washers
Cold water Jet
It takes in water at ambient temperature, build pressure with
the help of pump and delivers ambient water at very high
pressure.
Hot/ steam Jet
Takes in water at ambient temperature, stores water in pre
heated tank, from there water goes to pump. Pressurized water moves
through the coils, where it is heated by burner at 130 degrees. The
pressurized hot water comes out in the form of jet.
Sweeping Machines
These machines can solve many problems of cleaning system as it
won’t require passenger to leave the place as it has direct throw
technology incorporated in it which will not allow dust to mix with
the air and will not cause any breathing issues.
So we can use these machines at busy stations like New Delhi,
Mumbai and Patna etc.
Direct Throw Technology
In our study we have seen various high end equipment which are
being used in various industries worldwide and also the gone
through brochures of various cleaning equipment manufacturer’s
catalogues.
But we have proposed the used of above equipments only because
these are being used in railways also and are not having very high
cost of purchase and maintenance.
REMEMBER - RIGHT MACHINE FOR RIGHT APPLICATION
9.0.7 Base Kitchen
· Base Kitchen should be setup every 100 km – 150 km
interval.
· Orders should be collected in advance to cater the needs.
· This concept would reduce on board waste generation due to
pantry cars.
· Pantry cars could be replaced with passenger coaches that in
turn lead to revenue generation.
9.0.8 Vendor Responsibility
· A section should be earmarked to a particular vendor.
· He should be responsible for the cleanliness of that
particular section.
· If he fails to do so, severe penalty should be levied.
9.0.9 Green Teams
· Inter departmental teams should be formed at every
organizational level.
· These teams should monitor the cleanliness of railway premises
and should be empowered to levy fine on the person responsible.
· Organization head would be responsible for the formation and
he will monitor the functions of these green teams.
9.0.10 Grievance Cell
· A robust grievance cell should be formed to take care of
cleanliness issues relating to the stations as well as on board
· Means should be provided on board the train to register
complains from the commuters electronically.
· Watch should be kept on the complaints and the efforts taken
for their redressal,fines should be imposed in cases where
complaints are not addressed properly.
· Awareness among the passengers about grievance cell needs to
be increased so that accessibility of grievance cell is
increased.
· Web Based Real time tracking of staff
· GPS linked attendance
· Photo proof of the clean toilets and coaches with time and
location stamp should be sent every 3 hours.
· Real time compliant system and redressing system.
9.0.11 Preventing unauthorized Entry
· At major stations, main entry points should be monitored
strictly.
· Access should be given to the persons with valid ticket.
9.0.12 Educating and motivating commuters and staff for
maintaining cleanliness
Fowling heaps of garbage, leaking water nozzles, stinking public
utilities, walls reddened by tobacco spits are a common sight at
public places in India. There would be none who would take pleasure
in witnessing these sites. Seeing a litter free, stink free, clean
and green India is a dream existing in some corner of every Indian
heart.
Participation of commuters and staff is very important for
achieving the goals of cleanliness. Some of the ways which should
be employed to educate and motivate commuters and staff to refrain
from littering are:
· Educate railway station staff before any plan is rolled out,
meet with the participants. Talk to vendors, maintenance staff,
train staff and others meet employees face-to-face and tell them
about their role in the program.
· Frequently re-educate the entire staff regarding the benefits
of recycling and how the program functions in the station.
· Staff meetings, vendor meetings, and regular face-to-face
interactions with the commuters.
Educate customers
· As with any good waste management program, railway stations
must clearly identify where bins are located and how to use them.
Educating customers about the benefits of recycling reinforces the
practice. Place informational signs on or near bins explaining why
recycling is important.
· A terminal poster may encourage a visitor to walk a few extra
feet to find the bin. External publicity should be considered
through press releases to local news media to inform hometown
customers.
· Nukkad nataks can also be conducted on stations to educate
people.
· Participation of ngo's to educate people as done in Ludhiana
railway station.
10.0 Conclusion
Mahatma Gandhi said "Sanitation is more important than
independence". We can conclude that cleanliness is important in our
life as well as for the nation. It is less probable that today’s
leaders will pull themselves away from their market-focused
pursuits and ineffectual, exclusive pursuit of GDP growth, to focus
on the task of nation-building. Student’s role is very important to
create awareness on cleanliness. In today’s world the role of
social media is important to create awareness among the people and
inculcate a feeling of nationality among them. Cleanliness is not
only the responsibility of the sanitation worker or local
government. It is the responsibility of all Indians. It is the
responsibility of the Government officers, NGOs and the local
community to make India completely clean. It’s a need of the
present; all the people should actively participate to clean
India.
