Should Ambedkar Pick Up Railways’ Trash for Swachh Bharat Mission?

Hoardings at a Railway station showing Ambedkar using a dustbin sparked a row against portrayal of the Dalit icon.

Objections have been raised about this photo at the New Delhi railway station. Image used here for representation, The Quint does not intend to harm the sentiments of any community.

(Photo: The Quint)

Faced with ire among a section of the political centre, the Railway Ministry today pulled down two hoardings at the New Delhi railway station. Meant to promote Narendra Modi’s Swachh Bharat drive, the hoardings showcased apes evolving into cleanliness-embracing humans leading up to Dalit icon Ambedkar using a garbage bin.

Six such hoardings were put up at the New Delhi railway station on 19 July, as part of a pilot project based on behavioural psychology to encourage people to use trash bins.

The hoardings resulted in a furore on Twitter with several people tweeting to Railways Minister Suresh Prabhu, requesting that the posters that were claimed to hurt the sentiments of a particular caste should be pulled down immediately.

The ministry confirmed via Twitter that the hoardings have been removed.

Idea Behind the Hoardings

The so-called “offensive” hoardings were conceived by Saurav Panda, CEO Antyodaya Group, who came up with the proposal to use national icons as part of the awareness campaign for the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. Antyodaya Group is said to be obliquely associated with political forces linked to the Sangh Parivar.

We’re not huring anybody’s sentiments, we have tried to portray everyone in the same light. We are appealing to inner Gandhi and Ambedkar of people as the project is inspired by the psychology of influence. The project is based on basic principles of behavioural science.

Saurav Panda, CEO Antyodaya Group

Panda, who is a TISS scholar, had proposed using national icons such as Bhagat Singh, Mahatma Gandhi, Ambedkar and Bollywood rage Baahubali, to inspire people as part of his research project in 2016.

Panda also works as a legislative researcher for BJP’s Jodhpur MP Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, and has made presentations before the NITI Aayog on the subject of behavioural science.

The pilot project received a go-ahead from the Railway Ministry in July. Images of Ambedkar, Gandhi and Bhagat Singh are just one part of the campaign, even as the proposal included “guerrilla marketing” (low cost strategies) with hoardings using online chat as a medium to spread the word about the ill-effects of open defecation.

Online chat being used as a medium to spread the message about the ill-effects of open defecation at the New Delhi railway station.(Photo: The Quint)

According to UNICEF, open defecation is one of the main reasons behind the alarming number of deaths caused due to diarrhoea among children in the under-five age group. With 188,000 diarrhoea deaths being reported in India every year in the under-five group, open defecation has been identified as a silent killer in rural India.

Ambedkar as an Icon of Cleanliness

While the intention of the campaign might be to influence people’s behaviour in a positive way, some people feel it is another instance of tone-deaf advertising.

This seems to be coming from a casteist mindset, which is trapped with the same idea. Ambedkar stands for equality, but that is never highlighted enough. Such posters give a contradictory message to a particular community, reinstating that they will have to carry out the same task despite many of them not wanting to do so. 

Bezwada Wilson, Founder, Safai Karamchari Andolan and 2016 Magsasay Award recipient

Wilson has been fighting against the age-old practice of manual scavenging which was outlawed in 1993. The problem with using Ambedkar as an icon of cleanliness, according to Wilson, stems from exacerbating a caste divide that has stigmatised generations of Dalits.

The message being conveyed is that one can wear suit, but will still have to do this. Why can’t Modi, Bal Gangadhar Tilak be shown in a similar way? 

Bezwada Wilson

Congress sympathiser Tehseen Poonawalla echoed a similar notion, asserting that the Railways could’ve been more careful while choosing certain icons.

This is a typical way of describing Dalits who are relegated to the task of cleaning. More sensitivity should’ve been applied while going for such a campaign. You can’t degrade national icons by showing them as using garbage bins, while other contemporary leaders’ images could have been used.

Tehseen Poonawalla

By focusing on Ambedkar with a shallow approach, it seems, the advertisement has managed to alienate more people than it has influenced.

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