Mawlynnong – The Cleanest Village in India

Which is the cleanest village in India?

Mawlynnong, a small village located about 100 kilo meters from Shillong is reportedly the cleanest village of India. The village is now proudly the cleanest villages in Asia.

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India proudly considers this village to be the cleanest village, which is located in Meghalaya.

Cleanliness in cities

We find that cities are highly polluted and dirty. Not just the pollution makes the cities dirty, but people of cities have a bad sense of cleanliness and throw away garbage and litter places with dirt, dust etc.

We can find heaps and piles of garbage strewn on the streets, uncollected for days together, emanating a stinky smell, attracting flies and spreading infections and diseases.

Not only this is harmful for our health, but brings a bad reputation to the big metros and cities that boast of excellent infrastructure facilities.

The bad effects of such bad hygienic conditions puts the cities on health hazard risks, together with turning away many foreign investment opportunities.

We care for our houses, similarly we ought to care for public places as well, by considering them our own and try to keep them as clean as possible.

We can see many NGOs and public awareness groups trying to spread the word about importance of maintaining cleanliness in public places as well as developing hygienic health conditions for the betterment of our own society.

The small village of Mawlynnong is a model city for maintaining cleanliness for it has a bamboo basket placed outside every little house/hut to collect garbage and throw it only inside the bamboo basket.

Specialties of the place

The place is quite famous for khasi huts that are made of bamboo. Since the village has maintained very clean living conditions, the place is able to maintain its green cover to a large extent, away from the typical sights we see in villages. The specialty of the place is the natural root bridges.

By natural root bridges, it means pathways formed for human wandering from one place to another. These pathways are nothing but natural roots tied together and woven in such a manner that they resemble a natural bridge formed by interwoven roots. Man-mad artificial bridges are just not for this place, everything here is very natural, clean and green.

The ficus trees bear such long and thick roots that the inhabitants of this village have for long created natural pathways for commuting by interweaving these roost and tying them together tightly for better strength and grip.

Measures taken by the villagers of Mawlynnong to maintain cleanliness in their village

• It is a true way of life, people believe in cleanliness.
• Every house has a toilet with excellent water facilities since the year 2007.
• Dustbins placed in front of every house/hut.
• Leaves and dried flowers, etc on roads collected and thrown only inside the dustbin and not anywhere else.
• Plastic free village.
• No villager smokes in the village.
• People who go against the rules of the village are strictly punished.
• Garbage is placed inside a deep pit which gives manure to villagers.
• People clean houses as well as roads.
• They plant more trees.

Steps taken by villagers to preserve cleanliness at Mawlynnong

At Mawlynnong, life runs on being clean and hygienic at all times. Not only is cleanliness a mandatory routine for all the villagers, but they consider it a part of their lives to be clean, to keep their surroundings clean and hygienic. That is because, their attitude sets them apart.

They do not have a lazy attitude of piling up garbage and dumping them at open sites. They take care to collect every bit of garbage or litter and put it straight into the dustbin only.

If we happen to visit one of their homes, we would be amazed to find the spic and span kind of hygienic conditions maintained at every corner of their house.

Clean and beautiful gardens, well watered and well maintained speak about the care and nurture they provide to nature out of their own will. Villagers take care to keep every article in their house clean and clear at all times. Not just that, they take care to clean the roads that they are part of.

They take brooms and cleaning articles in their hands and literally clean and sweep the roads to keep them clean at all times.

Whatever garbage is thus collected goes into garbage baskets placed outside each home and not into open fields. They have proper waste disposal methods, which goes beyond any scientific waste disposal methods implemented in cities. Though they lack behind in education, they are good in awareness!

They are well-informed about waste management practices, practices that are close to nature and harmful to none. It is totally nature friendly, proving to be one of the best practices ever sought after and a model practice that should be followed in every village.

So after collecting all garbage, they make pits to put in this garbage, which later converts it into manure, which can be used for the plants to grow well and to provide good nourishment.

Not only this is a very healthy practice, it is totally in sync with nature and nothing goes for a waste. Plastics and plastic items are totally banned in this village and that is one of the reasons why it looks so clean and free from non bio degradable materials.

People here do not smoke and cause injury to themselves and the nature. They realize the hazards caused, and they fight to save nature and its greenery.

People who are against these best practices are punished under law and severely fined. The villagers take part in initiatives to grow more trees and cultivate more greenery around their houses so that every corner of the village looks green and vibrant with the colors of nature!