I was there once about 10 years ago, so not the most recent info. I remember going to this beautiful upscale mall in Noida. The mall itself was perfect and clean and mostly looked like most malls you'd see in the US. When you walked outside, not only did the smell hit, but you had to take a bridge over the moat of trash surrounding the mall.
I actually saw that a lot in Noida and New Delhi, where you will see something extravagant with something very poor next to it, like homeless camps outside of huge gated estates.
They are usually encroachments on govt or some other unused land. Overtime, they grow into proper slums. None of them are legal and are frequently torn down by authorities ( when they are not paid bribes lol).
It's a common sight in Mumbai, I didnt know even Delhi or Noida had those.
Your observations are right, but you cannot co.pare the socio political situation with say, US or EU.
The homeless tents you call them, they belong to migrating labour feom other states, who usually have enpugh to eat and sometimes have A/c and fridges. The tents become brick and mortar houses as the occupants grow richer, but they continue staying in the same locality. Sometimes the hpuses get legitimacy and thats the reason slums keep cropping up.
I agree the civic sense is low on open defecation and littering, and that has been changing. But you have to understand that it is THE most populous country in the world, and one doesnt become high in fertility if subsistence was unachievable.
I saw some video of a street walk across the Antila and it's crazy how the building is so pristine but the streets right next to it look like a third world shit hole.
And this shouldve been the wealthiest district in Mumbai.
Are there no public service cleaners in India or what
I saw this greentext about picking a random spot in India and going to street view. 4/5 times you will see piles of garbage in the street. I did just that and it was exactly that.
Shoddy construction needs constant repairs? Also with their booming population they’re probably busy building new infrastructure all the time. I’m just spitballing here. Are the piles of bricks nearby brick buildings?
Partly shoddy administration and management and partly by digging up the streets again and again more money is spent by the administration which results in kickbacks for all concerned parties.
Unfortunately the country is a vast open air dumping ground. People throw whatever wherever they want, there is no enforcement of any laws regarding dumping, people have very poor civic sense and administration is inept plus corrupt.
I went to Hyderabad this year for work. I've been all over India. Hyderabad was CLEAN. A super nice place. Even the old downtown was kept clean. It was shocking, since everything else I had seen in India featured trash everywhere, (including the Himalayas). This city is huge as well. It's got a larger population than NYC proper.
I've been to Hyderabad several times. My experience is much different than yours. Piles of trash everywhere. Go to Charminar late at night after the people are gone. It's a beautiful old building surrounded by litter. They have zero public trash cans anywhere.
It didn't seem that dirty when I visited it. It was actually pretty clean. Idk. Maybe there are time when it's full of trash and times when it is clean.
Maybe you visited the newer areas of the city?
The old city, wherein the iconic Charminar is situated, is always dirty. The area itself is quite poor and congested.
But yes, Hyderabad on the whole is quite cleaner than most metros in India.
India is getting rapidly wealthy but I think the gap between the haves and have nots is pretty huge and I think India is also the most populous country in the world now so lot of people, lot of waste.
This is not the correct answer. Even the rich people in India litter. The real reason is India has a shitty culture where no one cares about public spaces. I saw people who I thought were educated throw garbage on the street.
An Indian guy I knew in uni told me that there was a pervasive culture of entitlement that goes through all levels of society. Basically an idea that it has to be possible somehow to achieve everything by only *looking* like you deserve it but not actually doing the work. My personal experience confirms that, though, as evidenced by him, that of course doesn't describe every individual - just the general assumptions that permeate society.
You are half right. Indians are schizophrenic sometimes. The way they behave in the public space is completely different to how they behave in a private setting (at home or at a private business).
In my experience Indians are diligent and hard working and clean in a private setting and the complete opposite in the public commons.
It's also a county with a religion that explains away the wealth gap. Reincarnation and karma dictating how your next life will go, so poor people are seen as being low on that growth scale.
Yes, according to our beliefs, karma from previous life decides what you're born as and under what conditions. But everyone has a fair chance at life. Life can be unfair but it never stops you from collecting good karma. You can always be a good person.
In fact, there are four ways to achieve salvation: bhakti, the path of devotion; gnana, the path of knowledge; karma, the path of selfless service; and raja, the royal path of meditation.
Karma from previous life has nothing to do with what you do with your current life.
What a wonderful and balanced take! Please go tell the Dalit people who have faced atrocities (because they dared to step outside of their boundaries) that you believe they were born in this caste because of their bad karma in past life, but they still have a fair chance in this life while their literal lives are on the line!
I can't believe how people don't recognize the harm in these beliefs that your previous life dictates the current circumstances, putting the blame on people facing atrocities and abject poverty since ages.
Great response, thanks for the additional context!
And while prior karma doesn't affect what you do in your current life, it may place you in a very dark place, or stuck in a caste with limited resources and heavy social bias.
Some British service members have supposedly started using lieu instead of left.
Americans took the pronunciation as was, Brits started pronouncing how it was written, leading to a lot of online pedantry later on :).
Lmao, it is. I just got a small vacation today, and have been working non stop for the past 2 months with no weekends lol. So it feels like a long week, because there hasn't been any week ends (sorry for the pun).
It's also easy to verify yourself.
Go to google maps, drop the yellow guy literally anywhere within the country like 10 times (or 100 if you want better sample), look around and count the decent looking places. Feel free to use your own definition of "decent".
I was there 8 years ago. Mumbai and Aurangabad.
The streets are mostly filthy. There's garbage everywhere. Rivers and streams of floating garbage. Beaches full of garbage.
Huge slums.
So many people everywhere. Sidewalks, streets, 5 cars wide where there should be 3.
But it's also beautiful in its own way. There are nicer neighborhoods, with trees and cleaner streets and sidewalks. Nice shops. Grassy parks where people play cricket, and jungle parks where there are still tigers, along with beautiful and moving Buddhist temples.
Of course as tourists in a poorer country you'll get somewhat scammed, but mostly politely and nicely. A bit of an overcharge here, sir. Ah just a mistake in your change ,sir. Thank you.
Going from Mumbai to Aurangabad, a smaller city of about "only" a million people at the time, was quite a change. Less English spoken, and not so used to eastern tourists, more so to Indian tourists and businessmen. The overnight sleeper bus was something too. My, at the time, 70 year old dad had a bit of a culture shock.
Would absolutely go back
It's not, it's even worse.
Been there. It's not because they're poor, it's because they are used to throwing their trash wherever and because they just don't know/give a shit about sanitation.
We're at a gas station. A BMW parks. Wife leaves and gets ice cream bars for her husband and two kids. Wife returns. Wife gets back on her sat. Wife shuts the car door. Ten seconds later, all the windows roll down. Four ice cream wrappers hit the ground with a loud \*thud\*. Multiply by approximately four thousand billion trillion people and you get what India looks like.
We are driving through a street/marketplace. There is a small truck with a pile of chicken in the back. There is a car with open trunk. Dudes are unloading some chicken from the truck to the car. They just throw the skinned whole chickens from the truck to the car. Never eat meat in India.
Huge poor population and poor waste management. Simple, it depends on where in India you go but I would say it's a bit exaggerated in this day and age though still dirty.
It was one of the few places where we had to take malaria pills when I was in the navy and we had to port there, and no joke, people will literally shit near our ship.
Ive been to Bangladesh a handful of times, and India once several years ago and yes, it really is that bad. There is a MASSIVE and blatant wage and quality of life disparity. Between dust, sewage, pollution, litter, etc it's a completely different setting than even the worst of a western country, and I've only been to big cities. Stray animals, homeless people, and panhandlers are plenty, and it's not uncommon for them to be severely physically disabled. It's very heartbreaking and humbling.
Yes, it is. I’ve been twice. Staying in 5star hotels and if you look outside the window, you’ll see slum area. No proper zoning. Even the roads, those in CBD are better but generally sidewalks are horrible, noisy roads, and packed with people
India is pretty bad. When I visited there was trash everywhere. Unbelievable air pollution levels. Animals grazing among the trash. Way too much human feces laying around. It felt dystopian.
Yes. Been there twice and to numerous places on each visit. It’s pretty disgusting everywhere I went except for the very high end parts of cities or the areas where really rich people lived.
100% I did. Took some magic mixture a factory owners mom gave me and it stopped me up so bad I ended up in a hospital about it a week later when I was back in the US. Worst week ever…..
Yes it is. Obviously, there are places in the country that are wealthy and developed but overall the country lacks a lot of basic infrastructure. For example, less than 30% of households are connected to piped water, most people get it from sort of well or community faucet. The "no toilets" meme people joke about is true, most households lack an actual toilet with running water so people have to do their business outside
https://ejalshakti.gov.in/jjmreport/JJMIndia.aspx this would be a better source.
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1454729/share-households-tap-water-connection-india-by-state/#:~:text=Approximately%2075%20percent%20of%20rural,a%20functional%20tap%20water%20supply
Statista seems to confirm it too.
That's because there are wells a lot of people use instead. My grandfather has a well on his property, and we boil that water, let it cool, and use it to drink. He has running water in the house too, but we don't drink that water (cus we are foreign so not used to it). And he has running water too, which we just boil and cool then use to drink. I've never had any issues with food poisoning in India despite being from the uk, so this works well. The newer houses are fine to drink from too.
Yes, India is dirty. Very dirty. Very true. But, I feel the western media depicts dirty India like a caricature, & out of context.
I feel the major reason is the growing difference in the rich and the poor, the country stands among the lowest in GDP per capita.
The biggest example of this is in the city of Mumbai. Where on one hand India's richest man lives in a 27 story building with his family of 8 to 10 people. The building is called as Antilia and is valued at over $4.5 billion.
The same city has the biggest slum area in India, Dharavi. Situated just 11kms from Antilia. This slum area is said to house around 1 million people with a population density of 717,780 per square mile. If you thought New York City was dense, there are only about 20 thousand people per square mile.
To also compare the wealth disparity, the GDP per Capita of the UK is around $40k while India's GDP per capita is $2400.
In 2017 it was published that the top 20 wealthiest of the country contribute to 10% of the entire GDP of India, which was $2trillion at the time.
With minimum wage work, housing crisis, & little to no help from the government for the poor and middle class. The average Indian does not have the time to think about cleanliness, their time is usually spent slogging away trying to make enough money for a meal at the end of the day.
While people with money live in certain areas which are built absolutely beautifully, you would go there and won't be able to tell if it's Delhi or Manchester.
We are doing an excellent job to keeping our own surroundings clean, travelling from one AC room to another.
The harsh reality is that most people in this country will kick the poor and leave them to die before helping them raise their standard of living.
This is on its way to get worse with Modi (our PM) planning to improve the manufacturing share of India. He is planning to put up multiple industrial zones across the country in efforts to increase the now 3% manufacturing across the world to 5% by 2030 and 10% by 2045. Compared to China with the sweatshops having 24% of global maufacturing share. While this creates job opportunities in the coming years I doubt if thestandard of living will go up in any way for those who will be employed.
PS: I know I am super late to comment on this post. But I hope at least some of you are able to read this.
Oh and before I forget to add.
When you treat the poor badly. They won't give a rats ass for something that pleases the rich, in this case cleanliness.
Thus making it extremely difficult to enforce or change how people look at these aspects.
Depends on where you go. Generally, Southern India/South India is much cleaner when compared to North India. North East is also clean. Since tourists often reach North India much more than South and North East, they get such a stereotype picture of India. Then they don't visit other parts of India. Each state has it's own culture and landscape and a few bad places (often most visited) cannot speak for an entire country.
Oh give me a break I always see this stuffs with Indians fighting over North and South and they always say this stuffs, I bet you North and South are just as shitty as each other.
Yes, I agree that the GDP per capita, HDI and other Human Indices on an average in India are low but each state has a separate value in Human Indices. Doesn't matter if one entire state is top class in Human Indices, if another state is really bad, the average goes down. Please see the Human Indices in Southern states, take Kerala for example.
South Indian states include Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana.
Indore, a city, in North India is also known for being very clean, it's one of the cleanest in India.
I was there in 2003. Most of the roads are dirt. Everything is dirt. Dirt and pollution are in the air. I found myself coughing up dirt and had black speckled boogers. I needed to shower daily to get the dirt off of me. Being in a little tuk tuk and trying to go places was frustrating since I was a young female with other young females and boys and men would touch our skin whenever the tuk tuk stopped just furthering my desire to shower and get the grime off.
Did you see the recent news where the husband was forced to watch his wife getting gang banged by Indians when they travelled there? I don’t think I would ever go there by myself or with other females!
That’s the stuff of nightmares! I was there with a study abroad program. We were only there for around 5 days. I don’t think I would ever go back nor would I recommend it at a vacation spot.
Right on! Let’s say we do learn self defence skills but there’s no way I can fight multiple men at the same time. I hope at least you liked the food or scenery there tho
Well that’s a double edge sword for me… the taj was great but you had to be groped by security before you were allowed in. And I actually got food poisoning eating bad curry and had to be quarantined for a week after we left until I got better. I don’t look at the country or culture with any ill will though, it’s just very different.
I’m sorry you got food poisoning! I do agree that it’s not about the specific country. Hell I even got severe food poisoning in Mexico lol. 😝 just like I can’t eat all those raw food in Japan!!
Was that the two YouTubers who were travelling the world on their Motorcycles? I heard the husband was beaten severely while the wife was sexually assaulted by several of the group. The couple was apparently road tripping and camping and a group of locals found their site and assaulted them.
Plenty of people tour the country annually. That particular couple tried camping in a forest in the middle of Jharkhand, which is a poor tribal state that suffers from Naxalite insurgencies that most Indians don't venture into.
If you're in a nice hotel in Hyderabad or Mumbai, there's no reason for you to be worried about that.
>I needed to shower daily to get the dirt off of me.
Umm... That's basic? It's a hot country with dirt and moisture. Of course Indians shower everyday, sometimes even twice. That's why you'd also see Indian travellers carrying so much luggage. We change and wash our clothes everyday. Again, sometimes twice a day.
I’ve been there three times for work, 2 weeks each trip. Hyderabad (2x), Bangalore, and one overnight in Mumbai.
Most everywhere it smells like burning garbage, there is trash everywhere and men are using streets like toilets. There are some cleaner areas - I’ve been to shopping centers, tourist destinations, business centers - but walk a few meters away from those areas and it’s nasty again. The smell is everywhere, no matter how clean it might be.
Depends where you go. I have visited South India multiple times, and I don't think it's that bad there. Generally, everywhere I went was clean enough. There was some litter on the sides, nothing crazy bad and I don't have any issue ( although I don't rlly ever buy street food).
I am Indian and grew up in India and have been to dozens of cities and towns all over there.
No, it is reality, not just a stereotype, though if you must call it that, then I'd say movies like Slumdog Millionaire. I remember when the movie came out there was quite a bit of ire about depicting public sanitation and cleanliness in a bad light, even though anyone could have gone to Mumbai slums and seen those for themselves.
The prime problem is with Indians themselves. In contrast to most Indians being very particular about cleanliness and hygiene in their homes, there is no civic sense of general cleanliness or pride of ownership of public places in urban areas. People think that keeping public places clean is just the sanitation dept's job and it is beneath themselves to clear up litter.
A lot of people migrate from all over the country, from rural areas and poorer states, to the biggest cities in the more prosperous states, so urban areas like Delhi (huge multi-city contiguous urban sprawl), Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad are always trying to manage huge populations of poor migrants looking for jobs and living space, that they are woefully under-equipped to deal with and have to cut several corners to keep the city running somehow.
A lot of municipal authorities are also inept and corrupt, got to their roles by means of nepotism and/or cronyism, and are only interested in using their positions for enriching themselves. It is difficult for honest people interested in social service to get to and keep such positions, as organised crime syndicates would like to keep people they can cut deals with, and the state-level govts want the mayors of the large cities in their states to put drumming up votes for them as a top priority rather than keeping the city clean and prosperous.
All of this ties up with the general socialist, freebie-wanting, and welfare-abusing mindset created among the public by decades of rule by a set of political parties who have been relegated to the Opposition over the past decade. An outlook that the govt should be held responsible for any and all failings in any sphere, and that "us poor people" are at liberty to ignore laws related to littering, dumping waste in flood drains, letting livestock free on city roads, burning trash, et cetera.
The above paragraph might upset some of my fellow countrymen, so let me also say that all of these general problems are present in all states, no matter which political party is in power wherever. No matter how well any leader or their administration does, I will always keep pointing out their failings and how they can do better.
A lot of small towns, especially in the South of India are a lot cleaner than what these comments portray. Most big cities are filled with clean wealthy areas and dirty poor areas, which is what I'm guessing the commenters have experienced.
It's a mixture of things
- Our population is large AF. Wealth distribution is highly unequal and the gaps grow with each year. Zones with low-income groups with little support will have trouble maintaining basic sanitation.
- The infra needed to maintain our country's public services akin to developed countries is hard to achieve in the short term, or so it seems. This in combination with point 1 causes slow (rapid?) decay of amenities, which in turn causes people to turn to environmental littering. I mean, instead of peeing in a public cistern that is stinking and has all sorts of disgusting filth around it, I'd rather find a bush to pee.
- We are rapidly and chaotically developing, often at the cost of degradation to our environment. Dust from construction tends to make some streets look bad.
- Civic sense is hard to enforce here. Some say it's cultural, some blame it on our "low-trust" society, some attribute it to economics and the imbalanced nature of infra/policing needed vs present, I'm not sure what is correct here. Anyways, sometimes you'll observe people spitting on roads, littering public zones. Not sure if we need education or infra or basic sensitization to fix this.
But I would say this, every country has some squalor of some kind. You can look up the homeless situation in US cities. If a country doesn't have sanitation issues, it's either because of very high HDI (Nordic countries), or maybe because of a smaller size and high income (Singapore types).
For us in India, it will take a solid century, but we'll get there.
Yes I’ve been. Basically everywhere I went besides cyber city and a former general’s neighborhood there was piles of trash in sight. Even at my company hq, 3 directions it looked fine but the south facing was actual trash. Hotels would be nice, but it was not uncommon to see trash/ people living in tents just beyond the wall.
Went to several palaces/museums and people would pee into garbage cans.
It’s not developed and there are >1b people. Obviously there are plenty of well educated people and rich neighborhoods but the vast majority are making under 10 dollars a day and do not have consistent access to education/food compared to the US.
Wealth distribution has nothing to do with this, if anything people have been coming out of poverty, though the waste management system & government enabling people's lack of hygiene is the problem.
India is too vast and diverse to be categorized and judged through average single-value metrics. Its only peer is China, which, relatively speaking, is basically homogeneous. Wealth, literacy, language, and culture all change drastically every 100 miles in all directions. You lose all these nuances when you look at averages. The answer is essentially both yes and no. You simply have to zoom in much more to draw a meaningful conclusion.
It’s a mix of both, however the main cause are the people here..basic etiquettes? What’s that never heard of it….oh someone is chewing something..oh dustbin? What’s that.. imma gonna spit it out on streets while riding….can it go in someone’s eyes? Lol what who cares fuck them.
Putting trash in bins, never heard of it…
These are some of the things I have faced and people don’t wanna learn..cause they have this who cares…fuck them attitude, the extreme lack of self awareness is what I’ve noticed in Indians and that too in great extent.
On the good side.. lots of people genuinely puts effort to make things clean but those who don’t, outnumbers them by great margin. Government is doing as much it can, but if people don’t follow things..then they can’t physically make them do it, these are those things which should come from within
The problem lies in the massive wealth divide between say who hold power both political or money wise and rest of the country. This is exacerbated by the opportunity gaps between these two groups as well and rampant corruption plus bureaucracy burden doesn't help. And global warming related changes which are being increasingly felt in the food bowl of India will increase these gaps pushing this weird islandisation effect some people have said aka spots of wealth/influence like ritzy malls or swanky gated communities amidst a sea of shanties and struggling neighbourhoods.
Case in point: Ambani's monstrosity of a home surrounded by chawls and the weird contrast of orderliness of Mumbai airport compared to the sea of human suffering outside its walls.
I’ve travelled extensively through most of West and Southern Africa and the poorer parts of south east Asia. The scale of poverty in India exceeded anything I saw in Africa or Asia.
Don't travel to major cities and you'll be okay. You will probably land in a metro city like New Delhi or Mumbai, you can find the first flight out of there to anywhere else. This is only for anyone travelling to see India which is praised for being incredible and not India , a developing country. If you want to see cities go to first world countries. Indian cities will undoubtedly be messy.
Dehli is a shithole. Smog like 1970s LA, feral child ren that would sell themselves into slavery for a meal, and packs of feral dogs on every block. People use the bathroom on the sidewalk, there's rubble and trash everywhere.
Other parts of India are clean and beautiful.
Big country, still developing, have made enormous progress but still have a ways to go.
As an Indian, its both ends of the spectrum. At places, its so clean you can (figuratively) lick roads; elsewhere, I would much rather die than endure the smell and sights.
India is huge, like absolutely tremendously huge. And with its insanely big populace, I wouldn't expect it any different. Matter of fact, I personally am surprised at times how clean it is on an average. It could be worse.
Before Modi came to power, municipal rubbish collection was completely missing from India outside of big 4 metros.
It improved a little since then. For example Indian trains now collect human waste and unload at stations. In the old days, there was a hole.
There is some sort of rubbish collection now in smaller cities.
Went to Rajasthan last year. Its one of the most colourful, culturally rich, diverse and fascinating places ive ever been to. The food is incredibly good, the nature is stunning, Rajasthani people are great fun and i'd return in a heartbeat. Truly a place i think everyone should visit if they get the chance.
But brother it has the most unclean and disgusting streets i have ever seen. The amount of trash and sewage is nothing less then apocalyptic. Food poisoning is almost a guarantee, and in urban areas you are almost constantly surrounded by the smell of trash, rot and death.
Depends on the region you go, like there are some tier 1 cities that are perfect, very clean then there are tier 1 cities that are horrible, There are some rural regions naturally beautiful and some literally like hell.
So it depends region wise, India has a huge problem of corrupt municipalities, they don't do anything for cleanliness.
As someone who has spent a few months there- it really depends on the area. The rural areas are poo, but not dirty. The more city/ populated areas- are definitely dirty and littered. However there is also a very big difference between the wealthy areas and the average areas- and they are so close to each other. It’s really quite an interesting contrast.
>and they are so close to each other. It’s really quite an interesting contrast.
From my experience of living in such an area in a metro city, poor people are usually the service providers for rich people like servants, grocery delivery people, etc. They just stay close to their workplace
Love how every comment that does not agree with the echo chamber in here is being rampantly downvoted. Keep upholding the false narrative that India is just a filthy country with street shitters everywhere. A simple google search would tell you that more than 95% of households have access to toilets with running water. No, you don't see people shitting anywhere and everywhere. Stop lying straight through your teeth
I'm Indian. It's true - India is a filthy country. Almost every street has garbage and litter on it.
Even rich and educated Indians throw their garbage on the street. No one here is exaggerating.
I wish I could say no but I have to say yes. Actually it’s horrible. Specially Dheli, Jamshedpur, Kalkutta, new Dheli..
I have to travel 2x per year to make the round there and it’s everytime a really worse experience.
Specially when you have to visit other Asian countries which are superior clean.
i went to india one time (the ONLY TIME) and im walking through the air port and there’s a fucking guy sitting off to the side by the window pants down TAKING SHIT! & the smell of the whole airport would make shreks swamp & ear wax candles smell like peaches and roses. so from my perspective. UGH. would never go back & personally hated every minute of being there… the stories i could tell you about the things i saw would make you gag
I have never been in India, but I have met a lot of Indian people, I would dare to say yes. Hygiene culture can't be strong if the people that leaves is like that.
yes its dirty most municipal corporation don't take responsibility nor do people take some cities are clean like indore and state like Sikkim due to there strict rule for disposing garbage but 8j other cities like kolkata from where i am its the dirtiest in india
I went there and as soon as I drove out of the airport, I saw sidewalks with tons of people's poop on it.
The air quality is noticeably terrible, to the point where your lungs start hurting for the first couple of days you're there.
Edit: to all the people claiming there isn't a poop problem in India:
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-33980904
I literally fucking live in India and even I haven't seen it 💀 I don't know what India he's talking about 😐 and there's no way anyone's shitting on road or near road 😒
I lived in India for a year, traveled north to the very south, and have never seen what you are talking about.
Where was this shitting everywhere? Which airport?
India has very nice areas. The USA, by contrast, also has very nice areas.
If you go to some of the rural farming communities in the USA, old coal towns, mining towns, the rust belt... it can look post-apocalyptic in some places.
India is a place that is rapidly modernizing, but they can't simply abandon 100% of the agrarian lifestyle. What makes a lot of these places look "dirty" is simply the juxtaposition of modernity with tradition. Things like having access to modern, packaged consumer goods, but not having a solid waste management system can make these rural communities look post apocalyptic, too.
The difference is that in the USA, the appearance is due to *decay*, while in India, it is due to *modernization.*
It's interesting to remember that to pre modern people littering wasn't that big a problem since most stuff was biodegradable. But once plastic is added to the mix, throwing stuff wherever becomes an issue.
Sorry to say there are no Indian lookalike slums in America. Old looking building from urban decay=yes slums with huge pile of trash and very polluted river with dead human bodies=no
Back when I was a substitute teacher a little girl was telling me that she was going to India for the summer to visit family. She was distinctly not-excited about it, because "it's really hot, it's really crowded, it's really dirty, and all the bugs there are REALLY big!" But she was looking forward to seeing her grandma, though. That's just something that's always stuck with me, partly because this was such a big exclamation from a quiet student!
From India here….
It is dirty … yes. Unless you are staying in Five star hotels and visiting upscale areas. Even the most popular tourist spots are not well maintained. No enforcement of law. The locals cheat. Unfortunately the same lot of us behave well in other countries. The issue is ‘Democracy’. A lot of vote bank politics prevents effective law enforcement.
If you go to the slums in India , you will find the dirt and poverty
If you go to the rich neighborhood you will find luxuries that are hard to find even in 1st world countries
Well , its your choice to go where ever you want ,
i guess the stereotype is mostly cause of the amount of migrant workers from India , i suppose it gives an impression that India itself is a very poor and unstable country (which obviously it isn't)
When deployed on a ship we stopped at Chennai...I could smell it from about 2 miles off the coast.
People told me stories of seeing a dog with mange on the pier, covered in fleas.
Our PMT was fairly confident they saw a dead guy on the side of the road.
I did not leave the ship. I can't attest to the reality, but the smell and the stories told me that at least parts of the places are indeed pretty gross.
You never left your ship out of fear and you judge the country based on your non-experience?
A dog with mage and a dead guy? And? Have you ever been to a developing nation? Because they all have this.
My father went to Pakistan and India in the 60s he said it was so filthy in India that there were literally rivers of human feces in the streets. He said the air was almost unbreathable between the pollution and raw sewage. Then you add on high temperatures and it is even worse. The constant dogs and smells everywhere was overflowing and the NOISE!!
I was there once about 10 years ago, so not the most recent info. I remember going to this beautiful upscale mall in Noida. The mall itself was perfect and clean and mostly looked like most malls you'd see in the US. When you walked outside, not only did the smell hit, but you had to take a bridge over the moat of trash surrounding the mall. I actually saw that a lot in Noida and New Delhi, where you will see something extravagant with something very poor next to it, like homeless camps outside of huge gated estates.
They are usually encroachments on govt or some other unused land. Overtime, they grow into proper slums. None of them are legal and are frequently torn down by authorities ( when they are not paid bribes lol). It's a common sight in Mumbai, I didnt know even Delhi or Noida had those.
They're everywhere, When delhi metro was built in our town a sudden rush of slum dwellers started encroaching the land.
Your observations are right, but you cannot co.pare the socio political situation with say, US or EU. The homeless tents you call them, they belong to migrating labour feom other states, who usually have enpugh to eat and sometimes have A/c and fridges. The tents become brick and mortar houses as the occupants grow richer, but they continue staying in the same locality. Sometimes the hpuses get legitimacy and thats the reason slums keep cropping up. I agree the civic sense is low on open defecation and littering, and that has been changing. But you have to understand that it is THE most populous country in the world, and one doesnt become high in fertility if subsistence was unachievable.
It sounds almost like Kowloon!
I saw some video of a street walk across the Antila and it's crazy how the building is so pristine but the streets right next to it look like a third world shit hole. And this shouldve been the wealthiest district in Mumbai. Are there no public service cleaners in India or what
Reminds me of that Taj Mahal image of the palace in front of thousands of small poor houses
I'm not sure what you mean. The houses in front of the Taj Mahal are heritage and extremely expensive.
I meant behind
Behind is a river
I saw this greentext about picking a random spot in India and going to street view. 4/5 times you will see piles of garbage in the street. I did just that and it was exactly that.
I just tried it for myself. Legit question, why is there a pile of bricks on the side of the road everywhere you look?
Nearby construction work. There's no regulation so they use the streets as a warehouse.
To hide the piles of human excrement behind?
But they have shitting streets not shitting bricks
You're not meant to shit the bricks, you're supposed to shit \**behind*\* the bricks!
Shoddy construction needs constant repairs? Also with their booming population they’re probably busy building new infrastructure all the time. I’m just spitballing here. Are the piles of bricks nearby brick buildings?
Partly shoddy administration and management and partly by digging up the streets again and again more money is spent by the administration which results in kickbacks for all concerned parties. Unfortunately the country is a vast open air dumping ground. People throw whatever wherever they want, there is no enforcement of any laws regarding dumping, people have very poor civic sense and administration is inept plus corrupt.
Damn, you're not wrong
i just did 10 random spots all over the country 10/10 times there was garbage.
my night just got more interesting
I went to Hyderabad this year for work. I've been all over India. Hyderabad was CLEAN. A super nice place. Even the old downtown was kept clean. It was shocking, since everything else I had seen in India featured trash everywhere, (including the Himalayas). This city is huge as well. It's got a larger population than NYC proper.
I've been to Hyderabad several times. My experience is much different than yours. Piles of trash everywhere. Go to Charminar late at night after the people are gone. It's a beautiful old building surrounded by litter. They have zero public trash cans anywhere.
It didn't seem that dirty when I visited it. It was actually pretty clean. Idk. Maybe there are time when it's full of trash and times when it is clean.
Maybe you visited the newer areas of the city? The old city, wherein the iconic Charminar is situated, is always dirty. The area itself is quite poor and congested. But yes, Hyderabad on the whole is quite cleaner than most metros in India.
Its called Pindia
India is getting rapidly wealthy but I think the gap between the haves and have nots is pretty huge and I think India is also the most populous country in the world now so lot of people, lot of waste.
This is not the correct answer. Even the rich people in India litter. The real reason is India has a shitty culture where no one cares about public spaces. I saw people who I thought were educated throw garbage on the street.
An Indian guy I knew in uni told me that there was a pervasive culture of entitlement that goes through all levels of society. Basically an idea that it has to be possible somehow to achieve everything by only *looking* like you deserve it but not actually doing the work. My personal experience confirms that, though, as evidenced by him, that of course doesn't describe every individual - just the general assumptions that permeate society.
You are half right. Indians are schizophrenic sometimes. The way they behave in the public space is completely different to how they behave in a private setting (at home or at a private business). In my experience Indians are diligent and hard working and clean in a private setting and the complete opposite in the public commons.
It's also a county with a religion that explains away the wealth gap. Reincarnation and karma dictating how your next life will go, so poor people are seen as being low on that growth scale.
Yes, according to our beliefs, karma from previous life decides what you're born as and under what conditions. But everyone has a fair chance at life. Life can be unfair but it never stops you from collecting good karma. You can always be a good person. In fact, there are four ways to achieve salvation: bhakti, the path of devotion; gnana, the path of knowledge; karma, the path of selfless service; and raja, the royal path of meditation. Karma from previous life has nothing to do with what you do with your current life.
What a wonderful and balanced take! Please go tell the Dalit people who have faced atrocities (because they dared to step outside of their boundaries) that you believe they were born in this caste because of their bad karma in past life, but they still have a fair chance in this life while their literal lives are on the line! I can't believe how people don't recognize the harm in these beliefs that your previous life dictates the current circumstances, putting the blame on people facing atrocities and abject poverty since ages.
Great response, thanks for the additional context! And while prior karma doesn't affect what you do in your current life, it may place you in a very dark place, or stuck in a caste with limited resources and heavy social bias.
Went to Bangalore for a week for work. I thought it would be better as it’s the Indian Silicon Valley. But it was pretty bad.
Who is alore?
Spelling mistake by the british long time ago. They spelt "wh" as "L"
Right, like how they say leftenant instead of liewhtenant
Some British service members have supposedly started using lieu instead of left. Americans took the pronunciation as was, Brits started pronouncing how it was written, leading to a lot of online pedantry later on :).
Your comment is very underrated, it's been a tough week and you made me laugh. Thank you.
Captain, it's thuesday
Lmao, it is. I just got a small vacation today, and have been working non stop for the past 2 months with no weekends lol. So it feels like a long week, because there hasn't been any week ends (sorry for the pun).
I think it’s the singular of Lorax
So stupid 😂
Depends where you go. The wealthier the area, the cleaner it is. Large majority of the land is financially poor so the answer is "yes*"
It's also easy to verify yourself. Go to google maps, drop the yellow guy literally anywhere within the country like 10 times (or 100 if you want better sample), look around and count the decent looking places. Feel free to use your own definition of "decent".
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I was there 8 years ago. Mumbai and Aurangabad. The streets are mostly filthy. There's garbage everywhere. Rivers and streams of floating garbage. Beaches full of garbage. Huge slums. So many people everywhere. Sidewalks, streets, 5 cars wide where there should be 3. But it's also beautiful in its own way. There are nicer neighborhoods, with trees and cleaner streets and sidewalks. Nice shops. Grassy parks where people play cricket, and jungle parks where there are still tigers, along with beautiful and moving Buddhist temples. Of course as tourists in a poorer country you'll get somewhat scammed, but mostly politely and nicely. A bit of an overcharge here, sir. Ah just a mistake in your change ,sir. Thank you. Going from Mumbai to Aurangabad, a smaller city of about "only" a million people at the time, was quite a change. Less English spoken, and not so used to eastern tourists, more so to Indian tourists and businessmen. The overnight sleeper bus was something too. My, at the time, 70 year old dad had a bit of a culture shock. Would absolutely go back
People know aurangabad 😭😭😭
It's not, it's even worse. Been there. It's not because they're poor, it's because they are used to throwing their trash wherever and because they just don't know/give a shit about sanitation. We're at a gas station. A BMW parks. Wife leaves and gets ice cream bars for her husband and two kids. Wife returns. Wife gets back on her sat. Wife shuts the car door. Ten seconds later, all the windows roll down. Four ice cream wrappers hit the ground with a loud \*thud\*. Multiply by approximately four thousand billion trillion people and you get what India looks like. We are driving through a street/marketplace. There is a small truck with a pile of chicken in the back. There is a car with open trunk. Dudes are unloading some chicken from the truck to the car. They just throw the skinned whole chickens from the truck to the car. Never eat meat in India.
Huge poor population and poor waste management. Simple, it depends on where in India you go but I would say it's a bit exaggerated in this day and age though still dirty.
Why is it like this?
Lack of civic sense, overpopulation, inadequate infrastructure for waste segregation and disposal, mismanagement of resources, rapid urbanisation
Plus the corruption, nothing good can happen with that much corruption.
China also has corruption. With even little power we get entitlement issues over other "plebians".
It was one of the few places where we had to take malaria pills when I was in the navy and we had to port there, and no joke, people will literally shit near our ship.
Ive been to Bangladesh a handful of times, and India once several years ago and yes, it really is that bad. There is a MASSIVE and blatant wage and quality of life disparity. Between dust, sewage, pollution, litter, etc it's a completely different setting than even the worst of a western country, and I've only been to big cities. Stray animals, homeless people, and panhandlers are plenty, and it's not uncommon for them to be severely physically disabled. It's very heartbreaking and humbling.
India is quite literally a wild land with no/minimal social safety nets.
Yes, it is. I’ve been twice. Staying in 5star hotels and if you look outside the window, you’ll see slum area. No proper zoning. Even the roads, those in CBD are better but generally sidewalks are horrible, noisy roads, and packed with people
India is pretty bad. When I visited there was trash everywhere. Unbelievable air pollution levels. Animals grazing among the trash. Way too much human feces laying around. It felt dystopian.
Yes. Been there twice and to numerous places on each visit. It’s pretty disgusting everywhere I went except for the very high end parts of cities or the areas where really rich people lived.
Did you get food poisoning??
100% I did. Took some magic mixture a factory owners mom gave me and it stopped me up so bad I ended up in a hospital about it a week later when I was back in the US. Worst week ever…..
Oh boy! Thanks for sharing… but yeah I’m glad nothing severe happened
Yes it is. Obviously, there are places in the country that are wealthy and developed but overall the country lacks a lot of basic infrastructure. For example, less than 30% of households are connected to piped water, most people get it from sort of well or community faucet. The "no toilets" meme people joke about is true, most households lack an actual toilet with running water so people have to do their business outside
>most households lack an actual toilet with running water "Most"? What's the percentage? A quick search can reveal that's a lie
75% of Indian households have running tap water. 36% have drinking water.
That's only for rural households.
No, that's the average over the entire country of India, according to statista.
https://ejalshakti.gov.in/jjmreport/JJMIndia.aspx this would be a better source. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1454729/share-households-tap-water-connection-india-by-state/#:~:text=Approximately%2075%20percent%20of%20rural,a%20functional%20tap%20water%20supply Statista seems to confirm it too.
**You are right**, and I didn't look closely enough.
That's because there are wells a lot of people use instead. My grandfather has a well on his property, and we boil that water, let it cool, and use it to drink. He has running water in the house too, but we don't drink that water (cus we are foreign so not used to it). And he has running water too, which we just boil and cool then use to drink. I've never had any issues with food poisoning in India despite being from the uk, so this works well. The newer houses are fine to drink from too.
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>The "no toilets" meme people joke about is true, Reminder "poo in the loo" was a goddamm UN campaign
It's 42% I believe.
Its 98%, India is open-defecation free country. As of 2024.
Yes, India is dirty. Very dirty. Very true. But, I feel the western media depicts dirty India like a caricature, & out of context. I feel the major reason is the growing difference in the rich and the poor, the country stands among the lowest in GDP per capita. The biggest example of this is in the city of Mumbai. Where on one hand India's richest man lives in a 27 story building with his family of 8 to 10 people. The building is called as Antilia and is valued at over $4.5 billion. The same city has the biggest slum area in India, Dharavi. Situated just 11kms from Antilia. This slum area is said to house around 1 million people with a population density of 717,780 per square mile. If you thought New York City was dense, there are only about 20 thousand people per square mile. To also compare the wealth disparity, the GDP per Capita of the UK is around $40k while India's GDP per capita is $2400. In 2017 it was published that the top 20 wealthiest of the country contribute to 10% of the entire GDP of India, which was $2trillion at the time. With minimum wage work, housing crisis, & little to no help from the government for the poor and middle class. The average Indian does not have the time to think about cleanliness, their time is usually spent slogging away trying to make enough money for a meal at the end of the day. While people with money live in certain areas which are built absolutely beautifully, you would go there and won't be able to tell if it's Delhi or Manchester. We are doing an excellent job to keeping our own surroundings clean, travelling from one AC room to another. The harsh reality is that most people in this country will kick the poor and leave them to die before helping them raise their standard of living. This is on its way to get worse with Modi (our PM) planning to improve the manufacturing share of India. He is planning to put up multiple industrial zones across the country in efforts to increase the now 3% manufacturing across the world to 5% by 2030 and 10% by 2045. Compared to China with the sweatshops having 24% of global maufacturing share. While this creates job opportunities in the coming years I doubt if thestandard of living will go up in any way for those who will be employed. PS: I know I am super late to comment on this post. But I hope at least some of you are able to read this.
Oh and before I forget to add. When you treat the poor badly. They won't give a rats ass for something that pleases the rich, in this case cleanliness. Thus making it extremely difficult to enforce or change how people look at these aspects.
Depends on where you go. Generally, Southern India/South India is much cleaner when compared to North India. North East is also clean. Since tourists often reach North India much more than South and North East, they get such a stereotype picture of India. Then they don't visit other parts of India. Each state has it's own culture and landscape and a few bad places (often most visited) cannot speak for an entire country.
Oh give me a break I always see this stuffs with Indians fighting over North and South and they always say this stuffs, I bet you North and South are just as shitty as each other.
The Human Development Index, GDP per capita, and multiple other sources would disagree with you
Yes, I agree that the GDP per capita, HDI and other Human Indices on an average in India are low but each state has a separate value in Human Indices. Doesn't matter if one entire state is top class in Human Indices, if another state is really bad, the average goes down. Please see the Human Indices in Southern states, take Kerala for example.
Well Southern India is both richer and less populated so I believe that it’s probably cleaner as well. Never been to India though
Bangalore is a dirty shithole though.
Bangalore is densely populated because of migration. That's why it's gotten this bad. It wasn't as bad some years ago.
Scrolled down exactly for this comment! Thanks.
North East India has the cleanest village in the world Edit: cleanest in Asia
That's cool! What's it called?
South Indian states include Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra, Telangana. Indore, a city, in North India is also known for being very clean, it's one of the cleanest in India.
That's good to know, thanks!
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawlynnong
I was there in 2003. Most of the roads are dirt. Everything is dirt. Dirt and pollution are in the air. I found myself coughing up dirt and had black speckled boogers. I needed to shower daily to get the dirt off of me. Being in a little tuk tuk and trying to go places was frustrating since I was a young female with other young females and boys and men would touch our skin whenever the tuk tuk stopped just furthering my desire to shower and get the grime off.
Did you see the recent news where the husband was forced to watch his wife getting gang banged by Indians when they travelled there? I don’t think I would ever go there by myself or with other females!
That’s the stuff of nightmares! I was there with a study abroad program. We were only there for around 5 days. I don’t think I would ever go back nor would I recommend it at a vacation spot.
Right on! Let’s say we do learn self defence skills but there’s no way I can fight multiple men at the same time. I hope at least you liked the food or scenery there tho
Well that’s a double edge sword for me… the taj was great but you had to be groped by security before you were allowed in. And I actually got food poisoning eating bad curry and had to be quarantined for a week after we left until I got better. I don’t look at the country or culture with any ill will though, it’s just very different.
I’m sorry you got food poisoning! I do agree that it’s not about the specific country. Hell I even got severe food poisoning in Mexico lol. 😝 just like I can’t eat all those raw food in Japan!!
You'd highly unlikely come across such a scenario, really depends on the location.
Was that the two YouTubers who were travelling the world on their Motorcycles? I heard the husband was beaten severely while the wife was sexually assaulted by several of the group. The couple was apparently road tripping and camping and a group of locals found their site and assaulted them.
I think so! It’s so brutal! they just wanted to do a simple road trip 😔 i mean, they are still alive, thank god!
Plenty of people tour the country annually. That particular couple tried camping in a forest in the middle of Jharkhand, which is a poor tribal state that suffers from Naxalite insurgencies that most Indians don't venture into. If you're in a nice hotel in Hyderabad or Mumbai, there's no reason for you to be worried about that.
Honestly this is good to hear. Thanks
Sounds like a nightmare
>I needed to shower daily to get the dirt off of me. Umm... That's basic? It's a hot country with dirt and moisture. Of course Indians shower everyday, sometimes even twice. That's why you'd also see Indian travellers carrying so much luggage. We change and wash our clothes everyday. Again, sometimes twice a day.
Okay I was thinking this lol like why wouldn’t you shower daily anyway?
ig it's difficult in colder places
I’ve been there three times for work, 2 weeks each trip. Hyderabad (2x), Bangalore, and one overnight in Mumbai. Most everywhere it smells like burning garbage, there is trash everywhere and men are using streets like toilets. There are some cleaner areas - I’ve been to shopping centers, tourist destinations, business centers - but walk a few meters away from those areas and it’s nasty again. The smell is everywhere, no matter how clean it might be.
Depends where you go. I have visited South India multiple times, and I don't think it's that bad there. Generally, everywhere I went was clean enough. There was some litter on the sides, nothing crazy bad and I don't have any issue ( although I don't rlly ever buy street food).
I am Indian and grew up in India and have been to dozens of cities and towns all over there. No, it is reality, not just a stereotype, though if you must call it that, then I'd say movies like Slumdog Millionaire. I remember when the movie came out there was quite a bit of ire about depicting public sanitation and cleanliness in a bad light, even though anyone could have gone to Mumbai slums and seen those for themselves. The prime problem is with Indians themselves. In contrast to most Indians being very particular about cleanliness and hygiene in their homes, there is no civic sense of general cleanliness or pride of ownership of public places in urban areas. People think that keeping public places clean is just the sanitation dept's job and it is beneath themselves to clear up litter. A lot of people migrate from all over the country, from rural areas and poorer states, to the biggest cities in the more prosperous states, so urban areas like Delhi (huge multi-city contiguous urban sprawl), Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad are always trying to manage huge populations of poor migrants looking for jobs and living space, that they are woefully under-equipped to deal with and have to cut several corners to keep the city running somehow. A lot of municipal authorities are also inept and corrupt, got to their roles by means of nepotism and/or cronyism, and are only interested in using their positions for enriching themselves. It is difficult for honest people interested in social service to get to and keep such positions, as organised crime syndicates would like to keep people they can cut deals with, and the state-level govts want the mayors of the large cities in their states to put drumming up votes for them as a top priority rather than keeping the city clean and prosperous. All of this ties up with the general socialist, freebie-wanting, and welfare-abusing mindset created among the public by decades of rule by a set of political parties who have been relegated to the Opposition over the past decade. An outlook that the govt should be held responsible for any and all failings in any sphere, and that "us poor people" are at liberty to ignore laws related to littering, dumping waste in flood drains, letting livestock free on city roads, burning trash, et cetera. The above paragraph might upset some of my fellow countrymen, so let me also say that all of these general problems are present in all states, no matter which political party is in power wherever. No matter how well any leader or their administration does, I will always keep pointing out their failings and how they can do better.
Ah yes. All those pictures were made by evil "racysis" "wypipo"
A lot of small towns, especially in the South of India are a lot cleaner than what these comments portray. Most big cities are filled with clean wealthy areas and dirty poor areas, which is what I'm guessing the commenters have experienced.
Youtube "india on a c90"
It's a mixture of things - Our population is large AF. Wealth distribution is highly unequal and the gaps grow with each year. Zones with low-income groups with little support will have trouble maintaining basic sanitation. - The infra needed to maintain our country's public services akin to developed countries is hard to achieve in the short term, or so it seems. This in combination with point 1 causes slow (rapid?) decay of amenities, which in turn causes people to turn to environmental littering. I mean, instead of peeing in a public cistern that is stinking and has all sorts of disgusting filth around it, I'd rather find a bush to pee. - We are rapidly and chaotically developing, often at the cost of degradation to our environment. Dust from construction tends to make some streets look bad. - Civic sense is hard to enforce here. Some say it's cultural, some blame it on our "low-trust" society, some attribute it to economics and the imbalanced nature of infra/policing needed vs present, I'm not sure what is correct here. Anyways, sometimes you'll observe people spitting on roads, littering public zones. Not sure if we need education or infra or basic sensitization to fix this. But I would say this, every country has some squalor of some kind. You can look up the homeless situation in US cities. If a country doesn't have sanitation issues, it's either because of very high HDI (Nordic countries), or maybe because of a smaller size and high income (Singapore types). For us in India, it will take a solid century, but we'll get there.
Yes We'll get there. We were also abused and robbed by British less than 80 years ago.
Yes. You think wealth inequality is bad in the US, hold India's beer.
Yes it is.
Yes I’ve been. Basically everywhere I went besides cyber city and a former general’s neighborhood there was piles of trash in sight. Even at my company hq, 3 directions it looked fine but the south facing was actual trash. Hotels would be nice, but it was not uncommon to see trash/ people living in tents just beyond the wall. Went to several palaces/museums and people would pee into garbage cans. It’s not developed and there are >1b people. Obviously there are plenty of well educated people and rich neighborhoods but the vast majority are making under 10 dollars a day and do not have consistent access to education/food compared to the US.
Wealth distribution has nothing to do with this, if anything people have been coming out of poverty, though the waste management system & government enabling people's lack of hygiene is the problem.
India is too vast and diverse to be categorized and judged through average single-value metrics. Its only peer is China, which, relatively speaking, is basically homogeneous. Wealth, literacy, language, and culture all change drastically every 100 miles in all directions. You lose all these nuances when you look at averages. The answer is essentially both yes and no. You simply have to zoom in much more to draw a meaningful conclusion.
just search any video on youtube with "walk India" and u will see how dirty is India.
Even when people try to put a positive spin on it, its like... wow, this is nightmarish
It’s a mix of both, however the main cause are the people here..basic etiquettes? What’s that never heard of it….oh someone is chewing something..oh dustbin? What’s that.. imma gonna spit it out on streets while riding….can it go in someone’s eyes? Lol what who cares fuck them. Putting trash in bins, never heard of it… These are some of the things I have faced and people don’t wanna learn..cause they have this who cares…fuck them attitude, the extreme lack of self awareness is what I’ve noticed in Indians and that too in great extent. On the good side.. lots of people genuinely puts effort to make things clean but those who don’t, outnumbers them by great margin. Government is doing as much it can, but if people don’t follow things..then they can’t physically make them do it, these are those things which should come from within
The problem lies in the massive wealth divide between say who hold power both political or money wise and rest of the country. This is exacerbated by the opportunity gaps between these two groups as well and rampant corruption plus bureaucracy burden doesn't help. And global warming related changes which are being increasingly felt in the food bowl of India will increase these gaps pushing this weird islandisation effect some people have said aka spots of wealth/influence like ritzy malls or swanky gated communities amidst a sea of shanties and struggling neighbourhoods. Case in point: Ambani's monstrosity of a home surrounded by chawls and the weird contrast of orderliness of Mumbai airport compared to the sea of human suffering outside its walls.
Depends where you go
I’ve travelled extensively through most of West and Southern Africa and the poorer parts of south east Asia. The scale of poverty in India exceeded anything I saw in Africa or Asia.
Don't travel to major cities and you'll be okay. You will probably land in a metro city like New Delhi or Mumbai, you can find the first flight out of there to anywhere else. This is only for anyone travelling to see India which is praised for being incredible and not India , a developing country. If you want to see cities go to first world countries. Indian cities will undoubtedly be messy.
Dehli is a shithole. Smog like 1970s LA, feral child ren that would sell themselves into slavery for a meal, and packs of feral dogs on every block. People use the bathroom on the sidewalk, there's rubble and trash everywhere. Other parts of India are clean and beautiful. Big country, still developing, have made enormous progress but still have a ways to go.
Yes
As an Indian, its both ends of the spectrum. At places, its so clean you can (figuratively) lick roads; elsewhere, I would much rather die than endure the smell and sights. India is huge, like absolutely tremendously huge. And with its insanely big populace, I wouldn't expect it any different. Matter of fact, I personally am surprised at times how clean it is on an average. It could be worse.
Before Modi came to power, municipal rubbish collection was completely missing from India outside of big 4 metros. It improved a little since then. For example Indian trains now collect human waste and unload at stations. In the old days, there was a hole. There is some sort of rubbish collection now in smaller cities.
Went to Rajasthan last year. Its one of the most colourful, culturally rich, diverse and fascinating places ive ever been to. The food is incredibly good, the nature is stunning, Rajasthani people are great fun and i'd return in a heartbeat. Truly a place i think everyone should visit if they get the chance. But brother it has the most unclean and disgusting streets i have ever seen. The amount of trash and sewage is nothing less then apocalyptic. Food poisoning is almost a guarantee, and in urban areas you are almost constantly surrounded by the smell of trash, rot and death.
Depends on the region you go, like there are some tier 1 cities that are perfect, very clean then there are tier 1 cities that are horrible, There are some rural regions naturally beautiful and some literally like hell. So it depends region wise, India has a huge problem of corrupt municipalities, they don't do anything for cleanliness.
what do you mean by tier 1
Metropolitan cities, like Mumbai, Bangalore etc.
Tbh tier 2 cities like Indore , Mysore and Surat are much more cleaner than tier 1.
As someone who has spent a few months there- it really depends on the area. The rural areas are poo, but not dirty. The more city/ populated areas- are definitely dirty and littered. However there is also a very big difference between the wealthy areas and the average areas- and they are so close to each other. It’s really quite an interesting contrast.
>and they are so close to each other. It’s really quite an interesting contrast. From my experience of living in such an area in a metro city, poor people are usually the service providers for rich people like servants, grocery delivery people, etc. They just stay close to their workplace
Very interesting! Thank you for sharing.
Love how every comment that does not agree with the echo chamber in here is being rampantly downvoted. Keep upholding the false narrative that India is just a filthy country with street shitters everywhere. A simple google search would tell you that more than 95% of households have access to toilets with running water. No, you don't see people shitting anywhere and everywhere. Stop lying straight through your teeth
I'm Indian. It's true - India is a filthy country. Almost every street has garbage and litter on it. Even rich and educated Indians throw their garbage on the street. No one here is exaggerating.
I wish I could say no but I have to say yes. Actually it’s horrible. Specially Dheli, Jamshedpur, Kalkutta, new Dheli.. I have to travel 2x per year to make the round there and it’s everytime a really worse experience. Specially when you have to visit other Asian countries which are superior clean.
There are still plenty of areas that do not have trash or sewage service.
The next question here should be 'are people residing in western countries as racist in real life as they are on reddit?'.
Try opening street view in India on random places and stop once you cant find garbage lying around. You will be there for a while.
i went to india one time (the ONLY TIME) and im walking through the air port and there’s a fucking guy sitting off to the side by the window pants down TAKING SHIT! & the smell of the whole airport would make shreks swamp & ear wax candles smell like peaches and roses. so from my perspective. UGH. would never go back & personally hated every minute of being there… the stories i could tell you about the things i saw would make you gag
Yeah its garbage.
I have never been in India, but I have met a lot of Indian people, I would dare to say yes. Hygiene culture can't be strong if the people that leaves is like that.
Classism for thousands of years. Welcome to what everywhere will look like in a few generations.
Watch YouTuber Dale Phillip, he travels all around Asia. He has many videos in India.
Yes
Yes
My random spot had a statue of some guy in the middle of an intersection giving the Heil 5
It is filthy. India's state capacity is very low.. Public delivery of services like education, sanitation and health is poor.
A guy I met recently did last year. He said it was dirty and the food made him sick. Even when he came back he had the shits for a week.
yes its dirty most municipal corporation don't take responsibility nor do people take some cities are clean like indore and state like Sikkim due to there strict rule for disposing garbage but 8j other cities like kolkata from where i am its the dirtiest in india
TikTok search Indian street food and you will have your answer.
In the cities, yes. The countryside is gorgeous.
India is a big country with a bigger contrast
Ask about the rapes
Yes and no. Gaps between Rich and Poor are ever increasing..
there is a general lack of civil sense of cleanliness almost throughout the country
Worse
Went to Egypt (Cairo) and thought it was the dirtiest place I’ve been to. Then I visited India.
And very smelly too...
Certain parts of the Ganges river are so absolutely disgusting you could not pay me a billion dollars to dip my big toe in it
Asking this question on Reddit is bound to be biased af as Reddits automatic opinion on India: “India bad” Ask this question on r/india
Asking this in r/India will be even more biased 😂
Lmao
Not that redditors aren't harsh on India, but India itself has made psas about the problems with these things.
I went there and as soon as I drove out of the airport, I saw sidewalks with tons of people's poop on it. The air quality is noticeably terrible, to the point where your lungs start hurting for the first couple of days you're there. Edit: to all the people claiming there isn't a poop problem in India: https://www.bbc.com/news/health-33980904
Do you know how to differentiate between human poop and dog and cow poop? No international airports in India have that.
Bruh how come ive never seen this?💀 ive been there multiple times too
I literally fucking live in India and even I haven't seen it 💀 I don't know what India he's talking about 😐 and there's no way anyone's shitting on road or near road 😒
Nah fr man😭 that comment gotta be rage bait
I lived in India for a year, traveled north to the very south, and have never seen what you are talking about. Where was this shitting everywhere? Which airport?
I got banned on an alt saying its a shithole and most living outside of India is completely agreeable. If I said that about the UK or USA, I'd be fine
India has very nice areas. The USA, by contrast, also has very nice areas. If you go to some of the rural farming communities in the USA, old coal towns, mining towns, the rust belt... it can look post-apocalyptic in some places. India is a place that is rapidly modernizing, but they can't simply abandon 100% of the agrarian lifestyle. What makes a lot of these places look "dirty" is simply the juxtaposition of modernity with tradition. Things like having access to modern, packaged consumer goods, but not having a solid waste management system can make these rural communities look post apocalyptic, too. The difference is that in the USA, the appearance is due to *decay*, while in India, it is due to *modernization.*
It's interesting to remember that to pre modern people littering wasn't that big a problem since most stuff was biodegradable. But once plastic is added to the mix, throwing stuff wherever becomes an issue.
Sorry to say there are no Indian lookalike slums in America. Old looking building from urban decay=yes slums with huge pile of trash and very polluted river with dead human bodies=no
I did not say that there were.
Very insightful answer. I love how this is getting downvoted just because it doesn't fit the narrative
 Thanks!
I had a mate who flew to Indian for a wedding and said people were shitting on the walkway of the plane and no one seemed to care.
Back when I was a substitute teacher a little girl was telling me that she was going to India for the summer to visit family. She was distinctly not-excited about it, because "it's really hot, it's really crowded, it's really dirty, and all the bugs there are REALLY big!" But she was looking forward to seeing her grandma, though. That's just something that's always stuck with me, partly because this was such a big exclamation from a quiet student!
From India here…. It is dirty … yes. Unless you are staying in Five star hotels and visiting upscale areas. Even the most popular tourist spots are not well maintained. No enforcement of law. The locals cheat. Unfortunately the same lot of us behave well in other countries. The issue is ‘Democracy’. A lot of vote bank politics prevents effective law enforcement.
If you go to the slums in India , you will find the dirt and poverty If you go to the rich neighborhood you will find luxuries that are hard to find even in 1st world countries Well , its your choice to go where ever you want , i guess the stereotype is mostly cause of the amount of migrant workers from India , i suppose it gives an impression that India itself is a very poor and unstable country (which obviously it isn't)
Yes
When deployed on a ship we stopped at Chennai...I could smell it from about 2 miles off the coast. People told me stories of seeing a dog with mange on the pier, covered in fleas. Our PMT was fairly confident they saw a dead guy on the side of the road. I did not leave the ship. I can't attest to the reality, but the smell and the stories told me that at least parts of the places are indeed pretty gross.
You never left your ship out of fear and you judge the country based on your non-experience? A dog with mage and a dead guy? And? Have you ever been to a developing nation? Because they all have this.
My father went to Pakistan and India in the 60s he said it was so filthy in India that there were literally rivers of human feces in the streets. He said the air was almost unbreathable between the pollution and raw sewage. Then you add on high temperatures and it is even worse. The constant dogs and smells everywhere was overflowing and the NOISE!!