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Beware! Your house has a broken window
Social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling first introduced the broken windows theory – Consider a building with a few broken windows. If the windows are not repaired, the tendency is for vandals to break a few more windows. Eventually, they may even break into the building, and if it’s unoccupied, perhaps become squatters or light fires inside. Or consider a pavement. Some litter accumulates. Soon, more litter accumulates. Eventually, people even start leaving bags of refuse from take-out restaurants there.
This is something similar to what we see everywhere including namma Bangalore. There are scores of these nooks and corners all around the city which before long become a dump yard. If the city cleaners are on a strike for 2-3 days, we will find one of these convenient nooks and corners to dump our burgeoning garbage bag. Soon, the entire neighborhood is doing the same. At night, the dogs will attack this location and by morning garbage and refuse is strewn every which way even reaching the middle of the road. And all this started with that first bag of garbage.
The moral is “If a window is broken and left unrepaired or pavement is littered, people walking by will conclude that no one cares and no one is in charge.”
So next time you are about to throw a plastic bottle at a secluded corner or dump your waste near a tree’s roots, think again. You might just be creating the next garbage spot which will soon become a unattractive, repulsive dump yard!
How do we tackle this?
Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani adopted the Broken Windows Theory and implemented a community-policing strategy focused on order maintenance. Graffiti was washed nightly from subway cars, subway turnstile jumpers arrested, and trash picked up among other things. When New York “windows” were repaired, crime dropped.
Similarly, why not perform a quick clean-up of the perennial dumping spot in your neighborhood and see for yourself if the broken windows theory works? If your neighbors hesitate to dump their waste in a spot which is clean and spruced up, it’s a minor victory in our long battle to cleanliness.
After all it’s the little things that matter.
Blog courtesy
Vibha Bhatt