印度東部村莊Mawlynnong 全亞洲最乾淨的村莊(1)

And for India, that’s really sayingsomething. Discarded bottles and crumpled food wrappers mixed with cow dung –and worse – are simply part of the topography in most of the country. So muchso that prime minister Shri Narendra Modi launched the ambitious “Clean IndiaMission”(Swachh Bharat Abhiyan) in October 2014 with a goal of drasticallysprucing up the country’s major cities by Mahatma Gandhi’s 150 birthday in2019.

對印度而言，這的確值得大書特書。在印度大部分地區，司空見慣的是丟棄的瓶子和皺巴巴的食品包裝紙，還有混雜着的牛糞，情況甚至會更糟。正因爲如此，印度總理莫迪才於2014 年10 月發起一項雄心勃勃的“清潔印度行動（Clean India Mission）”計劃，旨在到2019 年甘地150 週年誕辰紀念日時，讓印度各大城市的面貌煥然一新。

Mawlynnong is already way ahead of thecurve, though. It was declared the cleanest village in Asia in 2003 and thecleanest in India in 2005 by Discover India magazine. More recently, Modiacknowledged Mawlynnong as the cleanest village in Meghalaya and a model forthe rest of the county in a 2015 radio address. In May 2016 he highlighted itas “Asia’s cleanest village”in a celebration of the government’s successes(including the Clean India programme).

而在這次清潔浪潮中，Mawlynnong 已經一馬當先。在印度《發現》雜誌的評選中，該村莊被評爲2003 年亞洲最乾淨的村莊和2005 年印度最乾淨的村莊。最近，在2015 年的一次廣播講話中，莫迪將Mawlynnong 稱爲梅加拉亞邦最乾淨的村莊和全國衛生典範。2016 年5 月，在一次政府慶祝活動中（包括“清潔印度行動”計劃）,莫迪強調，Mawlynnong 是“亞洲最乾淨的村莊”。

This claim to fame stuck, and the villagehas become a regional legend and source of pride. Walk in, and all the typicalrubbish is mysteriously, miraculously absent.

這令這個小村莊名聲大噪，成爲當地的傳奇和驕傲。走進村莊，所有的常見垃圾都蹤跡全無，令人不可思議。

So how do you get a community to become amodel of cleanliness and sanitation in a country where this has long been aproblem? The answer, it seems, is to start them young.

那麼，在一個長期存在衛生問題的國家，怎樣才能讓社區成爲清潔衛生的典範呢？答案似乎是，衛生要從娃娃抓起。

Eleven-year-old Deity Bakordor starts herday around 6:30 am. Her chore, shared with all the village kids, is thebeautification of the town. Teasel brooms in hand, the children storm thestreets, sweeping up dead leaves and garbage before school. The children are alsoresponsible for emptying the rubbish bins – which are surprisingly pretty,hand-woven, cone-shaped baskets scattered throughout town – and separatingorganic waste from burnable trash. Leaves and other biodegradable waste areburied (and eventually used as fertilizer); everything else is driven far fromthe village and burned. There are also dedicated town gardeners who maintainriots of public plants and flowers that line the footpaths, making a walk hereincredibly pleasant.

11 歲的Deity Bakordor 大約在早晨6:30 開始新的一天。與村子裏其他孩子一樣，美化村莊也是她要從事的日常事務。上學前，孩子們會用起絨草做的掃帚清掃街道上的落葉和垃圾。孩子們還要負責倒空垃圾箱。垃圾箱爲手工編織的錐形籃筐，在村莊各處星羅棋佈，漂亮得出乎意料。孩子們會將有機垃圾與可燃垃圾分開。樹葉和其他生物可降解垃圾被埋起來（最終作爲化肥使用）；其他垃圾則被拉到離村莊很遠的地方燒掉。另外，村子裏還有專門的園丁負責維護步道兩邊的公共花草樹木，使得在這裏散步令人格外愉悅。

I asked Bakordor if she was happy to livein such a clean place. She nodded, shyly. And what if a visitor dropped rubbishon the ground, what would she do? She replied that she wouldn’t sayanything to the visitor directly. But she’d pick it up.

我問Bakordor，她是否願意生活在這樣一個乾淨的地方。她害羞地點頭。我又問，如果有遊客在地上丟垃圾，她會怎麼做呢？她回答，她不會直接對遊客說什麼，但她會將垃圾撿起來。

Bakordor explained that in Mawlynnong,there’s normal daily cleaning for children and adults, then extra on Saturdayswhen the village leader assigns out “social work” to be completed for the goodof the town. For her, that might mean helping clean her school. It’s animpressive system, but even more impressive is that this is the nliness is deeply ingrained into living a good life here; it’s just whatyou do.

Bakordor 說，在Mawlynnong，孩子們和大人都要參加日常清潔工作，每逢週六，村子領導人還要分配爲村子公益而完成的“社會工作”。對她而言，就是幫助打掃自己的學校。這種體系令人印象深刻，尤其是這已成爲村裏的規範。維護清潔衛生在這裏的良好生活中深入人心；這裏的人們就是這樣做的。

I peeked at the family’s pristine outdoorcooking area to see the fruit of these labours, and Bakordor’s grandmother,Hosana, held aside the curtain that leads to their two-room home. Sure enough,each area was immaculate: the floors freshly swept, the dishware sparkling,bedding folded.

我悄悄觀察這家人的戶外烹飪區，想看看他們的勞動成果，Bakordor 的祖母Hosana 將通往他們兩居室住處的簾子掀開。當然，到處都完美無瑕，地板乾淨，餐具閃閃發光，牀鋪疊得整整整齊齊。