In the west a couple of hundred years ago, we used a mixture of religion and shame to achieve the transformation of behavior necessary to meet these sanitation

In the west a couple of hundred years ago, we used a mixture of religion and shame to achieve the transformation of behavior necessary to meet these sanitation goals. "Cleanliness is next to godliness" was a slogan of that movement. It took, more or less, a century to make the change. A big step in the right direction was the 1854 discovery by Dr. John Snow that removing the handle from a public water pump in London could slow a cholera pandemic. The well was contaminated by human feces. Steven Johnson wrote it up in his book The Ghost Map. http://www.worldcat.org/title/ghost-map-the-story-of-londons-most-terrifying-epidemic-and-how-it-changed-science-cities-and-the-modern-world/oclc/70483471 http://www.worldcat.org/title/ghost-map-the-story-of-londons... A board of church directors (a vestry) owned that pump, and Dr. Snow had to talk them into approving his plan. It wasn't easy: he was denying the conventional pious wisdom of the time. But they went for it. Then cleaning up cities required major advances in civil engineering technology: things we take for granted today in the west, like interceptor sewers and and treatment plants. Whether or not PM Modi is a politician who toots his own horn is irrelevant to this project. Its benefits will outlast everyone alive today. Go for it, India!