Author and economist Gurucharan Das said governance failure and weak municipalities were the reasons behind the problem of uncleanliness in India.
He said at the Jaipur Literature Festival (JLF) that cleanliness was not a cultural problem as people's culture changed within eight hours.
"Indians do not spit and litter on roads, follow traffic rules when they go to countries such as the US and Singapore," he said.
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"Failure of governance and weak municipalities were the reasons behind uncleanliness," Das said at a session on 'Swachh Bharat: Taking responsibility for change'.
The session was attended by journalists Angela Saini, Jeffrey Gettleman, Uday Mahurkar and educationist Hema Maira in conversation with Jyoti Malhotra.
He said Singapore became a first-world country from a third-world country in a short span of time as they made "citizens out of individuals".
"They had a drive for cleanliness. Civic virtues don't come naturally to human beings. Taking ownership of public spaces by the individuals can bring about a change in achieving the Swachh Bharat goal," he added.
Journalist Angela Saini said every country had its own issues of cleanliness.
She said the people in Germany have a strong civic sense and in America, the government has strict legislation and harsh penalty. But in India the biggest problem is caste hierarchy where roles and responsibilities were confined to the caste or race, Saini said.
"Caste is an issue without solving which the idea of cleanliness will remain unsolved," she said.
Uday Mahurkar said Surat was the classic example of transformation. "Smart governance by a smart system was the reason behind its metamorphosis from plague city to clean city. Smart governance was key in achieving Swachh Bharat," he said.
He said the idea of Swachh Bharat was good and it was possible to achieve the target in a planned manner with consistent efforts in strengthening municipal systems.
Comparing African countries with the India, Geffrey Gettleman said rapid urbanisation and population growth were similar problems that some of the African countries as well.
"Problems like uncleanliness are related population which need to be addressed. Punishment and rule of law has to be stronger," he said.
Educationist Hema Maira said good habits needed to be inculcated in kids early on and individual responsibility needed to be taught.
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