A small village in eastern India has been setting an example not only throughout the country, but across Asia — and hopefully the world — for clean practices that were passed on across generations.
Mawlynnong continues to enjoy such acclaims to this date thanks to the residents’ involvement in maintaining the community’s cleanliness.
According to Oddity Central, children are responsible for sweeping dirt and fallen leaves off the streets every morning before going to school. Leaves that have been collected are then buried in a compost pit.
Mawlynnong’s obsession with cleanliness, however, did not happen overnight. It is believed that a cholera outbreak 130 years ago encouraged cleanliness among residents as a means to curb its spread, BBC noted.
The villagers are also of the traditionally matrilineal Khasi people — the attention to cleanliness must have then sprung from society’s emphasis on such, from a time when women, culturally-assigned home and environmental orderliness, were dominant.
Those planning to visit can expect to be welcomed by warm villagers, most of whom are comfortable with the English language. The village has a 100% literacy rate, according to the Indian government.
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