The streets that don't need signs telling you not to litter
Aizawl does not have the usual Indian municipal grammar of painted slogans, overflowing bins cordoned off with rope, or men in orange vests chasing litter down a hill. The city is clean because its residents have decided, collectively and without much ceremony, that it will be. Mizoram has ranked among the top states in India's Swachh Survekshan for years. The ranking is not the point. The point is that the cleanliness holds even in the narrow market lanes of Bara Bazar, even in the villages that no government inspector will ever visit, even in the hills where the only witness is the next ridge over.
