The “fully automatic” Washing Machine – Is it an overload?

In an era where future wars are proclaimed to be fought over water, the water-guzzling “fully automatic” washing machine should have been quite an anathema. Washing machines today could be using as much as 20litres of water per kg of clothes washed. Ask any housewife, however, and she would have countless tales of the drudgery of having to wash clothes manually. The washing machine does cut out the drudgery of washing clothes.

Before we delve into the merits or demerits of the washing machine, we must ponder over why our clothes get dirty so fast, how the volume of clothes could be minimised and spare some thoughts on our sartorial choices that lead to easy washability.

A big reason for clothes to get difficult-to-wash-off dirty is the pervasive presence of oily and sticky dust from vehicular emissions and  perennial road construction that mixes up with the roadside eroded soil and depleted green cover that absorbs some of this oily and sticky dust. In several areas oily and sticky dust emanates from industrial pollution such as coal-based thermal power plants and chemical plants.

A logical question to ask is whether we could minimize our exposure to such oily and sticky dust. Looking deeper, here we are both the perpetrator and the victims of this oily dust.

Imagine a scenario which is being presented world over as the new urbanism. In this model, most of our day to day activities are localized. So, the neighborhood serves as the school district, the work district and the shopping district. In such a scenario, why would we need oily and sticky dust emitting motor vehicles inside the neighborhood, with emission and dust coming off the tailpipes and the wheels respectively.

Wonder if there are no motor vehicle movements within the neighborhood district, why would we need space-guzzling tarmac roads. We could make way for much lighter roads with rainwater and drain-off channels alongside and which could be made of recycled materials – rubble from old, dilapidated buildings, plastic bags etc. They could also have thin film solar canvas on the top which apart from charging the low-powered, ultra-light Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, could also provide shed for pedestrians. To absorb even the minimal dust in this scenario, the green cover lining the streets will absorb them. In such a dust-free environment there is significantly lower chance of our clothes getting dirty and needing a wash that often as they need now.

Apart from wearable clothes there is also a large volume of bedsheets, pillow covers, curtains, doormats, carpets etc. that will require much less frequent cleaning in such a dust-free environment. At the same time, with the neighborhood as school and work district, we could also explore how more people could gainfully work out of their work studio as a part of the house or apartment building.

Going out and dressing up in such a scenario will be for special occasions of festivals and ceremonies rather than a daily ritual of dressing up for school or to office. The school routine should become considerable easier than the ordeal it’s today. With the neighborhood as school district, teachers should pick up younger students to walk them to a classroom which could at times be under a tree or besides a pond or river rather than being a boxed room every day. To ingrain children with a model morning routine, teachers could be visiting home with the sunrise and the children leave home with a pair of clothes. They are taught to brush their teeth with the twig of neem, babool or some such tree with healthy juices tricking into their tummy. They next go to a nearby pond or canal for a bathe where they also learn to wash their clothes. Children, rich and poor, wear ordinary clothes every day and dress up only on special occasions.

The simplified work routine also eliminates a separate pair of clothes for a far away office. Dressing up again is only for special occasions. Unlike the office and laboratory routine today, most people shall serve the local society and earn their livelihoods locally. Their dresses for a farmer or a cowherder, carpenter or cobbler, blacksmith or goldsmith could be designed suitably. The office and the laboratories would gradually convert into work studios in the house or on the fields for most people.

One such profession in this new urbanist neighborhood will be that of washermen. They shall have specialized washing practices and material to remove various kinds of dirt and stains. Do we need to pay them heftily ?

Not, at all. These washermen or dhobi community in a traditional set up are paid for their services with cooked food and the village neighborhood takes care of all their other needs. The lady of the household is considered as the Gram Putri or as the daughter of the village. She, thus doesn’t have to cook her own food while she is busy with her washing and drying work. In special ceremonies, such as after birth of a child in a village they are treated with special honour.

The washer community also is given special access to a pond or canal where they set up their equipments for washing and drying. They have their own folk music that they hum in tune with their washing chores.

The washer community is given access to land where they can set up their sun drying nets and beds. They also have access to their own transport which in a traditional set up would be a pony. This could be replaced with a solar-charged electric cart in today’s scenario.  This would also double up as their ironing board for clothes that need ironing. With such specialized skills and practices, we were dressed immaculately both on special occasions of festivities and ceremonies and also in our daily lives.     

In such a new urbanist model, every household will be able to access specialized washing services at their doorstep and shall not be loaded with the washing course. This also implies a far greater efficient use of scarce water.

What we wear widely varies across the country today and in urban and rural areas. One trend that’s prominent is the comeback of cotton and linen fabrics. Keeping the sanctity of our sartorial choices as a private affair, it’s worthwhile to comment that at times we seemed to be dressed for an overkill and are under dressed on other occasions. Men’s suits and tie in the warm climes seem pertly inappropriate. That’s a big reason why apart from water guzzlers, these sartorial choices lead to overuse of air-conditioners in numerous offices and guzzle power as well leading back to more of the oily and sticky dust.  

Chandra Vikash is a management consultant and social activist. He is an engineer from IIT Kharagpur and MBA from IIM Calcutta. He can be reached at chandra.vikash@gmail.com.