Clean village

An Indian government official claimed in 2010 that his country's cities are the dirtiest in the world. "Come, Clean India" is the campaign aimed at improving things by 2019.

But Mawlynnong is out of the mainstream because it's been declared the "cleanest village in Asia" by Discover India magazine. It's a legendary source of pride for the region, an example held up by Prime Minister Modi as a model to aspire to.

"Cleanliness is deeply ingrained into living a good life here; it's just what you do." Children sweep the streets and empty rubbish bins. Everyone has cleaning duties with extra weekend projects, and town gardeners beautify the public paths.

In the words of mom and homemaker Sara Karrymba, "We are Christians from more than 100 years back, and cleaning is learned from our elders. We pass on these skills, from me to my children and from them to their children." The cleanliness tradition may have started about 130 years ago during an outbreak of cholera.

"She says, "My kids know it's different here." And there's more . . the village is 100% literate.