States: Maharashtra; Metro Service

India Today
October 5,1998

MAHARASHTRA
Metro Service

Mumbai is bursting at the seams. Its residents attempt to make amends.

By Nandita Chowdhury

Metro Service Fit and sprightly at 79, G.N. Aiyar starts work at the stroke of seven every morning. His morning ritual includes meeting the municipal sweepers in his ward during their first run of garbage collection. He supervises their work, shares morning tea with them, discusses the civic problems of the ward and, most important, gives them a pat on the back for a difficult job well done.

Aiyar is a self-styled warden of his area. He is a member of the Dignity Foundation for Senior Citizens, also known as Dignitarians. On August 15, some 633 members of the foundation, spread over 23 wards of Mumbai, launched the Freedom From Garbage Andolan in an attempt to convert the megapolis into a model, garbage-free city. Says Aiyar: "All it needs is a little effort, self-control in not throwing garbage on the streets and policing on the part of the residents to clean up Mumbai."

That efforts seem to be well under way. The Dignity Foundation's programme is a small part of a large evolving pattern of citizen's activism to clean up Mumbai -- putting hawking zones in place, conserving heritage buildings and clearing out the beaches of garbage. Says Sheilu Srinivasan, another member of the group: "Citizens' groups have mushroomed with the sound conviction that if this megapolis, bursting at the seams, choking at the gutters, can be made a better place to live in, it's up to them to get it going."

On days following festivities like the Ganapati immersion, there can be as many as 30 truckloads of garbage to be carried away from the Juhu beach. A team led by George Gopali is helped by 25 to 30 local ragpickers, who have their first pick of the garbage at the Juhu beach. Says Gopali: "We like to think we are housekeeping for nature since it's the only home we have." The efforts are financed by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation and sometimes by local residents' groups like the Save Versova Beach Association. Slightly north of Juhu, in Versova, 5,000 residents, members of this association, recently came together to fight against misuse of the beach and succeeded in throwing out methi planters and hawkers who had illegally encroached on the area.

To the south of Juhu-Versova is Bandra, queen bee of the suburbs, where members of the Bandra West Resident's Association keep the civic authorities on their toes. They also come out with over 5,000 copies of their newsletter Bandra Bachao which is distributed free to the residents. Says Patricia Nath, editor: "Our aim is to keep the residents aware of the developments and changes taking place in Bandra." Downtown Mumbai, where the citizen's movement started with heritage conservation and the environment, is at the forefront of citizen's activism. Late last year, the Save oval Committee, founded by the oval (Organisation for Verdant Ambience and Land) Trust, took on the mammoth task of saving the oval Maidan which has been reduced to decrepitude. The cost of cleaning up the oval could be around Rs 1.75 crore, but members of the oval Cooperage Resident's Association are undaunted. "Citizen's activism is a concept whose time has come. People know now that complaining is not good enough. We have to act," says Shirin Bharucha, convener of the Save oval Committee:

Says Sharada Dwivedi, historian and conservationist: "The citizen's movement has finally taken root in Mumbai." Last year, residents' groups in the Churchgate-Nariman Point area fought tooth and nail against letting mass rallies and morchas into their zones. They won and "can now open our doors and windows without going deaf due to the cacophony".

With citizens finally hitting the streets, there is hope of some order replacing Mumbai's chaos and a breath of fresh air wafting from its otherwise filth-ridden chowks.

Issue Contents | Write to us | Subscriptions | Syndication