How
Mumbai became Mum-Bin.
If you observe the map
of India in an atlas book, on a globe, from the moon or from any other planet,
you see Mother India stretching her arms, right from Gujarat upto Arunachal
Pradesh. The welcoming gesture of our country and its people, has attracted quite
a bit of the population from our neighboring countries. The ever multiplying
people within the country and the hordes of new entrants, are not only
depleting the resources but also uglifying the country. What a pity!!
You go deep down in the
western region of Maharashtra, you will find “Mumbai - The City of dreams”. A
million people migrate to this city every year, hoping to turn their dreams to
reality. This city offers enough opportunities to earn a farthing or two.
Begging itself is a major business among the poorer section and may fetch you anything
between 1000 to 3000 per month. This magical charm of the city is attracting
more and more migrants from all over, especially from the lower strata of the
society. This surge in the population, the increase in poverty, lack of
education and filthy mannerisms of the people has turned this once rich and
sparkling piece of paradise into a small dusty garbage pit, over spilling with
human species. The blame cannot be placed on the uneducated class alone, there
are certain educated people also who lack the civic sense and have contributed
to this mess. “Mum–bai” is turning into “Mum- BIN” due to the following
reasons:
Litterartis:
You
must have seen the colourful collage of waste materials on the railway stations
or those disgusting sights of wrappers, polythene bags, sanitary napkins, food and
other waste material strewn on the streets. You would have experienced the puke
worthy sight and stink when you pass a garbage bin with garbage overflowing at
least half a meter around the bin. The credit for this goes to the Litterartis. The poor section litter due to lack of
education on cleanliness, but the richer section inspite of being educated
litter due to lack of concern.
Defecators/Urinators:
While
you travel in the train, the sight you would wish for is cows grazing on green pastures
or a stream of clean water gushing down the mountains. Unfortunately, what you
get to see is people in their potty pose performing their early morning ritual.
If your unluckier, you will have stinky swirls of poop traveling in the same
compartment as yours. In fact, recently a newspaper carried news of an incident
where human stool was thrown inside a moving train by some miscreants. How
awful is that?
E Even
when you walk down the street, you have to keep your vigil as our streets are
splattered with shit at every 2 meters. Piddling and pooping on the road is not
the act of the dogs or cows alone. Humans do it too. The poo-er people don't
care a shit, they do it anywhere. Dog owners don't care to scoop away the poop
their pooches left behind. Cow owners don’t clean the dung their animals splattered on the streets. It is disgusting to experience such sights day in
and day out.
Sprainters:
These
category of people paint the town with colorful sprays emanating from their
mouth,they treat the roads, lifts, walls and other public property as their
canvas. They ruminate over tobacco or paan/paan masala in their mouth and spurt
it out like a jet.
Dumpsters:
What
is not worthy of being sold on OLX, finds its place on the roads. Damaged and
old furniture, bug infected couches and other crappy disposables is being dumped
on streets and public places everyday. That’s
the job of the Dumpsters.
Dirtying the city is
easy, but cleaning the city is not, ask the sweepers, rag pickers or cleaners
who are assigned that job. Cleaning the city may not be your job, but keeping
the city clean is your duty. However, with the don’t carish attitude of the
people, we Indian’s will continue to cut cow dung cakes, slip on banana peels,
stomp on noisy wrappers, step on sticky sprays, have our hands glued to the
chewing gum on that park bench and feast our eyes and nose to the overflowing
garbage bins. UNLESS it is time for strict action. The “CHALK “and “CANE” philosophy should be
practiced. “CHALK” indicates awareness on the importance of cleanliness and
hygiene MUST be provided specifically to the lower strata of the society.
“CANE” indicates that any dirty act MUST result in harsh and nasty punishments
to dissuade habitual offenders. In addition to this, the government MUST ACT to
improve the infrastructure facilities in this area.
The dirtification of
the city and the country in toto must be treated as a heinous crime, because it has given BIRTH to many diseases, and has led to many DEATHs.
This write up was written for the "The Great Indian Litterbug" intitiative for Times of India.
