God save the city !

Come August- September the festival season begins in Mumbai. It starts with Dahi Handi, the grand celebration to celebrate the birth day of Lord Krishna. 

On Chaturthi of the month of Bhadrapad (4h day of Hindu calender month) Ganesh Chaturthi is celebrated by Hindus all over India, as the birthday of the god of wisdom, knowledge and prosperity. Shri Bal Gangadhar Tilak started the Sarvajanik Ganeshotsav. (Public celebration as against limiting to private event). 

His objective of making this a public celebration was to increase community bonding, enhance unity and integrity in the society. Those were the pre-independence days when there was a need for creating a sense of pride and togetherness amongst the oppressed citizens, the Ganeshotsav served the purpose well.

Today's free India is increasingly seeing depleting levels of any decorum that used to be seen in those days. 

Number of Ganeshotsav mandals have sprung up and rising every year in Mumbai and other towns. One would question the basic motive of having more than have 'x' number of mandals in a sq km. Unfortunately, there is no barometer to check the spiraling growth of Ganapati mandals every year. 

One would ask, have people suddenly become devout Hindus ? No one would be naive enough to come close to agreeing on that count.

Unfortunately, the commercial angle is order of the day. Collections of the Ganesh mandals run from lakhs of rupees to few crores. There is absolutely no accountability of the collected funds. Rules get blatantly flouted during pandal erection, noise levels are summarily violated. Last week, Zee 24 taas broadcasted repeated and shameless harassment of devotees by the organisers (goons) at a Ganapati mandal. Not surprisingly, no action has been taken by the government. Our esteemed Home minister has issued a warning that such incidents should not get repeated. Pity ! We are highly tolerant citizens. We are used to getting abuse, thrashed, bullied on streets, trains...whats the big deal now that has happened in the temple of worship !!

Traditionally, one would celebrate Ganapati for 5, 7 or 10 days. Lately, one can see large, medium and small idols being taken for Visarjan on any day from 11th to 21st day.

This procession begins at the time and venue of the organiser's choosing. Imagine the chaos on the roads when a large procession is heading towards the nearest beach at 7 pm on a week day cutting across highways and key arterial roads.

Why are we tolerant to such an extent about such civic indiscipline ? Is this an unregulated state ? 

I am no atheist. But what I ask is how can one reap fruits of worship by inconveniencing others. Need of the hour is to demand from the Maharashtra government to bring in regulations on any procession which is to be carried out on the public roads of any city / town / village.

- No procession at peak hour (all religions included)

- Public announcement in all newspapers few days prior, about any procession

- Noise levels (crackers and music) need to be below 80 decibels

Only the Lord can save the deteriorating city of Mumbai !

______________________________________________________________

Tiny Steps towards making Mumbai a better place !!

It may be hard to believe that Mumbai recorded its slowest population growth in almost a century, in the last decade. The population of the island city shrunk by 5.75% from 2001 to 2011, recording the sharpest drop in south Mumbai since 1901, according to Census data. The reasons attributed for this subdued growth are varied, smaller families, less affordable homes in cities and suburbs as well leading to migration to Thane and outskirts. 

Whilst the growth decline is good news, it can't undermine the challenges posed by the existing population. In 2012, the Mumbai population stands at 1.3 Cr which works out to over 20,000 people per sq km. 

A measure of the quality of life people lead in Mumbai can be estimated by the Human Development Index (HDI) – a statistic that incorporates the economic, educational and health conditions of people. Whilst the share of slum population is negligible in the city (Marine Lines) it is as high as 85% in eastern suburbs of Kurla and Ghatkopar  (as per 2009 HDR). 

One can keep on writing oodles of articles on the issues facing Mumbai. In fact, the favorite pass time during coffee table chats in social and corporate circles is to crib about the pathetic civic standards of Mumbai and curse the corrupt politicians. But beyond that, very few citizens contribute in any way to solve the issues. I would like to put forth six key challenges in any urban location in India as below;

The Urban Challenges

We know the problems, let me try to put forth fundamental steps that each of us could possible take to see incremental improvement.

Road: Absence of Road or Shoddy quality of road is the most common complaint in a city like Mumbai.
What can we do about it? 
Follow these steps, be alert and followup with the authorities and dont give up !!

1) Spot a pothole 2) Get road's name 3) If possible, try to identify which agency is responsible for the road, else visit the nearest BMC office to ascertain the agency 4) Locate the complaint office and lodge the complaint. Or go online (www.mcgm.gov.in / www.voiceofcitizen.com) or over phone (108 / 1916 / 22694727) 5) The complaint officer will transfer the application to the concerned road department. 6) The executive engineer (Maintenance), roads will ask contractor to fix the pothole

Alternative Transportation: Population explosion and slow pace of capacity expansion in road or rail has resulted in overburdening the existing transportation systems. What can we do about it?

Coastal Waterways is an excellent complementary transport solution which Mumbai could leverage. Given that Mumbai is an island city, it is a surprise that we have not as yet leveraged the waterways. With appropriate government support, the waterway enterprise can be made viable and can help Mumbaikars immensely. It is possible for citizen groups to lobby and push this idea !!

Encroachment of Public space:

Citizen groups need to be united on the issue of indiscriminate encroachment on streets, footpaths by hawkers, slum dwellers. First step which citizens need to take is file complaint on the BMC portal and actively followup....Alert citizens will only be able to help make a change.

http://www.mcgm.gov.in/irj/portal/anonymous/qlcomplaintreg

Waste Management:

Non biodegradable waste is waste that will never break down into part of the earth. What can we do to contain the tons of waste that is getting created by us on a daily basis?

Every citizen can do his least by ensuring segregation of waste in dry and wet and into non-biodegradable waste. Ensuring segregation at source of generation is a big help towards waste management.

Every housing society should appoint a small team of waste management volunteers and drive this. There are several NGOs working in the area of Waste management who can guide citizen groups in this.

Education reform:

Focus of pre-primary education in India needs to change from pure play academics to hygiene, sanitation and civic discipline. What can we do about it?

Set up like minded learned people and propose focused lessons in municipal and government schools. This will go a long way in making Mumbai and our country a cleaner and safer place to live. 

Employing disabled:

About 3% of our population suffers from some or the other form of disability. These disabled need to be trained and supported by the society so that they can lead a respectable life. What can we do about it?

Nature keeps the balance by making disabled extremely strong in one or the other ability. It is possible for small, medium and large entrepreneurs to employ disabled, train them and leverage their abilities for their benefit. There are umpteen examples of entrepreneurs who have employed deaf, dumb, blind etc...in their enterprise and been satisfied with the quality of output. 

Are you doing your bit for the society?

_______________________________________________________________________________________