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Making a Difference |
| Outlook's weekly profile of people who work under wraps, beyond the laudatory limelight. |
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Magazine | 12 Apr 2004
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Vimlendu Jha
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Before The River Runs Dry
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Rituals sanction the pollution of the Yamuna. But here is a Brahmin who cleans up afterwards.
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It’s just a bridge over a stretch of water, for most commuters. One which connects east Delhi to the rest of the capital. But for a young man from Bhagalpur, who’d grown up by the banks of the Ganga in Bihar, the trans-Yamuna crossing into east Delhi was unforgettable in ’98.
It was his first sight of the sacred Yamuna. But seeing rotting flower garlands, scum and litter floating on the river made this Brahmin boy question the holy rites that give man sanction to pollute a river and purify himself in return.
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"I reacted emotionally," says Vimlendu Jha. "This river, which has served generations, was dying. Instead of being worshipped for its religious and civilisational powers, respected as Delhi’s water source, the Yamuna had been reduced to a sewer. Something had to be done."
In 2001, after graduating, Vimlendu studied the Yamuna’s ‘political economy.’ The facts were frightening. Almost 70 per cent of Delhi’s drinking water is drawn from this river.
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While 3,538 million litres of wastewater flows into it through 19 major drains, only five per cent of this is treated. Sewage too flows in untreated.
The government has spent upwards of Rs 1,000 crore of taxpayer’s money on cleaning the river—as part of the Rs 1,200-crore Yamuna Action Plan, announced in ’93 and put into action in 2000. (The next phase has an outlay of Rs 624 crore.) But despite this cost-intensive intervention, Delhi is still saddled with what environmentalists call "a clogged sewer". Says Vimlendu, "Once pure, now profaned, we had to create awareness about this drain of Delhi." That was the hardest part. His studies revealed that more than half of the capital’s population had not seen or touched the Yamuna, even though it runs through 22 km of Delhi.
With pocket money and a little help from friends, he performed a street play, Dilli Teri Yamuna Maili (Delhi, Your Yamuna is Filthy). It touched a chord. Within a month, 150 volunteers from premier institutes like IIT, JNU and St Stephen’s joined this people’s movement, founded by Vimlendu, called We for Yamuna, reaching out to numerous schools and colleges. We for Yamuna volunteers also conduct regular shramdaans along this riverine lifeline, collecting debris left behind by worshippers and polluters. On an average, each shramdaan yields about half a truckload of wet-waste. Besides this, they organise 7-km "shock boat rides" from Wazirabad, along Qudsia and Nigambodh Ghat, where the shades of the water range from sullied blue to brackish black.
Today, this unfunded ngo seeks a natural growth curve—swimming upstream, like salmon, to ensure a conscientious progeny. For, they realise it is vital to bring the river’s lived history within a process of experiential learning. In May ’04, they are planning a 15-day yatra for schoolkids. Beginning from one of the char dhams, it will culminate as an experience of ‘char dharms’ or religions. It will cover Yamunotri’s traditional Hindu temples; Paonta Sahib, where Sikhism evolved; Vrindavan, the land of Krishna; Mathura, where Buddhism flowered; and finally Mughal capital Agra. A celebration of all faiths that thrived along the Yamuna’s banks. Besides learning about this ancient tributary, the aim is to interlink future river-keepers. If you’d like to help save this little sister of the Ganga, email Vimlendu at jha_vimal@rediffmail.com or call him on 0-98105-95648.
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—Pramila N. Phatarphekar
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