VIVAN Life Sciences Blog
On August 4, 2018, Mumbai couple Indranil Sengupta and Rabia Tewari entered into their 46th week of cleaning the Mahim beach. Only this time, after having struggled for several weeks with a handful of volunteers, 40 students from the MET Rishikul Vidyalaya joined them. Armed with gloves, they collected heaps of non-degradable single-use plastic waste washed ashore along the stretch from Hinduja Hospital towards Mahim Dargah.
When Rabia and Indranil first moved to a beautiful sea-facing home in Mahim in 2017, little did the couple think their dream view would be diminished to mounds of garbage.
For the longest time, it was just the two of them and perhaps five to fifteen volunteers from all over Mumbai. The local participation from Mahim was the least. In the first 35 weeks, they managed to clear over 500 tonnes of waste.
It was only after their efforts were recognised at a felicitation ceremony by UN Environment, nominated by beach-cleanup poster boy Afroz Shah, that more volunteers began to join in to sustain their initiative.
Every weekend from 8am to 10 am, the couple dedicatedly cleared the trash. The first weekend they started with only two volunteers from their building. While the number increased to 30 once, it wasn’t consistent; it was almost back to just five volunteers.
But they refused to give up.
They created a WhatsApp group and started a Facebook page to promote the drive and reached out to educational institutions in the vicinity too.
Mumbai Couple Keeps Mahim Beach ‘Alive’!
Reference: The Better India
