Metropolis on the brink

I must have passed by a hundred times, my glance skittering away guiltily from the rows of bare backsides lining the street. Men, women and ...

I must have passed by a hundred times, my glance skittering away guiltily from the rows of bare backsides lining the street. Men, women and children who have quietly buried their modesty, and walked past that last outpost of human dignity to conduct their most private ritual on a public city road. At Rahul Nagar in Govandi, Mumbai, the only other alternative is to join the snaking queue to the lone municipal toilet, often a two hour wait.

It8217;s a shamble of plastic sheets and poles, balanced almost audaciously on hillocks of compacted refuse, separated by tributaries of slimy black sewage. The rats here are as big as the toddlers, and as skilled at negotiating the fetid remains of the mornings8217; ablutions. There is no power or water supply; the sewer must make do. And the nearest public school is a two kilometre trudge.

Shocking? This is how almost seven million people in India8217;s financial capital live. Another two million 8211; the luckier lot 8211; commute to work in battered suburban trains, so packed that breathing is a luxury. Nearly 1.5 million vehicles bump and crawl along Mumbai8217;s moonscaped roads, despite a Rs 2,684 crore Urban Infrastructure Project to overhaul them, and a Rs 1,300 crore Sea Link Project that is nowhere near completion after six years.

Water is so scarce that swanky skyscrapers are at the mercy of private suppliers, and in the slums, those who can barely afford to eat have to shell out five bucks for a single bucket to bathe! We generate 7,800 tons of garbage everyday 8211; only half that of New York 8211; yet much of it rots uncollected in overflowing municipal bins, turning our town into a viral cesspool. There are 19,864 derelict buildings in danger of collapsing. And with a shortage of 1,500 megawatts, the city is on the verge of a power crisis.

How could we possibly have missed these signals? Mumbai is a metropolis on the brink, has long been a disaster waiting to happen. But the truth is, we chose not to see, until Nature, that Great Leveller, compelled us to. Last week, when the city8217;s gentry 8212; the stolid middle class, corporate honchos, filmstars 8212; were forced to literally swim in the squalid fecal soup of their less fortunate brethren, and to live as they do, without power, water or basic amenities, it sparked a minor civic revolution. I watched, bemused, as the outrage spilled into streets, newspapers and television talk shows.

Justifiable, very justifiable, this burning desire for administrative accountability. But if only we had demonstrated our civic sensibility a little earlier! If only our crusaders had stuck their necks out to salvage our city before they were stuck neck-deep in its watery graveyard, we might just have weathered the storm. And saved 400 lives. Alas, although I am deeply touched by those feel-good stories about Mumbai8217;s samaritan spirit in times of trouble, the average Mumbaikar lives in a cocoon, circumscribed by his or her own petty concerns. So complacent are we, that we are content to toss our garbage into the streets until our kids fall sick, ignore the power shortage until the air conditioning snaps, and merely tut-tut about the appalling quality of life, until our lifelines are drowned. If that sounds familiar, it is. Because, like it or not, as citizens, we are no different from our elected representatives who wait for a calamity to knee-jerk into action. But as usual, its only token damage control; too little, too late.

That8217;s why improvement committee after improvement committee has failed to improve Mumbai. That8217;s why, until today, not one of us self-righteous citizens has ever thought of taking the state government or the municipal authorities to court for their brazen dereliction of duty. Now, of course, kerbside juries have embarked on a witch hunt through babudom: why, after all, should we be mollified with loose change, when we all know that Mumbai contributes Rs 58,000 crore to the capital8217;s kitty! Yet how many of us even know who our local corporator is, or participate in the municipal elections? Very, very few.

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If the people of Mumbai want to be treated better, we should at least begin by demanding basic civic rights. Not just at five star conferences, but out in the streets, in the courts, lobbying New Delhi for more attention. Not just when the chips are down and the dung hits the ceiling, but relentlessly and consistently.

Not just in the gullies, but in penthouses and corporate offices. Because if the deluge has taught us anything, I think its brotherhood. Last spring, when the Maharashtra government mowed down hundreds of huts, and dispossessed almost five hundred thousand slum dwellers in the most brutal 8216;8216;cleanliness8217;8217; drive urban India has ever known, not many of us protested.

So specific was the sprucing, that at Govandi, while the huts were flattened, the garbage still stood, untouched and solid as rock; last week, it took 944mm of rainfall in a single day to wash some of it away, along with the city8217;s very foundations. It hurts to see brave Mumbai weep. But now that the rain has united our grief, I hope it also unites our efforts to save our city.

Email the writer at: farahabariaexpressindia.com