World’s largest beach clean-up campaign in Mumbai

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Afroz Shah, a lawyer who lives in Mumbai, is the driving force behind the world's largest beach clean-up campaign.

Over the past two years, he has worked with an army of volunteers to clear some 9 million kilograms of waste from Versova Beach, which was one of the dirtiest beaches in India's financial capital.

“I saw on the beach plastic, plastic, plastic,” says Shah. “I told myself that I'm not going to complain. We have littered. We humans are responsible for littering, and now we must take charge and do something about this.”

Afroz Shah looking at the beach filled with litter. /CGTN Photo

Versova Beach was one of the dirtiest beaches in Mumbai, India. /CGTN Photo

The volunteers gather on the beach during weekends to remove the huge amounts of litter that wash ashore.

Shah explains that the campaign began when he and his 84-year old neighbor, Harbansh Mathur, decided that they had to do something about the rubbish on their local beach. Just over two years ago, the two men went to the beach one day with some trash bags, which they filled up with waste.

They then put a notice up in their building, and the campaign rapidly gathered momentum. More and more volunteers from across the city joined in, with hundreds of people sometimes turning up on the weekend to pick up trash from Versova Beach. Mathur, who had cancer, passed away just a few months after they started the cleanliness drive.

Versova Beach covered with garbage. /CGTN Photo

Shah's efforts meant that he won a UN Champions of the Earth award last year. He has also been praised by India's prime minister, Narendra Modi, for the cleanliness drive. One of Modi's flagship programs has been his Swachh Bharat initiative, a campaign to make India cleaner.

“You have to deal with the mindsets because it's people who are littering,” Shah says.

Volunteers cleaning the beach. /CGTN Photo

Afroz Shah (R) and his team member cleaning litter on the beach. /CGTN Photo

It has not all been plain sailing. Last month, Shah briefly suspended the clean-up because of his growing frustration with his volunteers being verbally abused by troublemakers. Also, Shah says that much of the waste they were gathering was not being removed by local authorities.

But Shah received a wave of support as residents of the city, including politicians, urged him to resume the campaign – which he did.

“I didn't know how long this journey would be and what is the end, but I knew it had to be a lifelong association,” he says.

4749km