Dia Mirza raises awareness on Deonar Dumping Ground

While India might be inspired by the Swacch Bharat Abhiyaan and everyone likes to be seen doing their bit, residents of Shivaji Nagar continue to live in obscurity and shocking amounts of garbage and pollution levels. Situated amidst Asia’s largest dumping ground, Shivaji Nagar is a slum which is home to many migrants who have come to the ‘city of dreams’ to make a living.

Culture Machine’s digital channel Being Indian has released a documentary ‘Mumbai’s Dirty Problem- Deonar’ on the Deonar dumping ground, Asia’s largest dump which houses over 9,000 metric tonnes of waste and sewage every day and the ill-effects it has on the people who live and work there.

Actor, producer, Swachh Bharat Ambassador and Nature Champion, Dia Mirza has done the voice over for the video. In a shocking revelation, this video reveals the condition of this dumping ground and how it is also source of livelihood to a lot of people. However, in exchange for the toil they go through, what they receive in return are a lot of diseases and health problems.

Being Indian has interviewed NGOs, doctors, scrap collectors and residents in this documentary to showcase different points of view, corrupt practices among the workers hired to clean the ground and the ills and difficulties caused by the dump.

A research conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences revealed that Shivaji Nagar and the areas around Deonar have the lowest human development index and life expectancy of just 39 years - this is beyond appalling.

Dia Mirza spoke about the video and said, “Although the recent fire breakout at Deonar dumping ground had caused some awareness and alarm among the citizens of Mumbai, it still didn't encourage us to make better and more conscious choices in our everyday lives. It's definitely time we not only take notice but also step up and act.

“I'm glad to be a part of this noble initiative with Culture Machine. Before we point fingers at authorities or wait for systems to adopt scientific waste management systems, we the citizens of India can start by asking ourselves each time we use and throw, where is it coming from and where is it going to go?” she asked.

Being Indian released a statement on the video, “The amount of garbage we produce on an everyday basis is shocking. At this very moment, we all need to stop and pay attention to what we are doing. We need to take some strong and definitive steps towards reversing the damage we are causing to our environment.

We created this video to give out the message to everyone to be more watchful while discarding waste and make a small change in their daily life that can directly affect the lives of many people.” While we can complain about the fact that our country is dirty, we must question ourselves that if we cannot be careful to segregate a couple of kg of waste in our respective households, how do we expect scrap collectors to clean up 8,000 metric tonnes of waste?