Church Street is a small busy, street with some 300 shops, 100 offices, 30 restaurants – each gets cleaned everyday by private cleaners. Some of this garbage is stored neatly in-house, the rest ends up (illegally) on the street.
There are no street bins – Bangalore has a no-bin policy; door-to-door garbage pick-up is offered.
The entire street’s garbage is handled by the Magnificent Seven – Narasamma, the sweeper, Mahesh, the consolidator, and Amir the Lorry-man, whose staff of Babu, Mani and Thangaraj take it all away. The Magnificent 7, all part of BBMP, start work at 7am and the street is clean by 1030am.
That's when the shops open and dumping starts - a 24x7 filth generation cycle. Over 10 maids, 6 kabaadiwallas, and many ragpickers operate here – all make a living off the street’s garbage.
Garbage generation & disposal is a 24x7 activity.
All this happens below the radar, and is invisible to the several thousand people who come here to work, and for fun (Bangalore’s trendiest cafes, pubs, restaurants and bookstores are here).
Church Street reflects the essence of Bangalore. Then why do we allow it to be such a mess ?
There are no villains in this piece. It’s just that everyone is doing what they do – and nobody is in overall charge of the look of the street. Any filth visible on the streets is the 5% or less that the system leaves behind. The system that takes 95% away gets no credit – the offending 5% causes outrage to some. Better if those outraged did something about the 5% that nobody cares about and left the 95% alone.
That's what some Not-so-Ugly Indians did.
Several people have gone beyond the call of duty to contribute to a cleaner Church Street.
BBMP garbage staffers, pourakarmikas, cleaning maids, shopkeepers, paanwallas, office staff, restaurant workers, policemen, chaiwallas, a local nursery, security guards, parking attendants, kabaadiwallas, hawkers, staff from BESCOM, BSNL & BWSSB.
Plus several Bangaloreans who were passing by who helped with painting walls, lifting pots, moving slabs and leaving their comfort zone to lend a hand, expecting nothing in return.
These experiments have worked, and sustained, because everyone worked together, nobody pointed fingers, and basically – every Ugly Indian really wants a clean street.
Important message: This site is not meant to be critical of anyone, least of all the BBMP and other govt agencies. Their staff are incredibly helpful and resourceful, and we, the public, need to support them in their thankless task of cleaning up after us. Every little thing we do to help them become more efficient and productive is good for us, for them and our city.