Then came the year 2015 – Advocate Afroz Shah Shifted to Versova (north of Mumbai) from Bandra (South of Mumbai). Afroz’s new resident is on the beach. A property dealer showed him the flat. And Afroz says I saw what I saw – the beaches had up to 5 ft. of marine debris at some places. I had never seen in my life – so much plastic pollution juxtaposed to the ocean. The plastic was up to my earlobes. The first time I saw – “I knew something was drastically wrong and something had to be done urgently.”

That “something” in Afroz’s mind resulted in Afroz and 83 years old Harbansh Mathur stepping on a Sunday morning to clean Versova Beach. Two energetic souls – wanting to be the change. Mahatma Gandhi’s values in its full bloom in the 21st Century, Mumbai. Mumbai with its busy schedule – where time is more important than money – suddenly saw a “Gandhian Movement” – My time, my effort, my money – Springing up to develop into a behemoth tower of sacrifice and love for mother nature and our India.

The beach clean-up attracted the attention of the world. Versova beach became the symbol of the power of citizens – stepping out – wearing gloves – and being the change of what they want to see.

Tackling marine debris, plastic pollution, global warming required a trigger and the beach clean-up became the trigger. As Afroz says “Beach clean-up is misunderstood. Beach clean-up does not mean clean beach. Beach clean-up is to mitigate the problem of marine debris – of plastic entering into the belly of the ocean; through beach clean-up we “learn while doing” i.e., reduce waste at home. Once you pick up waste at the beach, we reduce plastic pollution and global warming, and then probably “a clean beach”. The United Nation labelled Versova beach clean up as “the biggest beach clean-up in world history”. Beach clean-up became the “eyes and ears” of the “keep the oceans and the planet healthy” narrative. One beach clean-up led to another beach clean-up – Dana Paani beach clean-up in Mumbai. But Afroz knew that the problem had to be tackled in a mature, routine, and holistic way i.e. solution and the ground action must be in broad spectrum of – beach clean up to circular economy. The inertia – to not tackle the pollution problem – was both at the individual level and the systemic level. Afroz and his volunteers work on both aspects, individual and systemic level. At one end of the spectrum – individuals – as consumers – were creating undesirable and catastrophic effects on the marine ecosystem – by irresponsible consumption and the habit of littering at government level – both in terms of law and its implementation – were not doing enough or producing enough visible effect. For even a simple arrangement – a clean beach to play, swim and enjoy.