Varanasi’s Journey As The Cleanest Ganga Town As Narrated By Cleanup Warrior Temsutula Imsong

In 2012, it was her first trip to the town of Kashi and the ghats of Ganga. In 2021, it is her daughter’s first trip to the same place, same river. But that’s where the similarity ends.

For almost everything that Temsutula Imsong witnessed when she first met ‘Gangaji’ has changed and in less than a decade, she is back to where she began, this time with her daughter Prangshi, who has inherited an experience that is in total contrast with that of her mother’s.

But the image of the mother-daughter duo is the story of transformation and how the will to make change happen has actually ensured the next generation inherits a better world — and all in less than a decade.

"I see tweets of those who are still finding some corner dirty or some dirt some dump somewhere now — but this is nothing, not even a pinpoint in comparison to what it was," says Imsong, who started with a team of volunteers cleaning the much lesser frequented Shool Tankeshwar Ghat.

Imsong’s journey and work on the Prabhu Ghat that they started in 2015 won the attention of the nation as Prime Minister Narendra Modi lauded their efforts and that alongwith the Swacch Bharat campaign motivated them to take up the cleanup of the entire stretch along Gangaji, she says.

Read about the work she undertook then here, in this article penned as she received the Swarajya Award for Social Work in 2016.

The journey has been one huge leap of faith. For it has not just meant getting hands-on and cleaning the ghats and the river banks, but also making space for hygiene and sanitation and a sense of ownership of the ghats in the minds of people.

“When Modiji gave a call, we and so many groups came forward to undertake on ground efforts. The Kashi debates were started — after shramadaan we would conduct Kashi debates — to make people aware that we are cleaning this. And that it is not just ours — but that the ghats belong to all of us and we all should clean and maintain. That we should not dirty it because ‘Ganga ji Hamara hai’. This is how we spread awareness. So many groups, so many individuals — Swacch Bharat — so many people have strived to spread awareness,” she explains.

“A few of us were made ambassadors of the Nagar Nigam. We along with the Nagar Nigam and radio stations started talking to people and undertaking numerous workshops, songs, displays at the main chaurahas. Numerous teams were out there to engineer and enable this change in attitude and the effort is ongoing. Like you can't take the paan away, but the spitting has definitely reduced,” she adds.

But it isn’t just the organisations or the systems put in place that have brought about this change. “The entire city has been part of the effort to trigger mind change. All schools, and children and youth have joined hands — with placards and rallies — to create awareness. All Kashivasis have strived for this,” she says, claiming no credit for her efforts to spearhead a sanitation revolution.

The contrasts with the bygone era don’t end here.

Having witnessed the grandeur of Deepotsav which also saw a laser show at the Chet Singh Ghat that has had audiences captivated for the last two years, it is unbelievable almost to hear from Imsong that this was once a spot that had not a single lamp.

“When we started then there would be no lights, it would be completely dark, especially at night — both Chet Singh Qila and Prabhu Ghat would be completely dark, but it was a very beautiful stretch of the ghat — which is why probably they now chose it for the laser show. The Chet Singh ka qila they would tell us is a haunted fort which is why the lights can't be switched on. They would tell us that ghosts will spoil the lights even if we put them on and that was why the ghats remained dark,” she says.

But then the team would sit and clean the ghats post sunset too and slowly an LED or two made its way to the ghats finally illuminating both the ghats, and the minds of the people who inhabited them. From there to having it all lit and illuminated and playing backdrop to a laser show is a journey through time, space and tales.

Each ghat has a tale that can make for endless anecdotes. For cleaning the Ganga, in Imsong’s words has been a life-changing journey and one that has her believing in the magic of Ganga and her powers for life.

“Now we don’t need to wish for anything. Because even if we wish — it simply happens. We are even scared to wish now — because things are no longer in our hands — it simply happens,” she says as she signs off.