By Fr. Joshan Rodrigues –
Last week it was Bengaluru. This week Mumbai…Next week…?
It’s déjà-vu each year when Mumbai is blest with its annual flood. Having the annual Visarjan (not the one for Ganpati bapa), when every Mumbaikar is drenched to his or her bones, is left stranded somewhere with no trains or transport, and is forced to wade through knee-deep mucky water, is part of what it means to be a Mumbaikar. This year was no different. The expected and predictable flooding was followed by the usual anger expressed from every man, woman and animal. The usual targets were the BMC and the State Government. Nothing new here. Happens every year.
I get a feeling that the BMC realises by now that all they have to do is wait out the anger for a few days. They don’t really need to change anything. Just give people some time to vent out their frustration, lie low in the meantime, and eventually people will move on to something else (and so will the media). There’s too much money involved here to bring about any real change. The familiar news stream on the shoddy infrastructure in our city, the huge taxes that we pay, the non-accountability of our civic leaders has been repeating itself for many years now as far as I remember.
While it is certainly right that we raise our voices on social media and television and not remain mute spectators, I feel it is high time we moved beyond this annual spectacle and think about what we can do as ordinary citizens to bring about any veritable change. Let us begin from the Church.
No change is going to happen immediately at the State or city level. We have to work at the local ward levels and hold our municipal men and women accountable. We must make our parishes the nodes of social and civic action. How about we empower and commission our socio-civic cells and associations in every parish to gather together like-minded Christians from the locality who can devote some time to this cause. This group can make a sustained effort throughout the year (slowly but steadily), to identify infrastructure issues, bad roads, sewage disposal, maintenance and cleaning of drains, tree-trimming, and desilting and drain-widening and modernising projects in their localities. They can spend time in cultivating good and working relationships with their local municipal councillors and ward officers. Pressurise them to show results, hold them accountable and get projects completed on time. This is not so easy as it sounds, but nothing is going to change unless citizens show an interest.
Only civic-management at the local level will aggregate to bring about effective and visible change in our city. Maintain online records of the work that your MP, MLA, MLC and municipal councillors are doing. Demand accountability when elections arrive. Offer your vote only in exchange for the work they have accomplished. I am sure others will have many more ideas on this topic but we need to start to get-together at the parish level and begin this process.
Once this effort has begun in the Church, we will find that in no time, we will easily be able to rope in other like-minded individuals from other faith communities and non-profit organisations working for civic accountability. This is finally a civic issue, not just a faith-specific one. We are all in this together.
Churches and schools in the Archdiocese of Bombay opened their doors to people seeking refuge from floods devastating Mumbai. At St Michael’s Church in Mumbai’s Mahim and in at Holy Family Church in Chakala too, the stranded taking shelter were all just weary Mumbaiites, of all faiths. So did St Peter’s Church Bandra. Over 300 people took shelter at the Nirmala Niketan College of Social Work, a Catholic institution in southern Mumbai.
It is time to reshape our Small Christian Communities into Social Christian Communities! Jesus went about tackling social injustices, not just spiritual ones. We must take a cue from him. God sent Noah an Ark when the biblical flood came. We may not be so fortunate next August.
Also do read Fr. Joshan’s Music in Catholic Land