Surendra Singh Chaudhary, a young man from Madhya Pradesh known online as “Bittu Tabahi”, has reportedly drawn a large audience by cleaning polluted ponds and stretches of the Ajnar River. The story appeared in a recent human-interest roundup. His chosen name roughly promises destruction; his work is repair. That reversal is probably one reason people watch.
I understand the appeal of cleanup videos. A filthy bank becomes visible ground. Plastic disappears into sacks. Volunteers stand beside a transformed patch, tired and pleased. The narrative has a beginning, labour and a satisfying after image—everything municipal waste management usually lacks. Yet the Central Pollution Control Board reminds us through its river and waste material that pollution is a systems problem. A viral cleanup can remove what we see. It cannot by itself stop what flows in tomorrow.
Chaudhary’s work matters because he converts disgust into participation. Many of us photograph a polluted place, complain about “civic sense” and continue walking. He enters the mess. I do not want to diminish that courage with a lecture about policy. I want to protect it from becoming an excuse for institutions to remain passive.
The camera is part of the broom
Social media is often criticised for turning service into performance. Sometimes the criticism is deserved. A person may film a charitable act so aggressively that the beneficiary becomes a prop. Environmental cleanup is different in one important respect: visibility can recruit more hands, teach methods and shame authorities without exposing a vulnerable individual’s private crisis.
The camera also solves a motivation problem. Large environmental damage feels abstract; a time-lapse makes progress concrete. Viewers can imagine joining. A recognisable personality gives continuity across locations. “Bittu Tabahi” is easier to remember than a municipal campaign acronym assembled by committee.
Still, metrics can distort priorities. The most visually revolting site may attract views while a less photogenic sewage outlet causes greater harm. Surface plastic is satisfying to collect; contaminated effluent requires testing, enforcement and infrastructure. An influencer-led movement must eventually connect spectacle to technical knowledge or risk cleaning the same symptoms repeatedly.
Chaudhary and volunteers like him should partner with local environmental groups, waste workers and scientists. Before removing material from a water body, teams need to consider hazardous waste, sharp objects, unstable banks and wildlife. Collected waste must reach a legitimate facility. Moving rubbish from a riverbank to an informal dump is not a victory; it is a change of background.
Volunteers reveal where government is absent
A citizen cleanup is uplifting and accusatory at the same time. If one person can mobilise attention around a neglected water body, why did routine systems allow it to become a dump? Municipalities face limited budgets, fragmented jurisdiction and weak enforcement, but those constraints do not absolve them. Waste collection, drains, sewage treatment and dumping prevention are public responsibilities.
Authorities often respond to viral attention with a one-day deployment: trucks arrive, officials pose and the site is declared restored. The real test begins a month later. Are bins available? Is collection frequent? Have dumping points been fenced or monitored? Are households and businesses connected to proper waste and sewage systems? Has anyone traced recurring inflows?
Volunteer groups can document these failures systematically. They should map waste types, photograph recurring hotspots, record dates and submit public complaints that create a paper trail. Local journalists can follow up. A reel creates attention; records create accountability. Both are needed.
There is also a labour question. Sanitation workers perform unpleasant, dangerous work daily without acquiring millions of followers. Cleanup campaigns should include them as paid experts, not background figures summoned to remove the final sacks. Gloves, boots, vaccinations, mechanical equipment and fair wages matter. Celebrating a volunteer while ignoring the worker who handles waste for a living reproduces the hierarchy that made the work invisible.
Civic sense is not a personality trait
Indians often explain litter through a national deficiency called civic sense. The phrase is convenient because it blames everyone and therefore nobody. Behaviour does matter. People should not dump waste into water. But behaviour responds to infrastructure, enforcement and norms. A neighbourhood with reliable door-to-door collection, usable bins and penalties will behave differently from one where waste remains uncollected for days.
Campaigns should tell residents exactly what to do with different waste streams. “Keep the river clean” is less useful than a schedule, collection contact and location for construction debris. Businesses near water bodies need inspections and realistic disposal options. Religious offerings require designated collection and composting systems designed with communities rather than imposed through scolding.
Schools can adopt nearby water bodies, but students should do more than attend ceremonial cleaning days. They can test basic water indicators with supervision, map drains, study local biodiversity and interview sanitation staff. The goal is not to produce child labour in matching caps. It is to make the water body part of local knowledge.
Do not turn the volunteer into a substitute
People like Chaudhary face burnout. Online audiences expect escalating transformations; local problems return; funding is uncertain; criticism arrives from people who have never lifted a sack. Organisations should help volunteers build teams, safety protocols and transparent funding. The work cannot depend indefinitely on one person’s stamina.
Brands will inevitably see an opportunity. Sponsorship can pay for equipment and transport, but it should not convert a polluted river into a product set. Companies supporting cleanups should disclose funding and examine their own packaging and waste practices. A beverage company donating gloves while its discarded bottles dominate the bank is not absolved by a logo on the T-shirt.
Governments, meanwhile, should provide equipment, collection vehicles and disposal access without attempting to capture the volunteer’s credibility. Collaboration does not require turning every cleanup into a ministerial event. Sometimes the most useful official contribution is a truck arriving on time.
Why this small story mattered
Chaudhary’s work matters because it changes the emotional grammar of pollution. A dirty river is usually presented as evidence of irreversible decline. He presents it as a place where labour can make a visible difference. Hope becomes practical rather than decorative.
But hope needs plumbing. The clean patch must be followed by waste collection, sewage interception, enforcement and community ownership. Otherwise the before-and-after video becomes a loop, with the same rubbish returning for the next episode.
I want more citizens to imitate his willingness to act and fewer institutions to imitate his social-media style. Volunteers can begin a restoration, demonstrate demand and keep watch. They cannot replace municipal systems, pollution control or paid sanitation work. “Bittu Tabahi” has shown what one person can start. The important question is whether the rest of us—residents, companies and government—can build something that no longer needs rescuing for the camera.
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