Television’s clean-up act

TV channel adopts a Mumbai slum for a year. Are channels headed the social way?

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They traded in their Blackberries for scrubbing brushes, their mansions for huts. The mission: to experience how ‘the other side’ lives. This experience formed the crux of the storyline for UTV Bindaas’ ongoing reality TV show, The Big Switch.

Now, taking this idea a bit further, the same team has adopted a slum at Juhi Nagar, in Mumbai for a year. Called the Bindaas Big Switch Connect, the initiative is a collaboration between Bindaas, the BMC and United Way of Mumbai, an NGO dedicated to civic issues in the city. The focus is on tackling real issues, which affect the inhabitants of the slum, while partnering with them to create real and sustainable change.

Reaching out
“The idea behind this association was to put people in a wholly new environment. This enables us to meet people we wouldn’t have met otherwise,” says Zarina Mehta, CEO, UTV Bindaas. To achieve development, four big activities are planned in every quarter. First in this series, a cleanliness drive was held on December 15, wherein more than 200 local residents, college students, UTV employees, BMC officials, United Way members, participants of Big Switch, and TV actors participated.

Logistics involved
Details about the other three activities remain a mystery with both the channel and the participants unwilling to divulge anything except that United Way of Mumbai will handle the day-to-day working and logistics. “The initiative will create popular appeal, but it’s also a way to go beyond it,” says Sunit Mehra, chairman and founder member, United Way of Mumbai. “We hope this event will be the trigger which ensures that an increasing number of people come forward to adopt slums. If we all work together, a lot can be done for our fellow human beings,” says Sunny Sara, participant, The Big Switch.