A flowing River of plastic waste and garbage in New Delhi: Is this the dream India started with?

True we have come a long way and achieved a lot, but when a large part of our population lives in such conditions while politicians and ministers live along the leafy tree‑lined avenues of Lutyens Delhi, how far have we really come? A flowing river of plastic waste and garbage in New Delhi raises the question: is this the dream India started with? Dystopian life in New Delhi is the same old story: untreated sewage and wastewater flow into a freshwater canal, plastic waste and garbage are dumped into the water, pigs and dogs feed on it, and humans try to eke out an existence next door. The walls barely hide the filth, flies, mosquitoes, heat, dust, arsenic, mercury and lead in our groundwater. Is this the promise that India 1947 was to work towards? Where are we heading? Urban renewal? City revival? Water‑body clean‑up? Whither Swacch Bharat? Garbage and filth in the mind, body, water, air and ground. What is left?