12 Kolkata: Tea sellers, muri and snack vendors, sweepers and barbers—those who live and make a living on the banks of the Hooghly—have been named ‘River Ambassadors', entrusted with the job to conserve the riverfront and make the ghats attractive tourist spots, which in turn, will boost their commerce. The first phase of the project will see around 100 River Ambassadors being trained through structured education programmes on history, sustainability and safety.
Kiran Saha, Abhimanyu Mondal, Sankar Majumdar, Gokul Mondal, Ranjit Das, Pradip Das, Balleshwar Yadav, Niranjan Kumar, Ram Kumar Thakur, Jogendra Kumar, Dinesh Mahato and Manish Mallick were among those who were made the "guardians" of the ghats after they attended the third session of a five-part training programme. The three-year-long initiative seeks to create cleaner, safer and more welcoming riverbanks, boosting tourism and livelihood of those who depend on the ghats for earnings. The project, in collaboration with Living Waters Museum and Sea Explorers' Institute, is looking at environment stewardship and community empowerment.
"People living and working along the river are the biggest stakeholders in preserving and revitalising riverfronts. As a pilot run, we have selected 13 such people at Champatala Ghat. If it succeeds, we will extend the programme to all ghats from Ahiritola to Mayer Ghat," said Laily Thomson, founder of Kult X, dedicated to revitalise Kolkata's riverfront. Launched this month, the first phase trained tea sellers, ghat cleaners and barbers in waste management, sustainability and disaster preparedness. To ensure they did not miss out on earning, Kult X ensured a stipend of Rs 100 per hour of training, which included maintaining cleanliness, enforcing hygiene standards and discouraging littering of the Hooghly. The participants have been taught about the history and geography of the ghats so that they can share the stories with visitors. "We want some of the people to become storytellers. We hope it helps them interact more effectively with visitors and boosts their trade," said Sukit Sen, Kolkata chapter lead, Living Waters Museum.
Sea Explorers' Institute will focus on life-saving techniques. "Many of them are natural swimmers, and they will be trained in life-saving skills," said Nilendra Sarkar from Sea Explorers' Institute.
The new River Ambassadors were seen bringing in changes at Champatala Ghat, such as placing waste collection buckets near tea stalls—a suggestion by tea-seller trainees. Inadequate lighting at the ghats has been flagged as a concern, prompting a request to SPM Port Trust and Calcutta Illuminations Project.
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