[nasional_list] [ppiindia] India's war against noise

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http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/GI30Df01.html
Sep 30, 2005 


India's war against noise
By Raja M

MUMBAI - Loudspeakers, vehicular horns, firecrackers and other noise pollutants 
have had an enduring affair with India - that is until the country's Supreme 
Court pulled the plug. 

No more loudspeakers and unnecessary honking after 10pm, the court ruled in a 
recent judgement to a public interest petition concerned about the health of 
millions fed up with late-night torture of the ear drums, particularly during 
festival times. 

The serious festival months start with India's three biggest: Ganesh 
Chathurthi, the festival of the much-beloved elephant-headed god Ganesha, was 
in September, while Navratri (Durga Pooja) is in October and Diwali in 
November. 

Both urban police and the Supreme Court held firm over the night deadline the 
past fortnight during the Ganesha festival, even in

 

Mumbai - the festival's epicenter - amid unprecedented pressure exerted by 
state governments concerned over the loss of business and political clout at 
the street level. The Gujarat and Maharahstra governments had little success 
after seeking an extension to midnight during the Ganesh festival. 

"No one shall beat a drum or tom-tom, or blow a trumpet or beat or sound any 
instrument, or use any sound amplifier at night [between 10pm and 6am] except 
in public emergencies," Chief Justice R C Lahoti ruled. He said the case raised 
"certain issues of far-reaching implications in day-to-day life of the people 
in India". 

The case had a tragic origin. The petition was filed by engineer Anil Mittal 
who approached the apex court after newspapers reported in January 1998 about a 
13-year-old girl who was raped but whose cries for help were drowned by blaring 
neighborhood loudspeakers. The raped girl later committed suicide by setting 
herself on fire. 

Even without such grave reasons, enforcing a 10pm deadline on loudspeakers 
might seem an innocuous and obvious ruling. Not so in India where noise 
pollution is a national disease - from the honking of impatient drivers and 
private functions made public with loudspeakers screeching Bollywood film hits 
to festival times such as in winter when the noise soars to manic proportions. 

A massive industry loses out if festival revelry is toned down. Affected are 
sound equipment suppliers, Navratri parties and dances (called garbas or 
dandiyaa raas), organizers, entertainers and TV and movie stars who stand to 
lose out on appearance money, and related businesses such as fashion retailers. 
Revellers are known to spend more than US$900 on clothes and accessories, a sum 
greater than the average monthly income of an upper middle-class family. 
Festival organizers gloomily grumble that the Supreme Court ruling will bring 
down sales by 35%. 

The 10pm loudspeaker deadline has shattered garba organizers. In a city such as 
Mumbai with long commuting distances, 10pm is usually family suppertime. 
Partying comes later. In effect, the new deadline means the party is over 
before one can get to it. Peeved organizers want to abandon festivities, saying 
they have no choice. 

"Most of the organizers have called off shows this year," Nikhill Shah of 
Beaters Music Group told Asia Times Online. "We have been organizing garbas for 
25 years in Mumbai, and this year we have moved to Esselworld [Mumbai's biggest 
amusement park], which as an entertainment zone can have loudspeakers up to 
12:30am." 

Ingenuity can find alternatives in indefatigable Mumbai. The Ganesh Naidu Club 
in suburban Borivili wants to beat the loudspeaker deadline by fitting dancers 
with wireless headphones (each costing more than $15) connected to a 
transmitter. The club is awaiting police permission. 

In the western Indian state of Gujarat, where the Dandiya Raas is most 
fervently celebrated, the biggest garba, the Maa-Arkee in Baroda city, has 
reportedly called off festivities this year. Many others in Ahmedabad are 
reportedly planning likewise. One garba organizer said more than 25,000 people 
visit their garbas, with organizing expenditures exceeding $100,000 for the 
entire festival. In Mumbai, the bigger garbas sell season tickets for more than 
$100. "The big garbas have 5,000 patrons each night and 15,000 during 
weekends," Nikhill Shah said. 

This is how a garba usually goes: with public space, road or stadium as a hired 
or encroached-upon party venue, the nine-day Navratri (meaning nine nights) has 
every night start out with a pooja, or prayer with rituals; then prasad (sacred 
offerings) are distributed to devotees. After that, the party begins. Hired 
bands and singers belt out raucous music to a typical dandiya beat. Male and 
female revellers, dressed in their glittering best, sashay in a large circle, 
each carrying two small wooden sticks (called dandiyas), which they clash 
together as they dance moving along the circle. 

The clickety-clack of the sticks, the color, the mood, the dance and even the 
music would be fine, if not for the loudspeakers, which don't give you the 
chance to call it a night. Chances of sleep are remote until the revelry ends, 
usually after 1am. Most people in crowded cities such as Mumbai, particularly 
students, the elderly, the ailing or those inclined to quiet and early nights, 
have little choice other than dreaming of soundproof rooms. Earplugs don't shut 
out the noise, as this correspondent can wearily testify. 

The noise gets worse during Diwali, the festival of light that is usually 
louder. "During Diwali a number of Mumbaikars come to Worli Seaface and burn 
[fire]crackers leaving behind a sea of smoke," a chartered accountant 
celebrating the Indian Supreme Court ruling on loud speakers wrote online. "My 
mother has bronchitis so I shut all the windows scared that the smoke might 
result in an attack." He added that burning of firecrackers at such a large 
scale is a waste of national resources. "Even if 50% of the money spent on 
crackers were used to start schools and hospitals, I am sure that we would have 
at least 3,000 more schools every year." 

He and the rest of the long-suffering populace have reason to celebrate. It is 
the first time the country's apex court has stepped in so strongly to muffle 
probably one of the noisiest countries in the world. India gets to sleep easier 
this winter. 

More pressing reasons other than noise persist for the noise clampdown, as the 
Supreme Court observed, quoting environmental and medical studies with a long 
list of health hazards from sound pollution: neuropsychological disturbances, 
cardiac and digestive disorders, fatigue, stress and insomnia. 

"The noise polluters have no regard for the inconvenience and discomfort of the 
people in the vicinity," the court ruled. "Nobody can claim that he has a right 
to make his voice trespass into the ears or mind of others. Nobody can indulge 
in aural aggression." 

Those are words that may be music to the ears of millions of long-suffering 
Indians. 

(Copyright 2005 Asia Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us 
for information on sales, syndication and republishing.) 

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



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