Shampi Chakraborty Purkayastha 

On the evening of Dashami, the last day of the Durga Puja festival, the idol of the goddess floats away amid the beat of drums, the sound of flutes, and the waves. The Ganges ghats are filled with thousands of people exuding joy and emotions.

However, as soon as the festivities subside, a different war begins. On the banks of the Ganges, an army of anonymous people descends and begins one of the most arduous and painstaking work of cleaning of the mess left by the devotees. They are the real heroes who restore the River and its ghats to their beauty and serenity.

Lakhs of idols are immersed every year in the ghats of Kolkata, Howrah, Serampore, and Chandannagar. Flowers, structures, plaster, paint, polythene float down—all of them accumulate in the Ganga, creating a terrible layer of waste.

The Kolkata Municipality, Hooghly Zilla Parishad, Howrah Municipal Corporation, Burdwan Municipality and other district administrators launch special programs during this time. However, the main responsibility of cleaning the ghats after a massive festival rests on the shoulders of a group of workers, most of whom are from the marginalised classes.

As soon as night falls, these men and women set out for work—with bamboo sticks, nets, baskets, and towels in hand. Standing in the cold water for hours, they pull out the idol's frame, garlands, cloth, bamboo, and colorful pieces of clay one by one.

Sometimes they suffocate their noses with the smell of rotten flowers, sometimes they have to go into the water and drown in the mud. Yet no one complains.

Ramesh Saha, a worker at Mallickhat in Howrah, said, "This time of the year is the most difficult, but also the most joyful. When everyone goes home after the puja, we clean the Ganga. Many times, legs are cut, the body gets infected, but the work does not stop." Sushanta Das, a municipal worker involved in this work, said, "The first three to four days after immersion are the most difficult for us. The water becomes dirty, it smells. But we know that if we do not keep the Ganga clean, the next generation will be in danger."

Along with this, civic volunteers and members of the disaster response force, who are responsible for security, also fight a silent war. When someone falls in the crowd, is swept away in the water, or an accident occurs, they rush to save lives. But their stories also remain in the shadows.

The beauty of the Ganges ghats, clean water, safe immersion - the sacrifices of these workers and activists behind all this are priceless. None of them receives awards on stage, nor do they come into the limelight, but their sweat brings life back to the bosom of the Ganges.

No matter how much tradition carries the joy of immersion, the true face of the festival is understood from the day after. Those unknown heroes of the Ganga ghat are actually the real heroes of the city — without whom the Ganga would remain covered in waste after the puja, and the place of devotion would become a symbol of pollution.

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The great battle they waged on the side of the river or in the water bodies for three or four consecutive days after the immersion of the idols. They not only clean the environment, but also provide a healthy, clean, pollution-free environment for the next generation.