Monday Post

Few interesting items on this last Monday of Jun 2018.

A.Plastic Ban in Maharashtra- So the total ban on some plastic items started in Maharashtra from 23rd Jun 2018. Till last day no one was clear about the items which were going to be banned and what are the alternatives for them, and availability of the same. The problem is that there are so many items made from plastic which have become part of our daily life, and in lieu of those items if feasible and affordable alternative are not available then to overnight change your lifestyle becomes little difficult. Surprisingly there are few items which have been allowed for corporate but not for small retailers. Agreed that thin plastic bags and water bottles were the culprits for choking/clogging of drains, gutters and nallahs, which affected the smooth movement of drains to final point of disposal. I would like to elaborate on few of the salient points which are affecting day to day life of  people:

1. Plastic Carry Bags- The plastic bags used by Retailers  and Hawkers to hand over goods to buyers. The govt is saying use paper bags, but they   can not carry much weight, and paper bags are not going to be cheaper than plastic bags and secondly paper is eventually a product from tree wood, so to make paper bags we will be cutting more trees. One side we want to save the environment by banning the plastic bags, but on the other side the alternative suggested is also going to imbalance the environment.
2. Govt has allowed plastic milk pouches in which now a days milk is supplied(earlier it was in glass bottles, and govt asked all the milk producers and distributors to change over to plastic pouches), but a local Dairy wala can not sell milk in similar plastic bags. Same way corporate manufacturer of wafers, and other junk food items are allowed to use plastic packaging material , but a non branded similar food items can not be sold in plastic bags. There are many such items, where plastic packaging is permitted for branded products promoted by big corporate  but same is not allowed for non branded local products. This is going to affect the local manufacturer business, as in absence of  alternative affordable packaging material they will have to shut the shop or increase their prices considerably, which in the end will affect their sales.
3. Plastic Cutlery- There is total ban on plastic cutlery, which is going to affect the small eating houses and road side food vendors. Govt is saying  that use food grade cutlery which is edible also. No one is telling about the cost  and availability of the same. No road side vendor or small establishment is going to use SS cutlery in view of its cost and danger of losing the same.
4. Take away food from Hotel/Restaurants or Home Delivery of food items- The news is that most of the Restaurants and Hotels have stopped taking orders for home delivery or take away orders, and that specially of food which is having gravy. In Mumbai due to space crunch , most of the food establishments have chunk of their business from take away or home delivery orders. All these type of business have started suffering badly as they are losing their customers and as well their turn over. More over their are thousands of people in Mumbai who generally survive on take away and home delivery  foods.
5.  Now a days , there is rainy season in Mumbai and every one uses plastic bags or plastic sheets to cover their belongings when they are moving out, in order that they do not get wet. Even people use plastic bags to carry their wet umbrellas/raincoats, I still do not know what is the alternative for the same.The list is going to be endless, as there are so many plastic items which we use on daily basis and we do not see the proper feasible alternative for the same.

In the end my view is that, govt took a hasty decision on banning the plastic products without giving much thought  and doing proper survey. Instead of banning these products , if they would have put policy of plastic recycling in place long time back, the matter would not have reached this state. So in the end when govt found that all the drains/sewer pipes/nallahs etc are getting choked with Plastic bags and bottles, so these good for nothing politician took a decision to ban the plastic items, without realising  that plastic has been part of day to day life for last 5 decades, and after announcing the ban three months back, now they are de listing items from the ban under corporate pressure, as the corporate has bargaining power with govt where as small vendors do not have.

Govt did not do much to publicise the alternative products and they just held the exhibition last week to show the alternatives, and at the exhibition no one was there to tell the price of alternatives and availability of the same.

B.  Friend do you know that till late 60s and early 70s,  there were no marathon race for women athletes. It so happened that in 1967 a woman athlete named Kathrine Switzer who was a long distance runner, decided that she wants to run a full marathon race, but till that time marathon was all male affair. She entered the famous Boston marathon race and entered  her name as K Switzer, and the administrator thought she is a man. On the day of marathon the weather was windy and there was slight drizzle also, so at the start all the athletes have covered their head with some protective clothing. The race started and no body noticed her. She was running along with her coach and boy friend. After almost midway a press truck came which was also carrying officials, and one official noticed that a woman is also running in the race by noticing number paper pinned on her T shirt. He got down from the truck and tried to stop her from running and even grabbed her but she kept on running. Her boy friend saw the scene and freed her the grip of the official and her coach shouted run as fast you can and complete the race. She promised her coach that she will complete this race, otherwise no one will believe that a woman can also run a marathon race. She completed the race in 4 hrs 20 mins.  She officially became first woman to run the marathon race. It took more than 5 years officially for a marathon for women to be recognised,  after that Kathrine become woman athlete activist who campaign to include women marathon in Olympics. Now women marathon is an Olympic event and it is included in World Athletic Championship and all other major athletic events. The race which Kathrine could complete in 4 hrs 20 mins is now raced generally by champions in below 2 hrs 30 mins time and the world record is 2 hrs 10 mins. So from 4 hrs 20 mins to 2 hrs 30 mins is  a progress what women marathon runners have made, in almost 50 years.. Hats off to them.

Waiting for your feed backs/ comments/views.