Let’s discuss Malhar Kalambe, a young social worker in our country. He is the originator of “Beach Please” and has won numerous honors.
When Malhar Kalambe returned to Mumbai after a trip to Bali in 2017, the deplorable state of the city’s beaches hit him square in the face; and unlike most of us, who only let out a sigh of disappointment at our country’s state of affairs before moving on with our lives, Malhar felt responsible for the mess and decided to clean it up.
Starting at Dadar beach, where he grew up, he gathered a group of friends and together they picked up the trash and plastic waste left by tourists along the coast. This established the groundwork for Beach Please, a clean-up campaign to rid our waterways of garbage. Thousands of volunteers soon joined Malhar Kalambe, most of whom were college students who were passionate about the cause.
Malhar realized that the cause of Dadar’s garbage was the Mithi river, also known as the Mahim river, which was filled with household and industrial waste after spending many weekends cleaning up the beach, which yielded some significant results. As a result, the cleanup drive’s second phase began, to collect debris and plastic waste from the Mahim river.
The only government assistance Malhar receives is in the form of excavators and vehicles to collect trash from the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai.
Malhar pays for all of the additional supplies needed for the job, such as gloves, masks, cleaning tools, and other items. Despite suffering financial difficulties during the campaign, the young environmentalist never considered abandoning the idea. The Beach Please effort has so far been able to remove almost 1000 tonnes of trash from the beaches.
The 21-year-old was also recently honored by the United Nations India with the Volunteer For Change award, which honors young people who try to improve their communities’ lives. The teenage activist isn’t content with simply cleaning the beaches. His larger goal is to clean up the seas and continue his environmental activities.
