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​Sumaira Abdulali fights to lower noise levels in Mumbai, India’s capital of noise
By Rama Lakshmi October 3, 2013 
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Bright colors and loud sounds at India's Ganesh festival
Mumbai, India is home to the annual 10-day Ganesh festival, which is arguably one of the loudest religious ceremonies in the country. (The Washington Post)On a recent afternoon, tens of thousands of Hindu devotees beat drums, clanged cymbals and chanted as they toted idols of the elephant-headed god Ganesh through the streets. Behind them trudged a slight but determined woman lugging an orange-and-gray gadget.
It was the Minister of Noise. 
“This is too loud,” complained Sumaira Abdulali, reading from the gadget — a noise meter — and shaking her head. The racket had registered 123 decibels. India’s noise rules permit a maximum of 55 decibels. “This can cause serious damage to health if you are exposed to it all day.”
Abdulali, 52, an activist, has waged a decade-long campaign against noise in a country defined by it — religious music blares, construction workers pound day and night, and drivers blow horns constantly. Last year, the German carmaker Audi introduced cars with extra-loud hornsmade especially for the Indian market. 
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Heavy traffic is one of the highest causes of noise pollution in Mumbai, as seen here outside Bandra train station. (Photo by Karen Dias/For The Washington Post) See and hear more of the sounds of India.
Now, after years as a lonely crusader, Abdulali has finally begun to gain traction. Neighborhood groups, police and even the city authorities have started to join forces with her. Their interest reflects the rise of a more developed, ever noisier India and an aspiring middle class that is demanding some peace and quiet. 
While wealthier Indians are sponsoring increasingly louder religious events, “more and more of us also want a city with quieter neighborhoods, a higher quality of life, and where laws are followed,” said Anandini Thakoor, 83, a Mumbai resident.
Abdulali was inspired to become a noise crusader because of her uncle, who was doing policy research in Mumbai on noise pollution. She was a full-time mother when she began volunteering with him in 2002. He died shortly after, and Abdulali took up his mantle. 
“Noise is not about religion or celebration. It is a serious health issue, and people in this city need to recognize they are already in the red,” Abdulali said. 

Local musicians play the drums on a street in the district of Thane, on the outskirts of Mumbai during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. (Karen Dias/For The Washington Post)

Her uncle’s research helped lead the government to pass rules in 2000 limiting noise. But the measures are rarely enforced. Abdulali realized the urgency of the issue when she was flooded with calls from Mumbai’s residents after her phone number was printed in a newspaper article about her work. “My phone number became the noise hot line,” she said. 
Abdulali has waged a David-vs.-Goliath battle in India’s noisiest city, taking on powerful violators such as temples, mosques, cultural festivals, political parties and wedding crowds. In 2006, she created the Awaaz Foundation to support the effort.
When Abdulali launched her campaign, she said, she encountered widespread opposition. She has been called a party-buster, anti-Hindu and the Minister of Noise.
“The police said there will be riotous opposition if they stopped noise at religious festivals and places of worship,” Abdulali recalled. “Some reminded me that there are more urgent problems like poverty and malnutrition. Others said that the increasing city noise was a sign of development and growth and the clock cannot be turned back. I was accused of destroying Mumbai’s cultural fabric.”
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Musicians play the drums as part of an immersion procession during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Worli Naka, Mumbai. (Karen Dias/For The Washington Post) See and hear more of the sounds of India.


But she has won several public-interest court cases against noise violators, and an increasing number of Indian officials have come to agree with her. 
Abdulali’s campaign comes at a time of intensifying contrasts in India. 
“These noisy festivals are getting louder every year, and it is because people want to show off their new wealth by saying they can now afford to buy large, ornate idols, hire a DJ, loudspeakers, drummers, mount screens and invite celebrities,” Thakoor said.
And yet, there is also a desire for safer, quieter neighborhoods. Thakoor complained to the police last week about the nonstop noise outside the hospital in which her 84-year-old husband was recovering from surgery. 
Defying the oddsAbdulali has taken her fight to the well-known Shivaji Park, which is in a residential area and is known for hosting large political meetings. She has squatted in the park recording noise levels at rallies for three years even as the politicians on stage mocked her as “that noise lady sitting there.”
Sumaira Abdulali measures noise using a sound meter on the final day of the festival. (Karen Dias/For The Washington Post)

Abdulali’s critics say that with 12 million people packed into Mumbai and 1.8 million vehicles jamming the streets, noise is inevitable. 
“In a congested city like Mumbai, it is impractical to insist on low noise levels,” said Anil Parab, a member of the state legislative council from the Shiv Sena party. “Where will poor people go to hear their politicians? If everybody goes to court against noise from festivals, from public meetings, weddings, from traffic, then Mumbai will come to a stop.”
Even the richest man in India has not escaped Abdulali’s crusade. Billionaire businessman Mukesh Ambani built a 27-floor, $2 billion home in Mumbai that features three rooftop helipads. But Abdulali and residents in Ambani’s neighborhood opposed the helipads because of the noise the choppers would generate. After some court and state government hearings, at which Abdulali testified, authorities refused him permission to use the helipads.
During Abdulali’s first high-profile conference on traffic noise, in 2006, the Mumbai traffic commissioner called the issue “a waste of time,” she recalled.
But some years ago, in part because of Abdulali’s lobbying efforts, the city’s traffic department urged drivers to observe a “no honking day” — a tall order in a country where beeping is an integral part of driving etiquette.
Not everyone obeyed, but residents at least got a taste of a quieter city, one volunteer said.
A truck with a 'BLOW OK HORN' sign passes by on a street in Dadar, Mumbai. (Karen Dias/For The Washington Post)
Heavy traffic is a common sight outside Bandra train station in Mumbai. (Karen Dias/For The Washington Post)

A ‘noise map’Abdulali asked Mumbai residents in August to download a free app called “Noise Watch” to their smartphones and upload their noise readings. In just two weeks, 261 residents contributed to a “citizens’ noise map” dividing Mumbai into green, orange and several very bad red zones. 
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Sign up Inspired by their efforts, the city said last month that it will conduct a scientific study to develop a noise map of the city.
“We hope that when people are faced with a scientifically developed noise map and hard data, people of this city will be forced to think about their behavior,” said U.P.S. Madan, commissioner of the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority.
Abdulali’s impact was visible at the recent religious festival to honor the birthday of Lord Ganesh, in which huge crowds carried idols to be immersed into the Arabian Sea. 
Abdulali was not the only one with a noise meter this time. Two police officers were standing not far from the beach, measuring noise levels on their devices as the festival built to its ear-splitting midnight climax.
“This is the first time we are recording noise,” police constable Madhukar Sarpad said. “Nobody paid attention to such things before. Our city is changing.” 

A noisy situation in India
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Traffic, festivals and other events can create deafening levels of noise in India’s cities, which is why a growing number of people are wanting stricter limits enacted.

Rama Lakshmi has been with The Post's India bureau since 1990. She is a staff writer and India social media editor for Post World.
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Home (/) » News (/news) » India (/india) » Mumbai (/mumbai)
Noise activist’s secular stand stumps Shiv Sena
Friday, 22 October 2010 - 12:57am IST | Place: Mumbai | Agency: dna Manoj R Nair (/authors/manoj-r-nair)
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Stung by the police case registered against it for violating noise pollution rules during its October 17 Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park, the Shiv Sena accused anti-noise campaigners of ignoring loud azaans or call to prayers from the city’s mosques.
Stung by the police case registered against it for violating noise pollution (/topic/noise-pollution) rules during its October 17 Dussehra rally at Shivaji Park, the Shiv Sena (/topic/shiv-sena) accused anti-noise campaigners of ignoring loud azaans or call to prayers from the city’s mosques.
The Sena had been given permission to hold the rally on the condition that it will follow the provisions of the Noise Pollution Rules. Sumaira Abdulali of Awaaz Foundation (/topic/awaaz-foundation) measured noise levels at the rally and found that there was a deliberate violation of rules. While the laws permit sound levels of up to 50 dB, the average level of noise at the rally was between 75 and 80 dB, often peaking at 93dB.
Abdulali’s recordings have been included in the complaint filed at the Shivaji Park (/topic/shivaji-park) police station filed by DCP Zone V, Aswati Dorje under the Environment Protection Act and the Bombay Police Act.
The crime is punishable by a fine of up to Rs1 lakh and a jail term of up to five years for organisers of the function, along with the senior party leaders whose speeches crossed permitted levels.
In an editorial in its Wednesday edition, Sena mouthpiece Saamna asked Abdulali why she had not filed complaints against mosques that use loudspeakers. It pointed out that loudspeakers attached to mosques in Bhendi Bazaar (/topic/bhendi-bazaar) and Behrampada are disturbing sleep and children’s studies.
But Abdulali, who has been relentlessly campaigning to create awareness about the health hazards of noise pollution, has not let religion come in her way. As she says, noise is secular by nature and harms people of every community, including Hindus living in Shivaji Park and Muslims in Bhendi Bazaar, leaving them vulnerable to its ill effects.
“The Sena has at last supported my request for banning loudspeakers atop mosques. It took some provocation to reach this point, since as the opposition party, they did nothing to ensure implementation of an affidavit filed by the government over a year ago that all religious places would be declared silence zones — but hope has dawned once more. I do hope the endangered tiger will stop roaring and get down to some action soon,” she said in a letter replying to Sena’s accusations.
She goes on to add: “In 2004, I filed a notice of motion in my pending PIL that loudspeakers at religious places should be banned, supported with data from numerous such places. In 2005, Muslim clerics voluntarily gave up early morning azaans for a brief period when the Supreme Court passed it’s order restricting Ganpati to 10pm, but most resumed after the time was extended (at the request of the state government) up to 12 midnight.
“All communities continue to break the law with impunity, and as usual, the common man suffers so that political parties, for political and commercial gain, can continue to disturb their peace in the name of religious sentiments. When I took the matter to court again in 2009, the government filed an affidavit in the Bombay high court that it will notify religious places as silence zones. But nothing happened.”
 
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First Published: Fri, Aug 14 2009. 08 57 PM IST
Inspired by my great grandmother Sakina Lukmani: In spite of being a Muslim woman and not having much freedom, she participated in the freedom movement. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint 
Updated: Fri, Aug 14 2009. 08 57 PM IST
Sumaira Abdulali had been waiting her turn in court since morning and she could be there the rest of the day. It was 6 August, and the Bombay high court was supposed to decide on an appeal by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation for relaxing noise rules in the silence zones for the 10 days of Ganeshotsav. 

Inspired by my great grandmother Sakina Lukmani: In spite of being a Muslim woman and not having much freedom, she participated in the freedom movement. Abhijit Bhatlekar / Mint 
But she is used to waiting. In 2002, when Abdulali was working for Bombay Environmental Action Group (Beag), her team filed a public interest litigation on noise pollution in the high court. The first court order banning loudspeakers in silence zones was passed a year later. This time, the wait turned out to be two weeks long. 
The matter was adjourned and it’ll be another day in court for Abdulali and her lawyers. But Abdulali doesn’t mind. It’s part of her job. 
When I meet the 48-year-old lady at her residence in a leafy, charming bylane in Bandra, she’s just as composed as she was in court. As she describes her 10-year journey from a rookie NGO worker to battle-hardy activist, you realize that the mantle of “activist” doesn’t sit heavily on her shoulders. Soft-spoken and polite, Abdulali talks about her journey in a matter-of-fact way—the mundane paperwork, the long waits in court, the struggles with those in power and even a case of physical assault. 
In a country like India, where the issues that need attention are many more than the people addressing them, it surprised everyone that Abdulali chose to fight noise pollution. No heart-rending personal backstory made her choose this cause. “I was more inclined to go back to a job after my kids. But I did not need to work for money. There are other important things in life and if each of us with some extra time took up an issue, our country would change,” she says. 
Born and bred in Bandra, Abdulali helped her father with the family business till her marriage. A few years after her daughter’s birth in 1990, she found she had some free time and decided to work with her uncle Saad Ali, who was the chairman of Beag. Noise pollution was his pet cause, but he couldn’t make enough time for it, and Abdulali took it up. 
It was through her efforts that noise pollution started getting attention, at least in Maharashtra. Small white boards saying “Silence Zone” can now be found outside the high court, schools and hospitals. On 7 April last year, Mumbai observed a “No Honking Day”, thanks to Abdulali’s efforts. Fifty NGOs and citizen groups participated in the campaign along with the Mumbai traffic police. Around 7,000 motorists were fined that day by the police. 
After the court order in 2003, a newspaper published her number along with the news. She was inundated with calls. “People would cry on the phone with sad stories. There were sick people who couldn’t recover. A baby got convulsions because of loud festival noise,” she says. 
But the passage of the order, like many others in our country, did not mean implementation. There wasn’t even any real data. It took her three years to collect and organize the data on noise levels in the city. She went to around 100 sites in the nine days of Navratri to get readings. 
In 2006, she registered Awaaz Foundation as an NGO to work solely on the issue of noise pollution. As her two children grew up, she took up other environmental issues such as air pollution and illegal sand mining. In fact, in 2004, she says, she was assaulted at Kihim Beach in Alibaug by the son and employees of an MLA. They were allegedly trying to get away before the police arrived, but she blocked their way. “The sand mining still hasn’t stopped and it took me five years to finally get a hearing for it in the Alibaug court.” 
And that, for her, is the hardest part. “It’s frustrating when people (politicians) who should be supporting you oppose you. But having said that, I have got a lot of support also.” 
She already has her next battle lined up. The Maharashtra government has given the nod for helipads atop residential buildings. “Imagine the noise of a helicopter landing on that building,” she says, pointing at a building next to hers. “Why should we even be fighting this when it’s so obviously wrong?”
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First Published: Fri, Aug 14 2009. 08 57 PM IST
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