The Ugly Indian

On November 15th 2010, The Ugly Indian was born as a community facebook page to organize volunteers to clean the streets of Bengaluru.[4] The group consisted of Bangaloreans deeply concerned about the conditions of civic spaces and attitudes of people towards it.[4] The Ugly Indian started their mission by first observing and learning about conditions on the ground attempting to “understand why we [Bengalureans] have such low civic standards and tolerate incredible amounts of filth on the streets.”[4] From the start, The Ugly Indian has eschewed publicity and has wished to remain anonymous.[5] Members consisted of a volunteer force of self-motivated working professionals looking to go out to make a difference in their community.[6] According to a 2011 Deccan Herald interview, one volunteer stated, “There has been no attempt to recruit volunteers or seek publicity. This is just a few people who decided to go and 'do' things rather than talk about them. And others who saw them / heard about them are doing the same. It's as simple as that.” [5]

The Ugly Indian project gained momentum after conducting several small experiments based on their observations to understand what tactics and techniques work and do not work at keeping public spaces clean.[4] Their motto and work philosophy is kaam chalu mooh bandh (Stop Talking, Start Doing).[7]

Their earliest efforts in Bengaluru started on MG Road and Church Street, a bustling commercial and nightlife area in the heart of Bengaluru's Central Business District. [6] Church Street is a major tourist attraction and a centerpiece of ‘Brand Bangalore’, the street suffered from a wide variety of filth issues including large trash piles, public urination points, paan stains, broken footpaths and safety issues.[4][8] The group kicked off their drive to clean the city by removing open dumping, scrubbing paan stains, fixing footpaths and painting previously dirty surfaces up and down the street.[5] The improvements completed by The Ugly Indian on Church Street were a manifestation of the knowledge gained from observing and experimenting and showed evidence that their approach did indeed work; traders on the street began better maintaining their street and citizens delighted in the new “not-so-ugly” Church Street.[4]

Part of these early initiatives included The Ugly Indian's TereBin program that began in mid 2011.[9] This program set out to install individual or business sponsored dustbins at various points along Church Street, MG Road and Brigade Road.[9] The dustbins were designed to be attractive, easy to use and help reduce littering in these areas. Aside from keeping public spaces clean, the program was also designed to help waste pickers manage litter with proper equipment, create good jobs and bring about further attitude changes of the public.[10] According to one volunteer, “The idea is to give dignity to the process of garbage clearance - only when we, as a society, respect our sanitation workers, will there be a sustainable change.”[10]

On November 12 2011, The Ugly Indian celebrated its first anniversary by throwing a unique challenge called the ‘Ugly Indian Treasure Hunt’. [11][12] Citizens and media persons were invited to ‘find trash’ over a 3 kilometer area, and volunteers marched silently along with them symbolically carrying spades, brooms, paint and brushes in case any ugly spots were found by anyone’.[11][12] None were found, and the streets were declared ‘clean’. This was the first of many such ‘Trashure Hunts’ organized by The Ugly Indian – a unique way to allow for public inspection of clean streets. With their birthday rally, volunteers showcased what they had accomplished in the past year by placing pictures at spot-fixed areas to show people how they looked before intervention.[12]

The activities being conducted by volunteers over the last year on and around Church Street had left many in Bangalore wondering just who were behind this “Silent Revolution” taking place on the streets of the city.[12] When the New York-based magazine “Time Out” launched its Bangalore edition, it asked this question on its cover – The Ugly Indian: ‘Who the Hell are They?’

Beginning in 2012, The Ugly Indian began to expand its area of influence, take on a wider variety of projects and partner with more organizations. In September 2012, with support from Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited (BMRCL), the Ugly Indian set their sights on the Namma Metro pillars below the Trinity Station.[13] U A Vasanth Rao, general manager (finance) of BMRCL, sent out workers of BMRCL to participate in the clean-up activity alongside volunteers.[13] 150 participants in total washed paan stains from the pillars, cleaned up the mess and added designs to the pillars to discourage further spitting.[13]

In May 2013, The Ugly Indian, with the help of BESCOM officials, painted 100 BESCOM electrical boxes in 29 days.[14] BESCOM Managing Director, P Manivannan was quoted in The New Indian Express saying, “It is a path-breaking achievement by them. They have shown the people how to go beyond just talking about things. We appreciate the group coming forward [to do this work].”[14]

In late 2013, The Ugly Indian ran the Ugly Indian Beauty Contest where members of the public voted to choose the best candidate for an intervention and beautification. What followed was one of its largest and longest projects yet near the Koramangala Passport Office where a large cluster of garbage nicknamed ‘The Mother of All Blackspots’ were removed and the space was rehabilitated. [15] The spot was chosen by the public. Waste was removed, new footpaths were installed, walls painted trees were painted and nearly 600 ft of public space was reclaimed.[15] A wide variety of people came out to help including: BBMP garbage staffers, pourakarmikas, cleaning maids, shopkeepers, paanwallas, office staff, staff from BESCOM, BSNL & BWSSB and volunteer citizens.[15]

Since its creation, the group has inspired several other volunteer organizations in Bangalore and beyond. By 2014, there were at least five known Bangalore-based volunteer organizations formed to further The Ugly Indian's mission: Whitefield Rising, Banaswadi Rising, Koramangala Rising, Indiranagar Rising, Jayanagar Rising.[16] Additionally, their influence was spreading around India with ‘spot fixing’ activities being recorded in places like Mysore, Coimbatore, Chennai, Mumbai and the National Capital region.[17]

At Tedx Bangalore 2014, an anonymous volunteer of The Ugly Indian presented the group's vision for Bangalore's public spaces and showcased their work.[18] Shortly after, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted about The Ugly Indian's Tedx presentation bringing more awareness to the group.[19] Since posted on Youtube, the video has been viewed 4.7 million times.[20] As the group's popularity grew, politicians, government officials and corporations began to take greater notice of the activities of The Ugly Indian. In mid 2014, Bengaluru's Mayor BS Sathyanarayana joined citizen volunteers to help with a ‘spotfix’ to reclaim an underground pedestrian subway at KR Circle and again at a ‘spotfix’ at Thyagarajanagar in Basavanagudi ward.[21] Interactions with the Mayor BS Sathyanarayana resulted in The Ugly Indians first official collaborations with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), a relationship that continues today.[22] In 2015, The Ugly Indian was named in US based business magazine Fast Company's list of The World's Top 10 Most Innovative Companies of 2015 in India.[23]

In 2015, The Ugly Indian in partnership with Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) launched their ‘Under the Flyover’ (UFO) project to reclaim areas under flyovers.[24] The ambitious project fixed more than 25 flyovers across the city by hauling out trash, removing posters and painting vibrant geometric patterns on the pillars of the flyovers.[25]

By 2018, The Ugly Indian had grown from a ‘Silent Revolution’ involving just a few volunteers to a mature impact organization with thousands of ‘spotfixes’ completed, government and corporate partnerships and an increasing reach across the ever growing City of Bangalore. In early 2018, BBMP launched the Clean Bengaluru Campaign and The Ugly Indian partnered on several high visibility projects.[26] In late 2018, The Ugly Indian helped BBMP identify garbage blackspots in the city to participate in the ‘blackspot challenge’ that eradicated 200 blackspots October 1 - November 20, 2018.[27]

In 2019, The Ugly Indian teamed up with BBMP for a new initiative called ‘Adopt a Street’ inviting citizens and corporations to maintain visual cleanliness of city streets.[28] The program consisted of three categories: street cleaning, street greening and street walkability and sought to improve conditions of streets in all of these categories.[29] The program was designed to come at no cost to BBMP and required adopting organizations to support the costs of improvement from their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Program and relying on volunteers to conduct the work.[29]

While Covid-19 raged across India and the world, The Ugly Indian did their part to help fight the spread of the virus. The Ugly Indian and BBMP teamed up to create wall paintings and install custom-designed posters creating awareness about Covid-19 helplines in over 300 locations in Bengaluru.[30] Additionally, The Ugly Indian distributed over 500,000 free reusable cloth masks to residents in slums around the city with the ‘Lets Mask India’ campaign.[31] In 2021 When social distancing and Covid-19 safety at Primary Health Centers (PHCs) became a concern, The Ugly Indian stepped in with its unique SafeVAX initiative to improve safety at Vax Centres by offering social distancing kits and safety equipment to be distributed to PHCs to help keep patients distances and lower risk of spreading the virus.[32]

As the Covid-19 pandemic receded, The Ugly Indian wasted little time getting back to work on ever more ambitious projects to address cleanliness in public spaces. 2022 saw the introduction of The Ugly Indian's CleanStreet500KMChallenge where the group mapped 500-km of city roads and keep tabs on their cleanliness.[33] The 500-kms of road were broken down into 50 loops of 10 km each from different parts of the city to ensure a more even distribution.[33] The information generated from the 500-km challenge will be presented to the public for review.[33] As part of this initiative, Mahadevapura, one of the 8 zones of BBMP took up the challenge and launched the CleanStreet75KMChallenge Mahadevapura on Feb 24, 2022. This initiative was launched by the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai, along with Aravind Limbavali, the MLA of Mahadevapura. [34]

Project UFO was started by TUI in Bangalore, India to clean and reclaim spaces under flyovers.[35] This project is citizen led and has transformed 30 flyovers since 2015. [36] The UFO project has already spread to New Delhi, Pune and Chennai where new groups have taken up the responsibility of cleaning and beautifying these unmaintained spaces.[37][35][38][39]

Project UFO was created in order to combat unwanted posters, open urination, garbage dumping and illegal parking in spaces underneath flyovers.[37] There is an observation called ‘The Broken Window theory’ which states that if there is a broken window on a street, windows on that same street are more likely to be broken. This effect can be caused by vandals who assume that since one window is broken, it is acceptable for more windows to be broken. It may also be caused by everyday people who see a broken window and think that they do not have a responsibility to repair their own window. Activities such as garbage dumping and graffiti spread in the same way that broken windows spread.[40] The basis of Project UFO is to reclaim public spaces under flyovers by cleaning and beautifying them, thus reducing the chance that people will continue to dump waste and place unwanted posters in these areas.[41]

The first attempt at reclaiming a flyover was by anonymous citizens in early 2015 and was completed at Richmond Circle flyover, Bangalore.[42][36] According to one of the volunteers who was interviewed by 'The Hindu', the first attempt at rejuvenating the area under Richmond Circle flyover was a failure.[42] The Ugly Indian refined their designs and tactics to dissuade people from defacing the pillars of the flyover and applied their new design pattern on Jayadeva Flyover in October 2015.[37] In essence, these new designs were to act as poster repellent. Seizing upon their initial success, they replicated the work across 25 flyovers and exhibited the work done under Hebbal Flyover on 10 January 2016.[43]

Although initially the funding was purely from citizens, emboldened by the success stories of Project UFO, private companies started taking active part by donating corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds to the cause.[44][45][46] Political officials such as ex-Mayor K. S. Satyanarayana have participated in similar events and spot fixes under the flag of TUI.[47]

The primary method that the UFO project utilizes to reclaim public spaces is to attempt ‘spot fixes’.[37] The design and paint color depicted in the finished pillar below are intended to prevent people from continuing to deface the flyover pillars, place posters and dump trash.[41] Volunteers are recruited from companies donating CSR funds and from the general public via social media.[45][46] [44] To date nearly 4000 volunteers have spent their time working with TUI on their UFO project and have helped to reclaim over 30 flyovers.[36] The cycle of fixing public spaces can be broken into four major sections.

The cause of neglect in public spaces can center around the fact that many of these spaces do not have a purpose.[42] Areas under flyovers have typically been left unchanged in Bangalore after construction activities and with no purpose these UFO areas tend to fall into misuse.[42] Removal of waste, posters and other discarded articles are done by volunteers to erase signs of neglect so that the space can be transformed into a space for the community.[41] The dry waste from the flyovers is removed and sent to landfills in designated areas but the wet waste is redirected and is sent to processing plants across the city.[48]

Volunteers are provided with aprons and gloves and work to clean the area and paint the pillars with new, vibrant colors as a way to deter further misuse of the space.[37] The design is uniform to ensure that posters are not placed in dead spaces; the uniform design is also not distracting to drivers.[37] The iconic triangular design on a red, terracotta background was selected after several different designs were tried.[41] The red background was selected to brighten the area at night and cover any staining that was present on the pillars before they were painted.[41] The triangular pattern itself was intended to be easy to paint by novices while being visually engaging enough to drown out any posters that would be placed at eye level.[41] All of the colors were chosen so that they would be secular and non-partisan to ensure that the message of beautification does not have any political meaning.[41]

Cleaning and beautifying spaces under flyovers is the first step, but the most important act is to create an area that people are adverse to dumping garbage in and misusing. By giving the space a function, like installing benches or plants, it prevents people from disposing of garbage in that area.[49] Under the Domlur flyover, a skating rink has been created as a way to engage the community and to ensure that the space remains clean and well used.[50]

The primary purpose of the beautification and cleaning is to reclaim a public space by using visual cues to dissuade people from littering or dumping.[41] This has caused a drop in the number of posters placed by 95% at flyovers that have been reclaimed under the UFO project.[41]

One of the keystones to creating a space that is part of the community is to ensure that it is well maintained. This creates a culture around the area to ensure that the space stays clean and well used. Companies such as Embassy group under their CSR program have donated funds for TUI to create a maintenance team that works to keep the areas that they have worked on clean after the initial project.[46]

Project UFO has not been without objections to its mission. One of the most vocal opponents of the project is Assa Doron who stated that Project UFO and other movements like it, "[are] a form of aesthetic purification that addresses the dirt seen and smelt, but which has little regard for the wider structures of inequality underpinning public hygiene and waste-picking practices, let alone the question of waste generation, which is the product of capitalist consumption and production."[51] He goes on to say that TUI is forcing the ideals of the middle class on society as a whole and are attempting to white wash a problem that has deeper, systemic roots.[51] Given that Project UFO is based on a ‘spot-fix’ methodology, where volunteers come in, clean the space, then leave, Doron laments that this method leaves no way for critics to voice their concerns and ultimately leads to a ‘strong man’ mentality where only the voice of TUI is heard.[51]

People who frequent the areas around the flyovers have some concerns as well; especially those that are the most impacted by the changes to the UFO areas. They believe that the project to reclaim spaces under flyovers has an important mission, but that the areas that have been ‘spot-fixed’ will not remain that way.[52] These groups believe that spaces that were once dirty and misused will simply return to their previous state after several months.

The Ugly Indian conducted a comprehensive survey on their UFO Project which audited nearly 2200 pillars (metro & flyover) on 17 April 2019.[36] The survey was conducted on this date because it was the day prior to Lok Sabha Elections (General Elections) in Bangalore; elections typically produce a slew of new posters hung on every vertical surface which would allow TUI to see if their poster deterrent designs for flyover pillars were effective.[36][53] Out of the 950 flyover pillars, only 4% were found defaced or marked with posters.[36]

Emulating Project UFO BBMP has launched its own "Adopt-a-Flyover’’ initiative as part of the Clean Bangalore Campaign in 2018.[54] Companies have the ability to adopt, maintain and beautify flyovers in and around Bangalore through this initiative.[54] The first adopted flyover was Veeranapalya on the Outer Ring Road which was funded by L&T Technologies and designed by TUI.[54] BBMP hopes that this will be the first of many adoptions in Bangalore which will help to keep the city clean and well maintained.[54] Project UFO brought due attention to the abuse of public property and defacement of pillars.[55]

TereBins are dustbins provided by TUI for public use. TereBins weigh around 20–25 kilograms (44–55 lb) and are meant for paper cups, banana skins, cigarette packets and similar small litter. TUI provides tereBin service – which involves identifying ideal locations, installing the bins, setting up a daily clearing system and integrating with the local garbage clearance system and daily supervision. Terebins can be "adopted" (for a fee of INR 2,000).

The wonderloo is an open urinal that protects the privacy of the users. The loo is unmanned and free to use. As of 2014, some 10 urinals are in operation. TUI, in association with the local BBMP office, ensures that each wonderloo is cleaned twice a day.[56]