Socio- Economic dynamics of Kumbh Mela 2013: A Study

Project ReportSubmitted towards the partial fulfillment of requirements for the awardofMaster in Business Administration, 2012-14

Submitted byAyush Vaish (2012MB73) (Semester-II)

Under the Guidance Of Prof Peeush RanjanAgrawalDr. G.P. Sahu Dr. Shefali NandanMs. BhoomikaSchool of Management Studies MNNIT, Allahabad

ToSchool of Management StudiesMotilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, AllahabadApril, 2013

DECLARATIONI, the undersigned solemnly declare that the report of the project work entitled Socio- Economic dynamics of Kumbh Mela 2013: A Study is based on my own work carried out during the course of my study under the supervision of Prof Peeush Ranjan Agrawal, Dr. G.P. Sahu, Dr. Shefali Nandan and Ms. Bhoomika. I assert that the statements made and conclusions drawn are an outcome of the project work. I further declare that to the best of my knowledge and belief that the project report does not contain any part of any work which has been submitted for the award of any other degree/diploma/certificate in this institution or any other University.

Date:

Prof Peeush Ranjan Agrawal(Professor)

Dr. G.P. Sahu(Associate Professor)

Dr. Shefali Nandan(Guest Faculty)

Ms. Bhoomika(Guest Faculty)

SMS, MNNITAyush Vaish (2012MB73) (MBA 2ndSemester, 2013)

Table of ContentsSerial No.TopicPage Number

1.Acknowledgement1

2.Preface2

3.Chapter -1Introduction0. Elemental Meaning of Kumbh0. The Prayag Kumbh Mela0. Importance and Significance of Kumbh Mela0. History of Kumbh Mela0. Prayag Kumbh Mela 20134

4.Chapter- 2Literature Review2.1Introduction To Literature Review2.2 Basic Introduction Of Kumbh Mela2.3 Historical Aspect of Kumbh Mela2.4 Significance of Kumbh Mela2.5 Different Forms of Kumbh Mela2.6 Significance of Tirthraj Prayag2.7 Rituals of Kumbh2.8 Kalpvas2.9 Akhara2.10 Organization and Plan of Maha Kumbh Mela 2.11 Factors Considered Fro Estimation Of Pilgrim Resource/Infrastructure Planning2.12Other Services Offered At Maha Kumbh2.13 The World Of The Kumbh Mela : Inside The Largest Single Gathering Of Humanity2.14 Kumbh Mela Brings Economic Prosperity 2.15 Socio-Economic Impact Of Maha Kumbh On Local Economy 2.16 Management, Maha Kumbh Style2.17 Healthcare At The Kumbh Mela2.18 Kumbh Mela, A Sacred Geography2.19 The Construction Of The Kumbh Mela2.20 Researches In Kumbh Mela2.21 Researches At Kumbh Mela by the Researcher Of Harvard University2.22 Kumbh Mela: 80 Million Pilgrim March2.23 Business Worth Of Kumbh Mela 20132.24 Opportunities For Corporate Market in Kumbh Mela 20132.25 ASSOCHAM Analysis On Job Prospects in Maha Kumbh Mela 201312

5.Chapter -3Research Methodology3.1 Introduction3.2 Research Questions3.3 Objective Of Research3.4 Scope Of Research3.5 Field Of Study3.6 Research Process47

6.Chapter -4Analysis and Discussion4.1 Factor Analysis4.2 Reliability Analysis52

7.Chapter -5Conclusion and Suggestions69

8.References71

9Annexure-Questionnaires73

List of Tables

Serial No.DescriptionPage No.

11.1 Important Past and Future date of Kumbh Mela at their respective Venue5

22.1 Estimated Pilgrims During Kumbh Meha 2013 22

32.2 Comparison of services provided during Kumbh Mela23

42.3 Police services provided during Kumbh Mela23

52.4 Services provided by PWD during Kumbh Mela23

62.5 Services provided by Jal Nigam during Kumbh Mela24

72.6 Services provided by Electricity Board during Kumbh Mela24

8.2.7 Health and Sanitation services provided during Kumbh Mela 25

92.8 Food and Civil services provided during Kumbh Mela25

102.9 Roadways services provided during Kumbh Mela26

112.10 Railways services provided during Kumbh Mela 26

122.11 Camp Charges during Kumbh Mela27

132.12 Extra Bed during Kumbh Mela27

142.13 Transport Charges during Kumbh Mela28

15 2.14 Estimated Pilgrims during Kumbh Mela 201328

162.15 Job Opportunities in Kumbh Mela 201346

173.1 Likert Scale to check Satisfaction Level50

184.1 Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Measure53

194.2 Total Variance Matrix54

204.3 Rotated Component Matrix57

214.4 Rotated Component Matrix After Adjustment60

224.5 Administrative Services63

234.6 Information Technology64

244.7 Safety and Security66

254.8 Basic Amenities67

264.9 Product and Pricing68

List of AbbreviationsPWDPublic Works Departments

SPSSStatistical Package for Social Sciences

ASSOCHAMAssociated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India

APAAmerican Psychological Association

AcknowledgmentThis is our great privilege to acknowledge our sincere honor and solicitous gratitude to our guide Prof. Peeush Ranjan Agarwal, Head of School of Management Studies, Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology, Allahabad for his inspiring and excellent guidance, keen supervision and help in successful completion of this Minor Project.We also express our profound gratitude and thankfulness to Prof. Geetika, Dr. Tanuj Nandan, Dr. G.P.Sahu, Dr. Vibhuti Tripathi, Dr. Tripti Singh, Dr. Piyali Ghosh and Dr. Shefali Nandan for guiding and encouraging us during the completion of our Minor Project.We would also like to express our deep gratitude towards Mr Ashish Gupta, Mr. Shwetank Parihar, Ms. Swati Gupta, Ms. Bhoomika and Mr. Suman Gupta for their valuable guidance in using SPSS software and in preparation of our report.Ayush Vaish2012MB73

PrefaceKumbha Mela is "the world's most massive act of faith' the largest congregation of devotees atone place. It is believed that by bathing in the Ganges during Kumbh, one is freed from one's pastsins (karma), and thus becomes eligible for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. The literal meaning of Kumbh is a pitcher, but its elemental meaning is something else. The Kumbh Mela takes place in an approximately 4x8km area on the flood plain of the Yamuna and Ganga river and on defense land behind the old Fort at Allahabad (popularly known as parade grounds).The estimated worth of the Kumbh Mela 2013, was 15000 crore rupees, and expected number of visitors to be 10 crores (Source: The Economic Times). The main objective of the research was to study the social and economic dynamics of the Kumbh Mela 2013. The study was divided into two subgroups, i.e. demographics and institutions. The demographic division covers the study and analysis of the pilgrims who are residing in the Kumbh Mela premises as pilgrims for more than a week. The institution division covers all the economic and social aspects of different organizations in the Kumbh Mela.We developed a thorough and diverse questionnaire with contributions from every student of the batch and help and guidance from the faculty. It included various questions regarding all the aforementioned aspects, and some others. The first questionnaire on demographics consists of 26 questions. Similarly the questionnaire on institutions consists of 21 questions. They were either multiple choice types or were based on Likert scale.On 24th of February, 2013, whole batch was divided into 8 groups each comprising of 10 students each and we set out to the Kumbh Mela on various vehicles, each vehicle supervised by a faculty coordinator. Different sectors were pre-assigned to different groups, and we were dropped on respective sectors to conduct the survey. The survey was carried out by directly interviewing the pilgrim in different sectors of the Kumbh Mela. Questionnaires were filled up and the collected data was analyzed using different statistical techniques such as Frequency, Cross Tabulation and Factor Analysis with the aid of SPSS software, to find out various outcome of the study. The portion of the analysis we dealt with was related to study satisfaction level of pilgrims with facilities and arrangements. After the analysis we found that most of the pilgrims were satisfied with the governments arrangements for the Maha Kumbh such as basic facilities of lodging, bathing, drinking water, information and technology, safety and security, the edible product availability and the infrastructure. We also observed that pilgrims were quite dissatisfied with the way Mela officials dealt with the crowd management and bathing facilities but in spite of some of the odds, it was observed that the overall satisfaction level of the pilgrims were very much satisfactory.At last, several interpretations, conclusion and suggestions are being given after doing the complete study on the Kumbh Mela.

Chapter -1IntroductionKumbhmeans a pitcher andMelameansfairin Hindi. The pilgrimage is held for about one and a half months at each of these four places where it is believed in Hinduism that drops of nectar fell from the Kumbh carried by gods after the sea was churned. The festival is billed as the "worlds largest congregation of religious pilgrims. There is no scientific method of ascertaining the number of pilgrims, and the estimates of the number of pilgrims bathing on the most auspicious day may vary; approximately 80 million people attended on 14 February 2013.Mauni Amavasya traditionally attracted the largest crowds at the mela, held here every 12 years. The current Kumbh Mela was held on 14 January 2013 at Allahabad. The day marked the second and the biggest ShahiSnan (royal bath) of this event, with 13 akharas taking to the Sangam. 10 Feb 2013 was the biggest bathing day at the ongoing Maha Kumbh Mela and probably the largest human gathering on a single day. Over 30 million devotees and ascetics took holy dip on the occasion of MauniAmavasya. Through this survey we are going to study Socio-Economic Dynamics of Kumbh Mela 2013 with the objective:1) To study social and economic aspects of pilgrims2) To study satisfaction level of pilgrims with facilities3) To study social and economic aspects of institutions4) To study satisfaction level of institutions with facilitiesOur main issue of interest is the emergence of social structure in complex groupings. The Kumbh Mela authorities put down some bright lines on who gets to go where, when, and how for example, rules that govern people's movements during some religious days and some rules are determined by long-standing customs. Other, more informal norms among disparate groups of people seem to emerge quickly and how cooperation among diverse groups happens, this is a fortuitous setting.This is also the first Big Data Kumbh, also with cell phone usage ubiquitous in India, the millions of cell phones at the Kumbh Mela act as mobile sensors. To imagine the uses to which researchers could put the data, consider these hypothetical ideas:1) The data could be used to understand how untoward incidents have been contained. After all, the Maha KumbhMela has managed to prevent major disasters for a long time. 2) Why don't disasters spiral out of control when massive numbers of people, unfamiliar with each other, are involved? 3) Can we spot the signatures of an incipient disaster in the data, and 4) The process by which those signals are attenuated rather than amplified?There is much commerce, as well as charitable exchange, of goods and services at the Kumbh Mela:1) How do vendors deal with the inevitable errors in forecasting demand? 2) Do inter-vendor communication patterns allow the collective containment of uncertainties? 3) Telecom data generated at the Kumbh Mela should provide grist to the intellectual mills of statisticians, engineers, mathematicians, and social scientists for a long time?Important past and future date of Kumbh Mela at their respective Venue.YearPrayagNashikUjjainHaridwar

1983Ardh Kumbh

1989Purna Kumbh

1991Kumbh

1992KumbhArdh Kumbh

1995Ardh Kumbh

1998Kumbh

2001Purna[21]Kumbh

2003Kumbh

2004SihasthArdh Kumbh

2007Ardh Kumbh

2010Kumbh

2013MahaKumbh-

2015Kumbh

2016SihasthArdh Kumbh

2019Ardh Kumbh

2022Kumbh

Table 1.1 Important past and future date of Kumbh Mela at their respective Venue.

(Source: http://zeenews.india.com/news/uttar-pradesh/thousands-take-holy-dip-as-maha-kumbh-begins_822770.html visited on April 25 2013)

1.1 Elemental Meaning of KumbhKumbh is the confluence of all our cultures. It is the symbol of spiritual awakening. It is the eternal flow of humanity. It is the surge of rivers, forests and the ancient wisdom of the sages. It is the flow of life itself. It is the symbol of the confluence of nature and humanity. Kumbh is the source of all energy. Kumbh makes humankind realize this world and the other, sins and blessings, wisdom and ignorance, darkness and light. Holy rivers are the symbols of the lyrical flow of humanity. Rivers are indicators of the flow of water of life in the human body itself. In the human body that is an embodiment of home, nothing is possible without the five elements. The elements fire, wind, water, earth and sky symbolize the human body. The great sage-poet SantKabir has explained this sublime thought in his typical manner.The Himalaya is the abode of the soul of the gods. The Holy Ganga embarks upon its journey from there, encompassing the forests, the mountain sages and the culture of the villages. The Yamuna is a co-traveler as it puts an end to all sins, and it is known variously as Tripathga, Shivpuri and other names. This is the Ganga that liberated the children of the Suryavanshi king Sagar. Its holy water is considered nectar itself.

1.2 The Prayag KumbhThis Kumbh is considered to be the most significant of all as it marks the direction of wisdom or light. This is the place where the sun, symbolizing wisdom, rises.The Kumbh Mela takes place in an approximately 4x8km area on the flood plain of the Yamuna and Ganga river and on defense land behind the old kila at Allahabad (popularly known as parade grounds).Creation of the universe is supposed to have originated here and it is supposed to be the center of the earth. Prajapati Brahma, the God of Creation, is said to have created the Universe after conducting the AshwamedhYagna at the Dashashwamedh Ghat here. The Dashashwamedh Ghat and the Brahmeshwar Temple still exist here as if as symbols of that holy yagna, and that is another reason for the special significance of the Prayag Kumbh. In fact Prayag and Kumbh are synonymous to each other.1.3 Importance and Significance of Kumbh MelaMaha Kumbh has a mesmerizing influence over the minds of Indians as it is witness to the largest human gathering in History for the same cause on a single day irrespective of any worldly barriers of caste, creed, colour and religion. It is once in a lifetime experience seeing millions of pilgrims and tourists from all over the world come together for a common goal-this spectacle of Faith is truly unforgettable. This festival is held in highest regard as the ritual bath in the sacred water on this day saturated with flower & incense fragrance amidst chanting of vedichyms and mantras liberates one from all sufferings and miseries of Life. The Kumbh Mela considered the most sacred and greatest of North Indian festivals where the ceremonial dip in the Holy River is an important ritual. It is believed that bathing on this auspicious day cleanses one of all sins. The most auspicious day for the ritual bath at Kumbh is on the day of the new moon when one gets rid of all sins and evils and is granted salvation. One attains Moksha (meaning liberation from the cycle of Life, Death and Rebirth).This festival will be incomplete without the presence of Sadhus and ascetics who represent different orders (Akhadas). Sadhus like Vaishnav(Followers of Vishnu), Shaiva (flowers of Shiva). The most interesting feature is the presence of Naga Sadhus-(known as preserver of faith). A particular sect of sadhus initiates the ritual bath and leave after the dip in the holy water to make way for another order. Many pilgrims gather to also take blessings from this sadhus.Significance of this unique event is the blending of religious and cultural features. Rig Veda has a mention about the significance of convergence of river Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati at Prayag or Sangam. References can be found about the significance of this ritual in VarahaPurana and MatsyaPurana as well. There is a belief that the ashram of the leamedBharadvaja, where Lord Ram, Laxman and Sita lived at the time of their exile, was situated at Sangam. It is said that a number of saints including the great Shankaracharya and ChaitanyaMahaprabhu visited Sangam and observed the Kumbh Mela. The great Indian epics such the Ramayana and Mahabharata have mentioned that a yagna was conducted by Lord Brahma at Sangam.1.4 History of Kumbh MelaKumbh derives its name from the immortal Pot of Nectar, which the Demigods (Devtas) and Demons (Asuras) fought over, described in ancient Vedic scriptures known as the Puranas. It is these Vedic literatures that have stood the test of time, out of which the tradition has evolved into the one that the world now knows as The Kumbh Mela. Legend tells a tale from the bygone days of the universe when the demigods and the demons conjointly produced the nectar of immortality. The demigods, because cursed, were crippled of fear that eventually made them weak. The task being too sturdy for them alone, the demigods made a mutual agreement with the demons to complete it in full and share the nectar of immortality in half. It is said that the demigods and the demons assembled on the shore of the milk ocean that lies in the celestial region of the cosmos. And it began!

For the task of churning the milk ocean, the Mandara Mountain was used as the churning rod, and Vasuki, the king of serpents, became the rope for churning. With the demigods at Vasukis tail and the demons at his head, the churning began. At first, the churning of the milk ocean produced a deadly poison which Lord Shiva drank without being affected. As Lord Shiva drank the poison, a few drops fell from his hands which were licked by scorpions, snakes, and similar other deadly creatures. Also, during the churning, the Mandara Mountain began to sink deep into the ocean, seeing which Lord Vishnu incarnated as a great tortoise and supported the mountain on His back. Finally, many hurdles and 1000 years later, Dhanwantari appeared with the Kumbh of immortal nectar in his hands. The demigods, being fearful of the demons' ill intent, forcibly seized the pot with its safety entrusted onto the four Gods - Brahaspati,Surya, Shani, and Chandra. Demons, after learning that their part of the agreement has not been kept, went after the demigods and for 12 days and 12 nights, the chase continued. Wherever the demigods went with the pot of nectar, fierce fighting ensued. It is believed that during this chase, a few drops fromthe Kumbh fell at four places - Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nasik. There is also a prevalent legend that it was actually the demons that were being chased by the demigods for 12 days and 12 nights, during which the drops of elixir of immortality fell at these four places. These four places are since believed to have acquired mystical powers. Because 12 days of Gods are equivalent to 12 years for humans; the Kumbh Mela is celebrated once every 12 years in each of the four places - banks of river Godavari in Nasik, river Kshipra in Ujjain, river Ganges in Haridwar, and at the Sangam of Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati in Allahabad, where the drops are believed to have fallen. Millions of devout, come together to partake in ritualistic bathing and ceremonies to cleanse themselves of all sins.1.5 Prayag Kumbh Mela 2013The Mela was divided into 14 sectors. Most of the year, Kumbh City is not an inhabited part of Allahabad. There is no pre-existing water or electricity supply there, or any system to get rid of human waste. But by the time the festival started this year in January, Kumbh City was a functioning metropolis with a population larger than most permanent cities in the world and many small countries too. The government erects vast tent encampments, some 40,000 toilets, hospitals, markets, emergency services, food stands, supply shops, offices and hundreds of temples. The following are some of the facts related to Kumbh Mela 2013. Kumbh 2001 was for 44 days while Kumbh 2013 will be for 55 days (+25%).* Countrys population was 102.87Crore in 2001, it is estimated to be 121.02 Crore in 2011 (+17.6%)*. The State population was 16.61 Crore in 2001 which has risen to 19.96 Crore in 2011 (+20%).* Allahabad Nagar Nigam had 9.75 lakh population in 2001 which was 12.47 lakh in 2011 (+28%)*(Source: http://kumbhmelaallahabad.gov.in/english/kumbh_at_glance.html, visited on 25 April 2013)

The other salient features of Kumbh Mela 2013 are as follows:Top of Form Around10 crorepeople are expected to visit the Kumbh Mela inAllahabadin 2013. The Makar Sankranti day alone will witness around 1 crore pilgrims and more than3 crorepilgrims are expected to take the holy dip on Mauni Amawasya on February 10.

Amongst the visitors, around 10 lakhs are expected to be foreign tourists.

The total budget for Maha Kumbh 2013 isRs 1,200 crore, which is 200 crore more than that of the 2001 Maha Kumbh.

The Mela would generate employment for over6 lakh people. Rs 12,000 crore is expected to flow into the coffers of the UP government as revenue andtaxes.

18pontoonbridges and35,000 public toiletshave beenbuilt for pilgrims.

156 km of new roads, made of chequeredsteel plateshave been laid on the river bank.

571 km of water pipelines have been laid, 800 km of electric wires and 48 power sub-stations been set up in the Mela area.

125 ration shops, 4 godowns opened in Mela area for pilgrims to buy grains, groceries and vegetables.

2,500 religious and social organisations from across the world will participate. 30,000 policemen, 30 new police stations, and 72 companies of paramilitary forces have been deployed to provide security during the Mela. 120CCTV camerashave been installed in Mela area andAllahabadcity. 22 doctors and 120 ambulanceson round-the-clock duty at the new 100- bed central hospital in Kumbh Mela area with other facilities of doctors and medical to be provided by various institutions setting up camp in Kumbh Mela. 50.83 sq km the total area where the Kumbh is held, almost double the size of the last mela in 2001. Rs 6,000 crore is the daily rent for the plush Swiss cottages set up by UP Tourism. HollywoodcelebritiesRichard Gere, Michael Douglas and wifeCatherine Zeta Jonesexpected to visit apart from spiritual guruDalai Lama, formerUS presidentialcandidate John Hagelin. Digitised Maps of the entire Mela area have been uploaded on the internet for people to select which place they want to visit and have a dip in the holy waters. GPS-Enabled Systems to locate their spiritual and religious heads and the camps/ashrams that they have set up in the Mela area. To estimate exact number of crowds the government has sought cooperation from ISRO and Remote Sensing Application Centre. They will capture photographs of the entire Mela area every 24 hours.

Chapter 2Literature Review

2.1 Introduction to Literature ReviewA literature review is a body of text that aims to review the critical points of current knowledge including substantive findings as well as theoretical and methodological contributions to a particular topic. Literature reviews are secondary sources, and do not report any new or original experimental work. Literature review should be referred to as reviewing and analyzing the work of literature in relation to the specified topic in research.Most often associated with academic-oriented literature, such as a thesis, a literature review usually precedes a research proposal and results section. Its ultimate goal is to bring the reader up to date with current literature on a topic and forms the basis for another goal, such as future research that may be needed in the area.A well-structured literature review is characterized by a logical flow of ideas; current and relevant references with consistent, appropriate referencing style; proper use of terminology; and an unbiased and comprehensive view of the previous research on the topic.2.2 Basic Introduction of Kumbh MelaIndia is a land of spectacles, it is a land of teeming millions and a land of an ancient culture and civilization and Kumbh Mela is the biggest religious gathering of humanity in the world. It has vast crowds assemble as big as the millions who flocked to the north Indian city of Allahabad to bath at the confluence where the cloudy waters of the river Ganges meet the blue waters of the river Yamuna on the most auspicious day of those Melas. Anyone who wants to enjoy the Kumbh Mela to the full must appreciate its many different aspects. Faith is the key to the Kumbh Mela. It is a wonderful spectacle, a great demonstration of the variety and vigour of Hinduism, an occasion to preach politics and conduct business, but there would be no Kumbh Mela were it not for the faith that draws millions of pilgrims to the Sangam in Allahabad.It is of course a great religious festival, the world's largest, but there is much more to it than just the great bathing day, spectacular though that is. Most spectacular of all are the naked sadhus or holy men, who career through the crowds dancing to the frenzied beat of drums and leaping in the air as they charge in to the river to bathe. Then there are the sadhus to be seen on any day performing amazing acts of asceticism. Some held his arm up so long that it was withered and his nails curved round like talons, another one standing on one leg, and one lying on a bed of thorns. At Kumbh Melas there is much religious teaching also, and a multitude of discourses. There are the sadhus to be seen on any day performing amazing acts of asceticism'. They demonstrate the wide variety of Hindu traditions, and Hinduism's tolerance too. Some of the discourses seemed to me obscurantist, some profound, and some surprising. The devotees of the 15th Century saint Kabir told they condemned images of the deities and maintained that washing under a tap was just as good as bathing in the Ganges. No-one seemed to object to their unorthodox views. Perhaps that's because Hinduism is so varied that for most Hindus there is no concept of heresy. Hindu pluralism is also shown by the different creation myths the Mela commemorates.The word Kumbh means an urn, and one of the several myths is the story of an urn filled with the nectar of immortality which emerged from the primeval waters when they were being churned by gods and demons. The urn was snatched by demons but the son of the ruler of heaven, the god Indira, recovered it. Drops from the urn fell at the Sangam and other places in India where Kumbh Melas are held.In India.Politics enter into all walks of life and the Kumbh Mela is no exception. In 1989, the campaign the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hoped would bring it to power on a wave of Hindu nationalism was in full swing. The festival is a feat of organisation by the authorities and pilgrims and in one of the tented pavilions fanatic speakers fulminating against the mosque in Ayodhya they claimed stood on the birth place of the god Rama, and demanding that it be pulled down to be replaced with a temple. Mela means a fair, and as with all fairs plenty of business is done at Kumbh Melas. There are stalls selling everything a pilgrim might need including of course the accoutrements required for pujas, or worship. Barbers shaving heads do a roaring trade. The traditional priests who keep family records set up their stalls and do good business updating genealogies and performing ceremonies for the souls of the dead. Government constructed a vast tented city, laying down miles of steel plates for roads and constructing pontoon bridges. The administration also insured there was food for the pilgrims, and water too - sanitation, as well as electricity. The police, not usually renowned for their gentleness, were politeness personified as they shepherded millions of pilgrims down to the river banks, keeping them in orderly queues, and insured their safety while bathing. But in this they were helped by Indians remarkable ability to organise themselves in situations which in most other countries would degenerate into chaos.2.3 Historical Aspect of Kumbh MelaKumbh derives its name from the immortal Pot of Nectar, which the gods (Devtas) and Demons (Asuras) fought over, described in ancient Vedic scriptures known as the Puranas. It is these Vedic literatures that have stood the test of time, out of which the tradition has evolved into the one that the world now knows as The Kumbh Mela. Legend tells a tale from the bygone days of the universe when the gods and the demons conjointly produced the nectar of immortality. The gods, because cursed, were crippled of fear that eventually made them weak. The task being too sturdy for them alone, the gods made a mutual agreement with the demons to complete it in full and share the nectar of immortality in half. It is said that the gods and the demons assembled on the shore of the milk ocean that lies in the celestial region of the cosmos. For the task of churning the milk ocean, the Mandara Mountain was used as the churning rod, and Vasuki, the king of serpents, became the rope for churning. With the gods at Vasukis tail and the demons at his head, the churning began. At first, the churning of the milk ocean produced a deadly poison which Lord Shiva drank without being affected. As Lord Shiva drank the poison, a few drops fell from his hands which were licked by scorpions, snakes, and similar other deadly creatures. Also, during the churning, the Mandara Mountain began to sink deep into the ocean, seeing which Lord Vishnu incarnated as a great tortoise and supported the mountain on His back. Finally after many hurdles and 1000 years later, Dhanwantari appeared with the Kumbh of immortal nectar in his hands. The gods, being fearful of the demons' ill intent, forcibly seized the pot with its safety entrusted onto the four Gods - Brahaspati, Surya, Shani, and Chandra.Demons, after learning that their part of the agreement has not been kept, went after the gods and for 12 days and 12 nights, the chase continued. Wherever the gods went with the pot of nectar, fierce fighting ensued. It is believed that during this chase, a few drops from the Kumbh fell at four places - Allahabad, Haridwar, Ujjain, and Nasik. There is also a prevalent legend that it was actually the demons that were being chased by the gods for 12 days and 12 nights, during which the drops of elixir of immortality fell at these four places. These four places are since believed to have acquired mystical powers. Because 12 days of Gods are equivalent to 12 years for humans; the Kumbh Mela is celebrated once every 12 years in each of the four places - banks of river Godavari in Nasik, river Kshipra in Ujjain, river Ganges in Haridwar, and at the Sangam of Ganges, Yamuna, and Saraswati in Allahabad, where the drops are believed to have fallen. Millions of devout, come together to partake in ritualistic bathing and ceremonies to cleanse themselves of all sins.2.4 Significance of Kumbh MelaKumbh Mela is not just a mere festivity like Diwali and Holi, but holds lot of importance for people in India. People look up to Kumbh Mela with highest regard, as this event gives them a golden opportunity to liberate themselves from the miseries and sufferings of life. It enables them to take a holy dip in the sacred water and wash away all the sins they have committed in the past. People come from different parts of the country to be a part of this sacred ceremony.

It is believed that taking a holy dip in water paves way for attainment of Moksha. However, it is of paramount importance that the person who is performing the rituals has complete faith and trust in the power of divinity. Mentions have been made about the Kumbha Mela in the Brahma Purana and Vishnu Purana, which clearly state that a person who performs the bathing ceremony during the month of Magh at Prayag (Allahabad) derives manifold benefits, which surpasses the reward obtained by performing numerous Ashvamedha rituals.

Rig Veda has a mention about the significance of convergence of river Ganges, Yamuna and Saraswati at Prayag or Sangam. References can be found about the significance of this ritual in VarahaPurana and MatsyaPurana as well. There is a belief that the ashram of the learned Bharadvaja, where Lord Ram, Laxman and Sita lived at the time of their exile, was situated at Sangam. It is said that a number of saints including the great Shankaracharya and ChaitanyaMahaprabhu visited Sangam and observed the Kumbh Mela. The great Indian epics such the Ramayana and Mahabharata have mentioned that a yagna was conducted by Lord Brahma at Sangam.2.5 Different Forms of KumbhWe shall not dwell upon the literary meaning of the word Kumbh, but we would like to mention the synonyms and origins. The Kumbh is a pitcher. Kumbh is the human body, it is the abdomen, and the sea, earth, sun and Vishnu are synonyms of Kumbh. The pitcher, sea, river, ponds and the well are symbols of Kumbh as the water from these places is covered from all sides. The sky has the cover of the wind, the sun covers the entire universe with its light, and the human body is covered with cells and tissues. That is why it is Kumbh. Desire, that is longing, is also Kumbh. God Vishnu is also Kumbh as He pervades the entire creation, and the creation pervades in Him.2.6 Significance of Tirthraj PrayagThe significance of Prayag is widely known in the terrestrial and celestial universe. By bathing in the holy waters of the Sangam one is ridden of all sins. The devout is granted all his desires. This is the significance of an ordinary bath, and hence the importance of a bath during the Kumbh is manifold. It cannot be described and has to be experienced to be known.2.7 Rituals of Kumbh Kumbh Mela, is the largest human gathering which is attended by millions of people on a earth irrespective of all worldly barriers of caste, creed, region. The Kumbh Mela has wielded a mesmeric influence over the minds and the imagination of the ordinary Indian.Devotees believe simply by bathing in the Ganga zone is freed from their past sins (karma), and thus one becomes eligible for liberation from the cycle of birth and death. Other activities include religious discussions, devotional singing, mass feeding of holy men and women and the poor, and religious assemblies where doctrines are debated and standardized.Kumbh Mela (especially the Prayag Kumbh Mela) is the most sacred of all the Hindu pilgrimages. Millions of holy men and women (saints, monks, and sadhus) attend this spectacle of faith.This holy event with such tremendous faith has gained international fame. Famous ancient traveler. Huen Tsang of China was the first to mention Kumbha Mela in his diary. His diary mentions the celebration of 75 days of Hindu month of Magha (January-February), which witnessed half a million devotee including sadhus, common man, rich & famous & kings.2.8 KalpvaasKalpvaas has a special significance in Prayag. It holds special significance in the month of Magh, and it lasts from the 11th day of the month of Paush till the 12th day of the month of Magh. Kalpavas is marked by patience, non-violence and devotion, and meals are to be partaken only once a day. It is believed that kalpvaasis who fulfill all the vows get reborn as a king.2.9 AkharaInHinduism,Akhara(alsoakhada) is an association of different sects ofSadhusVairaghisyogisor Hindu Renunciates.Its history dates back to the eighth century whenAdiShankaracharyaestablished seven Akharas, Mahanirvani, Niranjani, Atal, Avahan, Agni and AnandAkhara. Some yogis link these akharas toGorakhnathrather than toShankaracharya. Today there are 3 major Akharas (Juna, Mahanirvani and Niranjani) and 3 minor Akharas (Atal affiliated with Mahanirvani, Anand affiliated with Niranjan). Furthermore there is one small BrahmachariAkhara named Agni. There also numerous minor Akhara's usually set up by disciples as an affiliate to the major group or sometimes due to disagreements on succession orGurudevof an Akhara. The biggest Akhara - based on the number ofSadhusis Juna, followed by Niranjani and Mahanirvani. Akharas are classified into differentSampradayasbased on their traditional systems. An Akhara is divided in 8 davas (divisions) and 52 marhis (centres). Each Marhi is governed by a Mahant. The top administrative body of the Akhara is Shree Panch (the body of five), representingBrahma,Vishnu,Shiva,ShaktiandGanesha. It is elected on everyKumbh Melaand the body holds its post for 4 years. The head of the Akhara is the AcharyaMahamandaleshwar, followed by other Mahamandaleshwaras, Mandaleshwaras and Shree Mahants.

2.10 Organization and Plan of Maha Kumbh melaThe Kumbh Mela takes place in an approximately 4x8km area on the flood plain of the Yamuna and Ganga river and on defense land behind the old kila at Allahabad (popularly known as parade grounds). Mapped into 4 zones, Arail (N Bank), Jhusi (W bank), Parade grounds, Upper Bandh and lower Bandh. With the parade ground being government and institutional area and Upper Bandh and Lower Bndh the sites of maximum activity (also closest to holiest spot: sangam). Parade grounds are the current defense lands behind the sangam and will hold all the government offices. Kumbh Nagri is notified by the UP government as an official 76th district of Uttar Pradesh, all the laws and regulations that pertain to the rest of UPs 75 districts are applicable in the Kumbh.This year Ganges has settled in such a way that greater land area is on the Western side (Jhusi) than the Eastern side (Kila/ upper/lower Bandh side_ as is usually the case. Planning is done with an assumed 20% increase in population from the Ardha Kumbh numbers (they did not remember the number). Amin or tehsildars are the chief layout makers of the Kumbh. They head to the field everyday and mark out the entire city. Most often they do this before the town planners draw up the map. Town planners say they often navigate around the work already done on site in their plans. This year the area of the mela extends almost 2 km up river on the Ganges to reduce the density of the Kumbh Nagri. Government area is situated on the parade ground. It houses: Offices of a majority of government departments: jal, health, electricity PWD, Police. ATM, internet access kiosks, ONGC offices, cell phone towers, and also bank branches. Expected number of visitors: 14th Jan: 1crore 13 lakh, 27th Jan 55 lakhs 10th Feb. 3.25 crores. Approximately 1 crore population (check) rumoured to be staying as residents. However, people tell me that Mela authorities exaggerate numbers. Estimated population counts still underway by Tourism Department. On 20th Oct, the Ganges fully receded and final flood plain mapped. Layout work commenced.

2.10.1 Sectors Planning A total of 14 administrative sectors are planned this year. Each sector represents an administrative district. Police, health and other departments have a different number of sectors. Sectors are mapped according to population density. It is calculated at 20% more than the ardhakumbh. Each sector has roughly the same amount of residents. The large sectors on the periphery of the nagri are large as they have a lower density of occupancy. They are waiting to adjust size of sectors based on population predictions by Tourism department. Sector 8,9,7 are largely residential, Sector 12 is largely open ground. The sectors closer to sangam are smaller as these are high density areas. Boundaries of the sectors are defined by 1) the river bank edge (i.e. where the sandy bank ends and the mainland startsusually characterized by an elevation difference) 2) the water edge 3) existing roads (Ref: Chief Townplanner) Each sector has its small zone of shops. Rules, building bye laws etc apply to the Kumbh Nagri but it has a lot of special provisions that are passed by the committee created for it. Masterplan of Allahabad has special provisions for Kumbh accounted in it. Kumbh mela is one of twenty land uses on the master plan. 2.10.2 Pontoons Bridge17 Pontoon bridges are proposed across the Ganges and two across the Yamuna. 2692 new pontoons being built. There are 1510 old ones.Bridges are made of Pontoon (Pipa is the Hindi name for the floating iron cylinders). They are 8 wide and 32 long. These pieces are reused in different festivals, the last time they used them for the Kumbh Mela at Haridwar four years ago. The pipas are made of a thin layer of iron that keeps a large volume of air inside. All governmental / public funding, 30% funding of roads borne by Central Govt and 70% state. Each pontoon (pippa) it cost is 3.5 lakhs rupees. The daily payment for each worker is 250 rupees per day.2.10.3 Architecture Of The Nagri Entire Nagri is constructed largely out of bamboo, cloth and tin. More permanent VVIP areas and hospitals are in plywood. The sandy banks of the Ganges are leveled by tractors at the cost of the government. There are a total of 13 contractors who build the makeshift architecture on the government side. Akharas often get a discount. But individual groups can choose to bring in their own contractors a lot of the tourist operators have their own teams. Lalooji and Sons (LJS) is a historic company who supplies everything from the tin to the beds and blankets. They set up melas in Haridvar, Nasik, etc and have stores and offices all over. Akharas are given a significant discount based on their relationship with the contractors. The rent of each plot is 1000 rupees per tent. The supply of material for government areas is also from registered contractors. E.g. forest department will provide all the bamboo poles. 2.10.4 Public Health Program 22 administrative sectors for health.This is not a medical facility but a health program. Here again facilities are divided between 1) Permanent: with existing hospitals such as GT hospital being improved 2) Temporary: hospitals and related facilities created at Kumbh. No serious illnesses are treated at Kumbh they are ambulanced to the town hospital. There are three wings that fall under this department 1) Public Health: which does sanitation work and has check posts for infectious diseases. They also check food and water samples on a regular basis. 2) Clinic: dealing with medical treatment 3) Vector Borne Disease Control Unit: which is largely the anti fly unit. Staff for the Health Department is drawn from hospitals all across UP. Lower level and first aid staff are drawn from government schemes like Aganwadis (child care centers). They also hire the lower ranks of staff like sweepers and laborers. Medical supplies and equipment procurement is handled by the Purchase department. Infectious disease control and health checks.One, 100 bed hospital at parade ground: this will be made of plywood. Ten hospitals of 20 bed each across sectors these will be made with tin, tents. The entire hospital is made by Lalooji and Sons who hold a monopoly over the construction of the Nagri. 12 sectors will be serviced by sweeper gangs who will sweep the areas free of night soil and waste (image of carts the garbage is carted in). Laborers dig large pits in available open areas and on the outskirts (wherever they can find space I am told). They also liberally spray these pits with DDT and other chemicals to prevent spread of bacteria etc. Each gang consists of 11 sweepers, one of whom is in charge of them. There will be 9000 sweepers at Kumbh this year. There are expected to be 35,000-45,000 toilets created at Kumbh. Toilets are constructed in tin shed and a cement platform with the Indian style toilet is made within it. Plastic pipes lead into a pit dug behind the toilet rows. The pit is lined with bricks but I am to understand that a lot of them end up being just pits. Pits are covered with a lattice of bamboo and covered with dry grass to allow gasses to escape. Mud is placed on them. Extra pits are made for overflows. In sandy areas tin barrels are placed upside down to act as septic tanks as otherwise the sewage rises up through the sandy soil. A large number of the visitors are villagers who refuse to use toilets as they are unaccustomed to them. They squat in any available open land. Their night soil is swept up every day and taken to pits and buried. I can see this as a huge problem: already areas in between two tin compounds or near existing drainage canals are lined with human feces. 2000-2500 pits are dug for garbage and night soil (environmental nightmare!), I am told the sweepers also act as scavengers and remove plastic and other recyclable refuse as they dig the pits. Here again expected funding is 30% from Central Government and 70% from state.2.10.5 Flow Of Capital And Goods There are a number of shops that are present in the Kumbh Nagri. There is a planned shopping zone called Meena Bazzar which is in the central government area / parade area. Other than that there are several shops in each sector. The shops are auctioned off by the Mela Adhikari office.There are an estimated 1000-1200 shops on auction. Memorable stalls are the Prayag Dairy and Loknath Misthan Bhavan who run multiple stalls. There are various kinds of shops that have different rental or licensing prices: 1) shops in Meena Bazzar 2) Exhibition cum Sales areas 3) shops in sectors 4) shops along main arteries 5) peddlar shops. A large amount of informal selling takes place as well. 2.10.6 Kinds Of Goods Sold At Kumbh Dry goods stores Milk, milk products and bread (Parag Dairy is the chief supplier and there is a separate administrative department for milk and food products). Mithai and kachori stalls: Popular stalls-Loknath Mishthan Bhandar. Sulakilal Shrinath and Sons Clothes (woolens, bedding etc) Stoves and dung cakes to burn on stoves are under production on the Kumbh site Brand items such as coke, Nescafe etc are all present but are through local store owners who get the respective agents to supply for the Kumbh Companies such as hero honda etc have stalls that advertise, but not sell products. Meena Bazzar: this is the specified area allocated for small shops at Sangam and generally has a clothes market where a large number of Tibetans and Kashmiris sell goods. Religious goods: texts, prayer beads, other things required for rituals, music cds and cassettes, religious idols and posters. These include Buddhists as well. 2.10.7 Police Arrangements 30 police outposts planned Police forces are arriving in three batches15th oct, 15th nov, 15th dec Reserve police force drawn from stations and lines all across UP Training session being conducted in batches. Currently the trainers are being trained who will then train the remaining regiments. 3 types of police forces central reserve police force, Uttar Pradesh police and paramilitary will be present at the Kumbh On main bathing days police stand and pull people out of the water as soon as they take a dip Crowd control through a system of mazesmaking people walk as much as possible. These are adjusted according to the main bathing dates and expected audiences Police are in charge of parking and vehicular movement. Traffic will be stopped 7km before the Kumbh Nagri and people will have to walk. 2.10.8 Safety Strategies during Kumbh Water of the river is controlled from upriver (possibly haridwar) to keep it calf deep and thus minimize chances of drowning. Elaborate systems of mazes ensure that crowds do not stampede towards the river on main bathing dates. There is a calculation of expected numbers for each day and the pattern of cutoffs and points of cutoffs will be changed to match estimated numbers. Vehicular traffic is cut off 7 km ahead and you have to walk into the site. Special permits are required to be in main sangam area on key bathing dates. Electricity is cut off during the day so as to prevent accidents.

2.11 Factors Considered For Estimation Of Pilgrim And Resource/Infrastructure Planning: Kumbh 2001 was for 44 days while Kumbh 2013 will be for 55 days (+25%). Countrys population was 102.87 Crore in 2001, it is estimated to be 121.02 Crore in 2011 (+17.6%). The State population was 16.61 Crore in 2001 which has risen to 19.96 Crore in 2011 (+20%). Allahabad Nagar Nigam had 9.75 lakh population in 2001 which was 12.47 lakh in 2011 (+28%).Estimated Pilgrims During Kumbh 2013S. NO.Bathing DaysKumbh 2001Kumbh 2013

DatesEstimated VisitorsDatesProjected Visitors

1MakarSankranti14.1.2001100 Lac14.1.2013110 Lac

2PaushPurnima09.1.200150 Lac27.1.201355 Lac

3MauniAmawasya24.1.2001276 Lac10.2.2013305 Lac

4VasantPanchami29.1.2001175 Lac15.2.2013193 Lac

5MaghiPurnima08.2.2001150 Lac25.2.2013165 Lac

6MahaShivratri21.2.200150 Lac10.3.201355 Lac

Table 2.1 Estimated Pilgrims During Kumbh Mela 2013

Infrastructure & Services Being Provided During Kumbh-2013 MelaSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1AreaHectare1495.311613.801936.56

2sectorsNo.111114

3Parking LotsNo.354499

Fig 2.2 Comparison of Services Provided During Kumbh Mela

POLICESl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1Police StationsNo.282830

2State Police PersonnelNo.99651091312461

3PACNo.354546

4Central Para Military PersonnelNo.74040

5CCTV CameraNo.01985

6Variable Signage BoardNo.0030

7Fire StationNo.282830

Fig 2.3 Police Services Provided During Kumbh Mela

PWDSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh - 2007Kumbh-2013

1Length of roads laidKm96.40116.50156.20

2No of Pontoon bridgesNo.131418

Fig 2.4 Services Provided By PWD during Kumbh Mela

JAL NIGAMSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1KLs of drinking water supplyKLs560007600080000*

2length of PipelinesKm340458550

3No of connectionsNo.154301852320000

4No of active tube wellsNo.283840

5No of OHT in operationsNo.225

Fig 2.5 Services Provided By Jal Nigam During Kumbh MelaPOWERSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1KWh of power consumed(Load)KWH18 Mva23 Mva30Mva*

2Length of electricity linesKm565665770

3No of Street light PointsNo.168651800022000

4No of private connectionsNo.6948994000130,000*

5No of Substations in operation(various categories)No.496273

Fig 2.6 Services Provided By Electricity Board During Kumbh MelaHEALTH AND SANITATIONSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1No of Allopathic hospitalsNo.141414

2No of Homeopathy hospitalsNo.070712

3No of Ayurvedic hospitalsNo.101012

4No of beds in mela areasNo.360360370

5No of ToiletsNo.

Individual204811700035000*

public toilets

Sulabh Complex (10 Seaters)20105340

Trench Pattern17100128757500 (PRAI TYPE)

Non-conventional Toilets001000*

Fig 2.7 Health and Sanitation Services Provided During Kumbh Mela

FOOD AND CIVIL SUPPLIESSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1No of ration cards issuedNo.127000117481200000*

2Allotment of WheatMT135001000016200

3Allotment of RiceMT780050009600

4Allotment of SugarMT5000-6000

5Allotment of K OilKL11000660013200

6PDS shops in the mela areaNo.107107125

7Allotment of milkKL11884.2400

8Milk Distribution shops in mela areaNo.10698150

Fig 2.8 Food and Civil Services Provided During Kumbh MelaROADWAYSSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1No of Temporary bus stationsNo.445

2No of buses in operation(Reg.)No.776798892

3No of buses in operation(Spl)No.282422023608

4No of PilgrimsLac36.6446.7890.00*

Fig 2.9 Roadways Services Provided During Kumbh MelaRAILWAYSSl. No.Service/ InfrastructureUnitKumbh-2001Ardh Kumbh -2007Kumbh-2013

1No of stations in operationNo.7N/A7

2No of trainsNo.600N/A750

Fig 2.10 Railways Services Provided During Kumbh Mela

2.12 Others Services Offered At Maha Kumbh* Accommodation during the Kumbh Mela* Allahabad Sightseeing* Transportation Facility by Bus / Qualis or Innova on exclusive or sharing basis (As per Guest's Requirement)* Paramedic Staff trained for Camp Deal.* English Speaking Guide* Meals on Full board* Camp OM at Kumbh will offer daily Yoga Classes by our Yoga instructor KARAN GURJI and we will be offering AyurvedicPanchakarma Treatments.

CAMP CHARGES

PARTICULARSSINGLE INRDOUBLE INRSINGLE USDDOUBLE USD

Deluxe Tent Attached ToiletRs. 6,600/-Rs. 8,800/-$ 120$ 160

Semi Deluxe Tent Common ToiletRs. 4,400/-Rs. 5,550/-$ 80$ 100

Standard Tent Common ToiletRs. 3,300/-Rs. 3,800/-$ 60$ 70

Fig 2.11 Camp Charges During Kumbh Mela

FOR EXTRA BED:

PARTICULARSINRUSD

Deluxe Tent attached ToiletRs. 2,200/-$ 40

Semi Deluxe Tent Common ToiletRs. 1,350/-$ 25

Standard Tent Common ToiletRs. 1,100/-$ 20

Fig 2.12 Extra Bed During Kumbh Mela

Cost Include:

There will be basic facilities provided such as mattress, quilts, sleeping bags, etc. Sufficient lights will be provided for all the tents outside and inside. Semi Deluxe and Standard Tent Toilets will be common for every twenty five set of tents. There will be separate dining facility to be provided for all the two hundred tents, where we are serving all three meals pure vegetarian without onion and garlic. We will have water filtration plant such as commercial Aqua Guard or R-O system installed at dining hall.

TRANSPORTCHARGESPARTICULARSVehicleINRUSD

Allahabad Railway Station to Camp OmTata Indigo (3 Seater)Rs. 1,650/-$ 30

Allahabad Railway Station to Camp OmToyota Innova (5 Seater)Rs. 2,200/-$ 40

Allahabad Airport to Camp OmTata Indigo (3 Seater)Rs. 2,200/-$ 40

Allahabad Airport to Camp OmToyota Innova (5 Seater)Rs. 3,300/-$ 60

Allahabad to VaranasiTata Indigo (3 Seater)Rs. 3,800/-$ 70

Allahabad to VaranasiToyota Innova (5 Seater)Rs. 6,100/-$ 110

Fig 2.13 Transport Charges During Kumbh Mela Estimated Pilgrims during Kumbh 2013S. NO.Bathing DaysKumbh 2001Kumbh 2013

DatesEstimated VisitorsDatesProjected Visitors

1MakarSankranti14.1.2001100 Lac14.1.2013110 Lac

2PaushPurnima09.1.200150 Lac27.1.201355 Lac

3MauniAmawasya24.1.2001276 Lac10.2.2013305 Lac

4VasantPanchami29.1.2001175 Lac15.2.2013193 Lac

5MaghiPurnima08.2.2001150 Lac25.2.2013165 Lac

6MahaShivratri21.2.200150 Lac10.3.201355 Lac

Table 2.14 Estimated Pilgrims during Kumbh Mela 2013

(Source: http://kumbhmelaallahabad.gov.in/english/kumbh_at_glance.html, as assessed on April 25 2013)

2.13 The World of the Kumbh Mela: Inside the Largest Single Gathering of Humanity At the confluence of the Yamuna, Ganges and (mythical) Saraswati Rivers, as many as 100 million people will participate over the next month in an ancient Hindu festival known as the Kumbh Mela. The pilgrimage, which dates back millennia, occurs in 12-year cycles in 2001, the Indian government estimated a staggering 70 million congregated by the Ganges banks to ritually bathe in its sacred waters.

(Source: Tharur, 2013, Jan 15, Times World)

2.14 Kumbh Mela brings economic prosperityKumbh Mela, the biggest congregation of the world, would generate heightened economic activity in multiple sectors leading to a huge income levels to government agencies and to individual traders. According to a paper published by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), tourism, hotel, transport, health and infrastructure sectors would receive additional boost during the Kumbh Mela event. According to an estimate, the state government alone would generate Rs 12,000 crores of revenue because of the Kumbh Mela. Although the Kumbh Mela is spiritual and religious in nature, associated economic activities would generate employment opportunities for over six lakh workers across many sectors including eco-tourism.

The ASSOCHAM, the apex trade association of India, has published its findings of a study assessing the impact of Kumbh Mela on various sectors in a paper titled Maha Kumbh Mela 2013 Possible Revenue Generation Resources for Uttar Pradesh. The assessment has detailed the impact of the Mela on both organized and unorganized sectors. The paper suggests that the overall business in the course of the two months of the Kumbh Mela could be worth between Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 crore. The study provides sector-wise break-up of revenue estimates and employment generation statistics.The Maha Kumbh will begin on January 27 and conclude on February 25. The piligrimage will attract a large number of foreign tourists from as far apart as Australia, UK, Canada, Malaysia, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka. The hospitality industry in the region is targeting 100 per cent occupancy across the board in small, budget and luxury hotels during the Maha Kumbh. Apart from UP, states like Rajasthan (Jaipur, Jabalpur, Udaipur, Bhilwara, Kota), Uttarkhand (Nainital, Mussoorie, Aulli, Dehradun, Haridwar, Ranikhet, Almora), Punjab (Amrtisar, Ludhiana) and Himachal Pradesh (Shimla, Kufri, Manali, Panchkula), will majorly benefit from the enhanced revenue generation with a large number of national and foreign tourists expected to explore other destinations.

Uttar Pradesh Tourism and the Railways are likely to share in a revenue bonanza of a whopping Rs 1,500 crore along with airports and private hospitals by offering attractive tours and medical tourism packages to the tourists and piligrims. The employment generation figures due to Kumbh are likely going to be as follow: Hotels 2.5 lakh jobs; Airlines and airports 1.5 lakh; Tour operators 45,000, Eco-tourism and medical tourism 50,000 and Skilled and unskilled workers for construction/ renovation 85,000. Add 55,000 new jobs in the unorganised sector comprising tour guides, taxi drivers, interpreters, volunteers, etc and the employment generation potential of the festival stands at a massive 6.35 lakh jobs. The Maha-Kumbh, a sacred Hindu pilgrimage, is thus expected to generate direct and indirect business activities, the fruits of which would hopefully benefit the masses of Uttar Pradesh.(Source: http://www.mediasyndicate.in/medsyn/20130111150638, as assessed on 25 April 2013)

2.15 Socio-Economic Impact of Maha Kumbh on Local EconomyHinduism has established a Socio-Economic Ecosystem by celebrating various religious festivals for whole year!The scale and economics of Maha Kumbh Mela has mind-blowing figures. According toASSOCHAM-India Reportthere will be at least 10 times more revenue generation on capital investment (arrangements and temporary infrastructure), see data below: Pilgrims and tourist (expected): 100 millions Jobs (temporary) creation locally: 635,000 Investment by government: $220 million USD Expected Revenue generation:INR 12000 Crores (~ $ 2.2 billion)

About Foreign Tourist: Foreign Tourists (Expected) 1 million Number of tourists also opting for Tour Packages for visiting other tourist destinations 500,000 Amount (Expected ) of expenditure per tourist $ 500 Total Revenue from Tour Packages = 500,000 X 500 = $ 250 million

BBC reportthe economics of Indias Kumbh Melahas provided following arrangements for pilgrims and tourists: Temporary tent city 20000 Sq Km Food Grain Procured 30000 Tonnes Toilets built- 40000 Total length of water pipes laid 550 Km Policeman on Duty 30000 (Source: http://globindian.wordpress.com/2013/01/21/maha-kumbh-holy-dip-2013-largest-human-gathering-on-the-earth/ as assessed on 25 April 2013)2.16 Management, Maha Kumbh StyleNearly 10 crore pilgrims, compared to eight crore during the Purna Kumbh twelve years ago, are estimated to take a holy dip during the 55-day event this year, says a senior health officer at the mela. Our biggest challenge is how to manage the enormous quantities of human waste that accumulate daily... We also have to prevent any outbreak of epidemic, he adds. About 45,000 toilets have been set up, and the challenge is to ensure uninterrupted water supply, sanitation and electricity, all for free.

Thanks to efficient management, Kumbhnagari, the temporary township set up near Allahabad, has remained a clean, largely polythene-free place, despite the enormous numbers of a floating population that has no stake in its upkeep. The great river itself, particularly at the Sangam the confluence of the Ganga, Yamuna and mythical Saraswati remains somewhat polluted along the 20-odd bathing ghats. Compared to 2001, the Kumbh Mela area has increased from about 1,500 hectares to 2,000 hectares. The number of sectors increased from 11 to 14, and parking lots from 35 to 99. In fact, Allahabad city seems to overflow with human beings.

There is hardly a household in the city whether Hindu, Muslim, Christian or Sikh which has not hosted some pilgrim acquaintances from near or far, says a resident. The February 10 stampede at Allahabad railway station, in which nearly 40 perished, took many by surprise as the mela area remained incident-free despite brimming with 2-3 crore people.

The temporary township of Kumbhnagari has no fewer than 30 police stations, as many fire stations, 38 hospitals with 370 beds, and even courts and magistrates. Nearly 14,000 policemen, six lost-and-found centres and 100 CCTVs have been deployed for crowd management. It is a very prestigious posting for any administrator and bureaucrat in Uttar Pradesh to head the Kumbh Mela and prove his or her professional competence, says an official.

To facilitate pilgrims progress, a 156-km road network and 18 temporary pontoon bridges across the river were built at the township. Set up two months ahead of the event, the township will eventually disappear until the next Kumbh comes around.

(Source: Pandit, 2013 Feb 28. Business Style, Management, Maha Kumbh Style)2.17 Healthcare at theKumbh Mela This Kumbh is arguably the largest human gathering of all time, swelling to 30 million on the holiest day of the festival, and totaling to as much as 100 million over the course of the entire 55-day event. By those estimates, if the Kumbh were a nation, it would be the 12thmost populous in the world. Delivering health care to 100 million people is an enormous task anywhere, but its even more challenging when the city and hence its hospitals must be temporary. By the end of March, the entire city will have been dismantled. By the time the monsoons arrive, almost the entire area of the Kumbh will be reclaimed by the rising rivers.Ten sector hospitals are constructed specifically for the Mela. Each of these clinics comprises a collection of large tents that house an outpatient clinic and a 20-bed inpatient unit. The hospitals operate 24/7 throughout the duration of the festival, though workload peaks with population surges around the most auspicious bathing days. Each day between 500 and 800 patients arrive and are seen briefly by one of the physicians on duty. These doctors come from government clinics from around the state and are assigned to the Mela for two months apiece. The doctors work in 8-hour shifts, have no official days off, and sleep in tents that are pitched adjacent to the clinic. Each hospital has a pharmacy with over 90 drugs that are provided free of charge.The centre piece of this healthcare delivery system is the central hospital in sector 2. Here patients can be seen by a range of specialists, including orthopaedics, surgery, and obstetrics. There is a 100-bed inpatient unit and a 2-bed ICU. Diagnostic tools such as X-ray, ultrasound and electrocardiograms are available. Dr Srivastava, who supervises the entire healthcare delivery system of the Mela is based here, and receives daily reports on the number of patients seen at each of the smaller sector hospitals.Connecting these hospitals is a fleet of more than 100 ambulances which are responsible for transferring patients who need specialized care from the sector hospitals to the central hospital. The ambulances, like the doctors who staff the hospitals, have been drafted from community health centers across the state. Each ambulance arrives with its own driver, who is then provided with accommodation at the Mela. The drivers, who receive no additional training for the Kumbh, seem to take great pride in their work.During our visits to the hospitals, we noted that the doctors manning the outpatient posts see up to 800 patients a day and many times that figure on bathing day and are clearly overstretched. Lines of patients preclude even a cursory medical examination. No vital signs are documented and there are no stethoscopes in sight. On the other hand, inpatient units were almost uniformly unoccupied. Row after row of hospital beds, neatly folded red blankets, and I.V. poles stand untouched. On our visit two days before the peak bathing day, we saw only the occasional hospitalized patient a testament to excess capacity in the system.Sources:(Kazi, 2013 Febraury. Ephemeral Hospitals, Enduring Insights: Healthcare at theKumbh)( http://fxbkumbh.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/ephemeral-hospitals-enduring-insights-healthcare-at-the-kumbh/ as assessed on 25 April 2013)

2.18 Kumbh Mela, A Sacred GeographyBetween 2000 and 2010, the population of Delhi burgeoned from 15 million to 22 million while Shanghai's population swelled from 14 to 20 million. Compare that to the recent rise of an impromptu city near Allahabad in India: In the week after January 14, 2013, the first day of the Maha Kumbh Mela festival during which Hindus gather for a sacred bath at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna rivers around 10 million people had gathered there.When the event ends five weeks later, approximately 100 million people would have moved into and out of Allahabad. (I say "approximately" because the precise numbers are difficult to come by.) It took 60 years for the population of Istanbul to grow from one to 10 million, and 50 years in the case of Lagos. At Allahabad, though, the population rose from zero to 10 million, give or take a few million, in just a week's time.That's a slightly unfair comparison because the local government isn't going to put in place all the fixtures of a functional metropolis. However, it's only partly unfair. The Indian authorities do have to pull off the creation of a huge temporary tent city with minimal mishap. An enormous amount of urban planning, civil engineering, governance and adjudication, and maintenance of public goods physical ones like toilets as well as intangibles such as law and order and plans to deal with unexpected events goes into the creation of this city. Those are pretty much the main elements surrounding the creation of any city in the world.There will also be a reasonably efficient dissolution of the city when the Kumbh Mela ends in late February, but that's another story. Some cities have declined over time, but I can't even imagine what it would take for one of the world's major metropolises to unwind.The mammoth people flows at Allahabad got me excited when two colleagues at Harvard University, religion professor Diana Eck and design professor Rahul Mehrotra, broached the idea of studying the Maha Kumbh Mela some months ago. As a child growing up in India, I had read about the festival, but had never entertained the idea of visiting it or studying it. Having lived outside India for over two decades, I now find myself in a position to revisit the event, intellectually and physically.The flows of humanity that my colleagues and I will study during the five weeks of the KumbhMela will shed light on similar events, such as responses to unexpected events, disasters, and the like, that will take decades to unfold in other metropolises. Some researchers are social anthropologists, in effect, following key officials during the Mela to unmask the processes that allow efficient and rapid decision making. In a sense, the festival is a laboratory setting that scientists of all sorts constantly look for. While there are other large gatherings of folks, such as the Hajj pilgrimage to Mecca, those are a tenth of the size in terms of the number of participants.Another issue of interest is the emergence of social structure in complex groupings. The KumbhMela authorities put down some bright lines on who gets to go where, when, and how for example, rules that govern people's movements during some religious days and some rules are determined by long-standing customs. Other, more informal norms among disparate groups of people seem to emerge quickly. To those interested in how cooperation among diverse groups happens, this is a fortuitous setting.This is also the first Big Data Kumbh, as I call it. With cellphone usage ubiquitous in India, the millions of cell phones at the Kumbh Mela will act as mobile sensors. My colleagues and I have undertaken, with the help of local cellular providers and government authorities, to amass, arguably, the biggest ever telecom data set.To imagine the uses to which researchers could put the data, consider these hypothetical ideas. The data could be used to understand how untoward incidents have been contained. After all, the Maha Kumbh Mela has managed to prevent major disasters for a long time. Why don't disasters spiral out of control when massive numbers of people, unfamiliar with each other, are involved? Can we spot the signatures of an incipient disaster in the data, and the process by which those signals are attenuated rather than amplified?There is much commerce, as well as charitable exchange, of goods and services at the Kumbh Mela. How do vendors deal with the inevitable errors in forecasting demand? Do inter-vendor communication patterns allow the collective containment of uncertainties? Indeed, the telecom data generated at the Kumbh Mela should provide grist to the intellectual mills of statisticians, engineers, mathematicians, and social scientists for a long time, and allow us to model the use of this kind of Big Data.(Source: Eck, 2013 February. Harmony Book, Kumbh Mela, A sacred Geography)2.19 The Construction of the Kumbh MelaHindu religious tradition is often portrayed as established and unchanging by its adherents as well as outside observers. Each of these groups can have good reasons to assert this, for Hindus, it reflects the conviction that their religious practices are rooted in antiquity, whereas for (polemical) outsiders it is evidence for the lack of any meaningful progress. Yet these assumptions ill explain the workings of any religious community which not only constantly changes in response to its times, but also finds ways to clothe these changes in the garb of tradition. Both of these phenomena can be seen in the Kumbha Mela, a Hindu festival that is widely believed to be the world's largest religious gathering. The Kumbha Mela's tone and content have been profoundly altered in the recent past, spurred by changing social, economic, and political conditions. As the reallife KumbhaMela has been constructed through this process of change, one sees the corresponding construction of the sources (textual, mythical, and historical) to provide it with its roots, location, and raison d'tre. These constructed sources root the Kumbha Mela in the distant past, both to give it the authority of antiquity and to portray the festival as unchanging, but these new sources reflect these new forces. These forces have transformed the Kumbha Mela from a theater for ascetic military power into a governmentcontrolled mass religious festival, and this government control is now being challenged by Hindu nationalists. The constant feature throughout the festival's history has been the way it has served as a stage on which groups can enact and contest for authority.(Source: Lochtefeld, 2013 February, The Construction of the Kumbha Mela, South Asian Popular Culture) 2.20 Researches in Kumbh MelaThe KumbhMela is a Hindu religious festival that occurs every twelve years at the confluence of the Ganga and Yamuna Rivers in the city of Allahabad. Since its inception early in the first millennium CE, the KumbhMela has become the largest public gathering in the world; today it draws tens of millions of pilgrims over the course of a few weeks to bathe in the auspicious rivers. The Mela provides a forum for both individual and collective expressions of faith as pilgrims, religious teachers, and followers of monastic orders converge from all parts of India. The next iteration of the festival will take place from January 27-February 25, 2013.The Mela inspires interdisciplinary research in a number of complementary fields. Pilgrimage and religious studies, public health, design, communications, business, and infrastructure engineering converge at this festival, producing a complex atmosphere that can be understood through rigorous documentation and mapping, both on-site and in post-field processing. We consider the KumbhMela to be a case study, or prototype, for a concept we would like to call the pop-up mega-city. This spatial model can be extended to situations outside of religious pilgrimage: understanding the spatial, social, and logistical elements of the Kumbh Mela through interdisciplinary research will allow us to propose the deployment of these systems in a variety of places and situations, in particular camps for refugees of war and natural disasters.The underlying structure of the Mela emerges in the creation of a temporary city to house its many pilgrims. This city is laid out on a grid, constructed and deconstructed within a matter of weeks; within the grid, multiple aspects of contemporary urbanism come to fruition, including spatial zoning, an electricity grid, food and water distribution, physical infrastructure construction, mass vaccinations, public gathering spaces, and nighttime social events. The ultimate goal of the pilgrims is to bathe at the convergence of the rivers: even this act is organized into a larger procession, where pilgrims are given specific times and opportunities to bathe based on their social status. When the festival is not in session, the ground on which the city sits is used for different forms of agriculture.(Source: Mehrotra Feb 2013, Times of India)2.21 Researches at Kumbh Mela by the Researcher of Harvard UniversityLife at the Kumbh Mela can be heard long before it can be seen. Two hours before dawn, the nonstop soundtrack of the worlds largest human gathering drifts up to an oasis of tents on a dusty hill overlooking the site of the Hindu festival. At the camp, a group of Harvard professors, students, and researchers fumbles its way into a few rented jeeps in the 5 a.m. darkness. As the fleet of vehicles makes its descent, the narrow road suddenly opens onto a view of the Kumbh Mela, a temporary tent city of millions of faithful Hindus, many of them already making their way to the banks of the Ganges River to bathe in its life-affirming waters.Normally, a crowd of Westerners wandering through the streets of the Kumbh would draw attention. But when the group arrives at the Ganga, as the sacred river is known, its presence hardly causes a stir.Still, its a curious sight. How did three dozen Harvardians undergraduates and graduate students, case writers and professors, architects and anthropologists, doctors and documentarians end up among millions of pilgrims?For one week in January, this sacred spot where the Ganges, the Yamuna, and the mythical Saraswati rivers meet has become a spot for a meeting of Harvard minds. An interdisciplinary team spearheaded by the South Asia Institute (SAI) arrived at the Kumbh on Jan. 18 with an ambitious plan to map the metabolism of the city. The confluence of northern Indias holiest rivers holds a special significance for the millions of worshippers who attend the Kumbh, but the Harvard team is just as interested in the tent city that springs up alongside the water.This idea of a megacity being set up on a temporary basis for 55 days, its just an incredible feat, said Rahul Mehrotra, one of the projects leaders and a professor of urban design and planning at the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD). Its an intersection of the visible, the invisible, the sacred, and the profane. Everything is colliding.Held every 12 years, the KumbhMela in Allahabad is a centuries-old Hindu pilgrimage with origins in the first century CE. The gathering temporarily transforms an empty floodplain into one of the biggest cities in the world.For much of the year, this area actually is covered by the Ganges. Only in October can the Kumbh Melas administrators and planners ascertain the lay of the land that they actually can use for the gathering. (As one guru put it while holding forth in an ashram, The Ganga gives what she will give.)By early January, a temporary city roughly the size of Cambridge has sprung up in the dusty sand to house hundreds of thousands of sadhus, or holy men, and millions of their followers for six weeks.On the main bathing days, planners expect upwards of 30 million visitors, and such days often draw media coverage for their sheer scale, devotion, and spectacle. But perhaps more impressive is the fact that the regular rhythms of life can exist at the temporary Kumbh, from a steady supply of water and electricity to the building of colorful, organic neighborhoods within each sector.Our concern is to look at this in a much larger context, and not look only at the spectacular and the exotic, said Diana Eck, a professor of comparative religion and Indian studies and Fredric Wertham Professor of Law and Psychiatry in Society, who co-taught a course on the Kumbh with Mehrotra in the fall. The life of this mela as a marketplace, as a place of teaching, of entertainment, of evening performances is something that goes on every day. (Mela is a Sanskrit word for gathering or marketplace.)With that in mind, teams of professors, researchers, and students from across Harvard are meeting under one roof at the Kumbh to explore myriad issues related to rapid urbanization, public health, business, and religious expression at this years festival. The teams are studying everything from the way marketplaces operate, to the use and types of toilets at the Kumbh, to the allocation of living space within different akharas, or sects.The melas lessons, researchers hope, could be applied in many situations. Public health workers and doctors from Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and Harvard Medical School (HMS) see the Kumbh as a model showing how to support mass migrations of people into small areas in the event of a war or natural disaster. Urban planners from GSD, working with Mehrotra, view the gathering as an example of how India whose smaller cities are expected to grow dramatically in the coming years can best support the natural, democratic development of communities. A Harvard Business School team dropped in for research, hoping to turn the Kumbh into one of its trademark case studies. And Eck, a leading scholar of Indias pilgrimage tradition, sees the Kumbh as an opportunity to wed Hinduisms longstanding reverence for the natural environment and its sacred rivers to a growing campaign to clean up the Ganges.A whirlwind week at the Kumbh makes for a chaotic experience, but one that should prove fruitful for the type of ambitious multidisciplinary work that SAI fosters, said associate director Meena Hewett. As South Asia expands rapidly in both population and influence, Harvard can take the lead in understanding the region, she said. (SAIs influence has recently grown as well. Under the leadership of director and Harvard Business School Professor TarunKhanna since 2010, it was recently upgraded from an initiative to an institute within Harvard.)I think Harvard has a lot to learn from South Asia, Hewett said. One thing youll hear from all faculty is the issue of scalability. Its very easy to transform the lives of one or two individuals. But when youre working on issues that affect 2 billion people, the impact is huge. The KumbhMela is a microcosm of the region.2.21.1 A lesson on urban planning of Kumbh MelaIf you wanted to jury-rig your own local version of Google Maps, you might end up with something like the Harvard Graduate School of Design (GSD) team gathered one January morning, already sweltering under the rising Indian sun.But GSD professor Rahul Mehrotra and his colleagues and students were going where Google hasnt: into the heart of the Maha Kumbh Mela, Indias ephemeral city, an impressive grid of colorful, tent-lined streets that pops up every 12 years to accommodate the worlds largest gathering of Hindu pilgrims.Instead of using a Street View van to capture the 360-degree sweep of the citys streets, the graduate students would be deployed to take panoramic shots on DSLR cameras. And in lieu of high-resolution satellites that capture aerial photographs, the team had a high-powered handheld camera mounted to a kite and flown high in the air.Each akhara is allotted space by the Kumbhs administrators before the event begins, and each maintains a high degree of control over how it organizes its neighborhood. Photo by Felipe Vera/Courtesy of GSD India InitiativeTheir equipment may have been modest, but the groups ambitions were big: to map the mela, or gathering, as comprehensively as possible, from its informal back roads and infrastructure grid to the flow of people and resources in and out of the Kumbh, which accommodates up to 80 million pilgrims on peak days.The Kumbhs surprisingly orderly feel is a result, he believes, not just of the pilgrims respect for the sacred space, but also of the city planners careful decision-making: wide central roads, well-spaced public toilets, and the casual but pervasive presence of 10,000 police officers.Cities in India are often not about grand design, theyre about grand adjustment, Mehrotra said later. In Indian cities, a lot of the landscape is a kind of temporary landscape, a phenomenon he calls temporal urbanism. While Indian cities may neglect the slums springing up organically within them, the Kumbh Mela has found a way to make the temporary nature of its housing and infrastructure work.At the Kumbh, [the citys administrators] use infrastructure as a way to organize and deploy order in the city, and then they allow within these blocks incredible chaos, Mehrotra said. The result is a lesson in how infrastructure can be used as a tool to neutralize differences and still let differences thrive.If we value pluralism and we value coexistence, then these become important lessons, he said. Its a common refrain for Mehrotra, whose work as an architect in India, prior to his Harvard appointment, included projects as diverse as the conservation of the TajMahal and the design of public toilets.That pluralism was on full display once the sector four team left the main margs, or roads, and entered the city-block space designated to members of the JunaAkhara, one of the largest and most powerful sects at the Kumbh. Each akhara is allotted space by the Kumbhs administrators before the event begins, and each maintains a high degree of control over how it organizes its neighborhood. In the JunaAkhara area, flashing lights, displays of ornamental weapons garlanded with marigolds, and a crowded network of alleys winding among the tents created a vibe that seemed a world apart from the quiet, sparse, and open space of the ashram next door.That diversity can thrive within these enclaves is one of the Kumbhs lessons for urban planners, especially those who study temporary spaces, such as refugee camps or slums.Refugee camps, some of them last for 20, 30, 40 years, but they become soulless, Mehrotra said. Refugees are housed in a repetitive pattern of tents; ethnic groups identities are neutralized to prevent infighting within the camps.Whats interesting about the kumbh is that the neutralizing instruments are the grid, the roads, the things that are shared by everyone, Mehrotra said. But then every Akhara is a community of 50,000 people who are allowed individual expression, and they all have their own internal logic in terms of the way theyre organized. And that creates a module, a neighborhood; it creates a sense of community which never happens in refugee camps.Its much more clean and neat than what you would expect, said Felipe Vera, a Chilean design student. The Kumbhs surprisingly orderly feel is a result, he believes, not just of the pilgrims respect for the sacred space, but also of the city planners careful decision-making. Photo by VineetDiwadkar/Courtesy of GSD India InitiativeSince joining the GSD faculty in 2010, Mehrotra has been taking groups of students from Harvards Schools to sites in Mumbai as part of his studio workshop in extreme urbanism. He soon realized that whatever his students backgrounds law, public policy, business, design they often arrived with preconceptions of how Mumbai functioned and how it should change, baggage that took a whole semester to unpack, he says. After all, the clinic didnt even exist four months ago, when the land it stood on was still covered in water. Back in the fall, Singh received a call from the planners of the Maha Kumbh Mela, Indias massive religious gathering held every 12 years, saying he would be needed to staff one of the festivals dozens of hospitals and clinics, which would be built like everything else in this temporary city virtually overnight. By early January, clinics like Singhs were up and running, ready to serve the millions of Hindu pilgrims who would be coming through to worship, as well a curious Harvard researcher or two.This is really impressive, said Gregg Greenough, an emergency physician and assistant professor of global health and population at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH), as he toured the clinic. In my department, we only have 10 beds.Greenough found himself at the Kumbh as part of a research team run by Harvards FXB Center for Health and Human Rights, which planned to monitor all kinds of public health concerns at the Kumbh, from the provision of pre-hospital care (how quickly those new ambulances navigated the Kumbhs crowded footbridges) to the management and care of lost children (a big problem in a crowd of millions speaking dozens of languages) to the quality of the drinking water and public toilets at the festival.The massive amounts of data and dozens of public health lessons will also be used back at Harvard, where student interest in global health extends well beyond the confines of HSPH. The Harvard Global Health Institute (HGHI), a kind of University-wide think tank on health education across disciplines and one of two major funders of the project, along with the South Asia Institute, is planning a series of case studies based on Harvard research at the Kumbh. Theyre hoping to create a permanent archive of research materials on the festival and its history, some of which they have already gathered in an online bibliography.Sources:(Katie K, 2013 January 21. Harvard Gazette: Inside Indias pop-up city: Harvard team maps the Kumbh Mela, the worlds largest gathering) (Katie K, 2013, March1. Harvard Gazette: Tracking disease in a tent city: Public health researchers follow outbreaks in real time at Indias Kumbh Mela)2.22 Kumbh Mela; 80 Million Pilgrim MarchKumbh Mela, the festival is a full-scale assault on the germs, garbage and human waste being generated in the temporary megacity that has been constructed to deal with the crowds. To combat disease-carrying flies, 400 laborers will spray 28 tons of bleaching powder, along with the insecticide DDT, over 250 garbage pits and open drains during the course of the two-month extravaganza. They will work alongside 6,000 cleaners in green baseball caps who sweep up 56 tons of garbage a day and bury human waste left in the open (a common practice in rural India) in 4,000 chemically treated pits.The festival, which started on Jan. 14 and runs to March 10, is believed to be at least two millennia old. It attracts an eclectic stew of Hindu holy men, Bollywood stars, ordinary pilgrims and curious tourists who come to bathe in the Ganges, India's holiest river, where drops of the nectar of immortality are believed to have been spilled from a pitcher by the gods at creation.

Allahabad benefits from "centuries of experience" staging Kumbh events, he adds. Every year, the city hosts the Magh Kumbh, which is one-sixth the size of the current festival. (Magh is the 11th month of the Hindu calendar and falls between January and February.)Once the bridges were in place, workers toiled around the clock to install a temporary electricity grid. It had 100,000 connection points, 45 diesel generators, 52 substations and 22,000 posts carrying 2,081 miles of cable with it.

Temporary road surfaces were put down using 99 miles of double steel plating to enable cars to move on land that cannot bear much of a load. Some 25,000 street lamps were added to the site, which totals 22 square miles.

Some 466 miles of piping were laid to