DM Deshpande
On January 13, the Mahakumbh 2025 began in Prayagraj. A 45 days religious festival that culminates in a congregation of an estimated 400 million people, the Mahakumbh is easily the biggest gathering in the world.
In contrast, 1.8 million people attended the Haj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia last year. Mahakumbh (earlier called as Purna Kumbha) is a deeply religious event for Hindus that is observed after a gap of 12 years. The Kumbh Mela (earlier known as Ardha Kumbh), a mini version of the main festival, comes once in every six years.
It is without doubt a mammoth event and poses umpteen challenges of planning, organizing and executing at every stage. Near freezing temperatures accompanied by a vast humanity of pilgrims, young and old, sadhus, saints, women and children- all waiting and wanting to take a dip in the holy river pose daunting challenges. The challenges range from maintaining 24/7 water supply, health and hygiene, sanitation, waste disposal, law and order, food and shelter and above all, maintaining the sanctity of the event.
Just to put the size of the event in perspective, the number of visiting pilgrims is more than 3 times the entire population of Russia. During the mela period over 13,000 trains are expected to run with about 250 flights connecting Prayagraj with the rest of the country. Arrangements are made for pilgrims to undertake day trips to Varanasi and Ayodhya.
In order to ensure that the visitors get a better view of the coveted Ganga Aarti, cruise trips along the river will be in operation.
The Mahakumbh grounds have been expanded from 16 sq. km in 2013 to 40 sq. km, to cater to the huge increase in the crowd from 16 crore people in 2013 to 40 crore in 2025. In the 2019 Kumbh Mela the footfalls were estimated at 25 crore. The state government had initiated several measures for the convenience of incoming pilgrims that included ensuring security, cleanliness and transportation. These efforts have been doubled in preparation for the Mahakumbh this year.
Even the budget has more than doubled. The UP tourism department has made arrangements for providing tent style accommodation; 2,000 such cottages are built. The cost per night ranges from Rs1,500 to Rs 35,000 which ought to take care of visitors from varying income levels.
There is no dearth of availability of luxury tents either, for example, Royal Orchid’s Hotel Dome City offering wooden cottages. A new temporary city has popped up Mahakumbh Nagar with 25 sectors and 56 police stations. It is notified as the 76th district in UP. A 4,000 hectare area known as Triveni Sangam, where the Ganga and Yamuna rivers meet the invisible mythical river Saraswati will turn into a Mini India during the mela period.
A 50,000- strong police personnel will be on duty, significantly larger than the 12,000 force in 2013. How much security, law and order have been given importance can be gauged from the fact that 50,000 men on duty is twice the strength of the police force in a state like Uttarakhand.
When the event passes off peacefully, there is no issue or a problem. But if things go wrong, there will be furore, quite naturally, though. Things did go wrong in a stampede in 1954 that killed hundreds of pilgrims. That, of course, was a long time back. However, in 2013 too at least 36 people lost their lives in an incident of stampede.
The combined budget of UP state and the central government for the mega event is over Rs 12,000 crore, which was the overall revenue generated in 2013. Temporary roads, 400, pontoon bridges, and electricity supply at the venue are all big ticket budget items in the budget. The revenue generated by Kumbha Mela 2013 according to CII was of the order of Rs 1.2 lakh crore. The 2025 Mahakumbh is expected to generate at least over Rs 2 lakh crore in revenues. This easily could go up as luxury tents, for example, costing a lakh rupees per night have come up besides other expensive luxuries on offer at the site.
Some estimates peg the revenue to touch Rs 4 lakh crore depending on how pilgrims spend during the one and half month’s grand event. Advisor to the UP chief minister Awanish Awasthi, in a quick back- of- the envelope calculation, expects high level of revenue generation during the mega event. Even if a pilgrim spends Rs 8,000 on an average, it will translate to a total of Rs 3.2 lakh crore, he said.
The state government may not benefit fully from all the incomes earned during Mahakumbh. Several economic activities may be carried out in the unorganized sector and small scale firms that include renting out smaller and lower value tents, tempo operators, rickshaw pullers, flower sellers, boat operators, priests offering religious services et al.
Undoubtedly, this decadal spectacle which will last for more than two months will give a massive boost to the local economy in terms of employment and income generation. In 2013 economic activities related to the mela generated over 6 lakh jobs. The 2025 year is a bigger event that will benefit more people in the state.
Overall, optimistic expectations are that this edition of Mahakumbh will add over one per cent to the nation’s GDP. Even if there is a small slippage, it is still a massive boost coming at a crucial time when the projected growth for year 2025, is lower than the last year. What is essentially a convergence of faith and religious activity is actually turning out to be a beacon of economic hope as well.
The author has four decades of experience in higher education teaching and research. He is the former first vice-chancellor of ISBM University, Chhattisgarh.
