Clothes being washed on banks of Ganga river: Swachh Bharat in action, in Uttar Pradesh

From the archive record

The banks of the Ganges are a live washerman colony, with numerous commercial and private washermen doing their job, using the polluted waters to 'wash' their clothes, in the process further adding detergent and soap into the fouled waters... Varanasi, is a city on the banks of the Ganges (Ganga) in Uttar Pradesh, 320 kilometres (200 mi) southeast of the state capital, Lucknow. It is the holiest of the seven sacred cities (Sapta Puri) in Hinduism and Jainism, and played an important role in the development of Buddhism. Some Hindus believe that death at Varanasi brings salvation. It is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world and the oldest in India.Varanasi is also known as the favourite city of the Hindu deity Lord Shiva as it has been mentioned in the Rigveda that thi