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Summary:Life Navrangi is the second season in the Navrangi series, a follow up to the successful 26-episode television drama Navrangi Re! (Nine to a Shade), broadcast by Viacom18 on three of its channels and OTT platforms in 2019. Both series have been supported by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
Life Navrangi and its key character Vishwas, a young journalist, once again played by Aamir Ali, is all set to entertain, educate, and jolt people out of their doom scrolling - and into greater awareness around sanitation issues as part of the storyline. The heroine of this show is a runaway bride, Saloni, a budding YouTuber, known better as #SimplySaloni. They team up to launch a YouTube channel, on which they tell real stories (as opposed to fake news) that make a difference to people’s lives.
Life Navrangi navigates relevant and interesting issues – plans and difficulties about owning one’s dream home, making a mark in one’s profession, dealing with debt and a marriage threatening to fall apart. Its storylines also highlight various facets of FSM such as regular desludging, indiscriminate dumping of untreated faecal sludge that contaminates water, building the right kind of septic tank without cutting corners and preventing hazardous cleaning.
This issue is critical to health and the safety of water in the country. India’s urban areas produce 120,000 tons of faecal sludge every day. However, only 33 per cent of houses are connected to sewer systems, and around 38% use septic tanks. While India has made considerable progress in building and using toilets, according to the Central Pollution Control Board, 70 percent of the sewage generated from urban India is not treated. This is dumped indiscriminately in water bodies, empty spaces, and agricultural lands, posing a serious health threat to the ecosystem.
Proper faecal sludge and septage management (FSSM) is a convenient, adaptable, and inexpensive method of complementing centralised sewerage networks while helping to protect health and the environment.
The series aims to increase improve people's awareness, understanding and engagement on these issues, with arcs that build on strong female characters and cross socio-economic and cultural divides. Several characters occupying different points on the sanitation value chain and add to the twists and turns in the story. Gender norms are a constant subtext, breaking gender stereotypes and examining non-traditional career options for women; the storytelling also addresses the harmful role of mix and disinformation.
