'%20x='0'%20y='0'%20height='100%25'%20width='100%25'%20%0A%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20xlink%3Ahref='data:image/jpg;base64,/9j/2wBDAAYEBQYFBAYGBQYHBwYIChAKCgkJChQODwwQFxQYGBcUFhYaHSUfGhsjHBYWICwgIyYnKSopGR8tMC0oMCUoKSj/2wBDAQcHBwoIChMKChMoGhYaKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCgoKCj/wAARCAAHAAoDASIAAhEBAxEB/8QAFgABAQEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEE/8QAIRAAAQMEAQUAAAAAAAAAAAAAAQIDBAAFESESBjFRcaL/xAAVAQEBAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAADBf/EABsRAAEEAwAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAEAAhEhA5HR/9oADAMBAAIRAxEAPwDLfur70ZcWEl1E6GF8nGnXFhQWBgEknYGc48+6irpeCokWpg778xv6pSpjhEWdnqcYwaX/2Q=='%3E%3C/image%3E%3C/svg%3E)
On October 26, YouTuber Tyler Oliveira posted a clip on his Instagram in which he was seen participating in India’s cow-dung throwing festival, also known as Gorehabba. As seen in the video, he was surrounded by half-clothed men covered in cow dung. He kept on saying:
“I am stinking. I am stinking.”
As others held his arms and made him walk through the dung, he said:
“I am gonna die today. They are going to kill me.”
He repeatedly asked the men to spare him. At one point, he got hit with a lump of dung on his right cheek. Tyler Oliveira somehow managed to get out. According to a local outlet, Gorehabba is celebrated by the people of Gumatapura village, which is located in the Indian state of Karnataka. The festival also marks the end of Diwali, another Indian festival of lights.
The people of Gumatapura believe that the God they worship, Beereshwara Swamy, was born from cow dung. The animal waste is first transported to a temple where a priest performs some rites. After that, it is taken to a playing field where people, mostly young boys and men, play.
The YouTuber also posted the clip on his X account, where he commented:
“This video is NOTHING compared to everything we captured. Stay tuned.”
When a social media user accused him of creating the video using AI, Tyler Oliveira replied:
“This is 100% real. I can’t wait to show you a 30-minute version of it.”
Looking back at Tyler Oliveira’s visit to Dharavi
This does not seem to be Tyler Oliveira’s first visit to India. In 2023, he visited a residential area in Mumbai known as Dharavi, which is also a large slum. He toured the slum with a person named Rahul. When asked if people built their own homes, after he saw several self-constructed houses, Rahul said:
“They build their own house, but actually those who are residents don't know how to build their own house, so we have a local builder.”
Oliveira and Rahul then went to a commercial area in Dharavi. Showing plastic waste, he said that those materials came from industries and streets. Rahul said:
“After sorting out this plastic, they will send this plastic to another industry that will crush it.”
When Tyler Oliveira asked how much the workers got paid, Rahul said they got paid like $5 to $8 every day after working for almost 11 hours. Tyler explained that the working conditions were harsh, and people there earned only about $500 to $2,000 a year for hard labor.
He said most of them took these jobs because they came from nearby countries that were even poorer and had fewer job options. Rahul then took him to a soap factory, where he explained how the soaps were made, saying:
“They cut it here from this big soap cube and then from this break, with the help of this small machine, a cutting machine they make a small piece. For one USD you can buy the 84 soaps.”
Tyler Oliveira said the living conditions in the area were tight, and people lived wherever they could. He said the industries and people’s houses were on top of each other.
Reply
