In search of an unexpected gift from Maa Yamuna, Rajveer Singh and Banar Singh dive deep into India’s most polluted water body. This is not something they started doing recently.

"I've been doing this for forty years just to pull through life," Rajveer says, right after gulping down a sip of bottled water.

They are not just searching for coins; their fingers sift through the riverbed for scrap metal, discarded bottles and anything else that can be sold in the scrap market. On average, a person earns around Rs 600 a day. Rajveer holds up a single one-rupee coin to show the meagre rewards of his labour.

"We have faith that God will bless us. Yamuna is like our mother, she has fed us all these years," Banar Singh says as his friend resurfaces from the dark water, clutching a small idol of Lord Ganesh.

Because of the annual Ganesh Chaturthi immersions, Ganapati is the most common idol they find buried in the river mud.

Yet the reality of their daily routine is brutal. The men who dive into the Yamuna face an incredibly hostile and hazardous working environment.

Heavily polluted with raw sewage, industrial chemical runoff and toxic heavy metals, the river is less a waterway and more a biological and chemical hazard zone. Constant contact with these industrial toxins triggers chronic, painful skin rashes, severe respiratory issues and long-term risks such as cancer.

"This dark, altered skin texture is because of the chemicals in the river," Banar Singh explains, holding up his hands to show the physical toll of his decades in the water.

 

It is a gruelling existence: standing under a blistering 40°C sun before diving into a cocktail of industrial chemicals. For Rajveer and Banar, life is a constant struggle, but they have families to feed and bread to win.

As they work, a loyal pet dog swims alongside them in quiet camaraderie, while someone waits faithfully on the shore for their return.