In 2013, a Facebook page was started for the residents of Chitlapakkam, and that is how Chitlapakkam Rising was born, quietly, away from the glare of wider public attention. At that time, the group did not have the spots of a socio-civic movement. And now, by virtue of carrying out socio-civic activities on a sustained basis, it is seen as an agent of change, beyond the neighbourhood.
Every Sunday, it organises a cultural evening for the delectation of the residents, in a vacant space near the Chitlapakkam lake. By doing so, it unobtrusively brings residents together and enables them to readily identify themselves with the neighbourhood.
Sunil Jayaram, one of the founding members of Chitlapakkam Rising, says that the team drew inspiration from the Bengaluru-based movement ‘The Ugly Indian,’ a group of anonymous volunteers who transform the city’s streets.
“We were a group of young college students and IT professionals and most of us were following ‘The Ugly Indians.’ Inspired by what they do, we started off by cleaning an ‘ugly’ spot near the Chitlapakkam Lake that was caked with trash. However, trash returned to the spot the following week and so, we painted the wall near it and started cleaning up the place regularly. In just a matter of weeks, trash stopped coming there,” he says.
Theirs is a brand of activism that grew organically. Their first project was painting the walls of the Tambarum Sanatorium subway and then the Pallavaram flyover. “We spent out of our own pockets for the paint and other material. Every weekend, volunteers will set out to paint the walls. The wall-painting activity brought attention to the group and more people started joining them,” he adds.
Soon, the team realised that they shouldn’t stop with painting the walls and planting trees and also focus on pressing issues in Chitlapakkam that needed to be addressed. As residents, they knew how the neighbourhood gets flooded and marooned during monsoon. And then, the landfill along the Chitlapakkam Lake, a major cause of concern for the residents.
“Almost all the resident welfare associations and other outfits had been campaigning for the removal of the dumping ground that had occupied more than three acres of the lake area. We started posting about the landfill on the Facebook page and eventually took the campaign to the streets. We started a signature campaign and held candle night vigils at the lake to get the attention of the authorities. After a series of protests, the Chitlapakkam Panchayat finally started shifting the landfill out of the lake,” says Sunil.
For details, log on to https://www.facebook.com/groups/chitlapakkam.rising/ or contact Sunil Jayaram at 95001 22151.
To be an effective pressure group, ensure these three Cs are in place
Closer to the locality
Chitlapakkam Rising is disarmingly simple in its approach to neighbourhood development. All it does is bring residents closer to their environment. Civic change results from such engagement, says Sunil Jayaraman.
It started ‘Sangamam’, which is about organising talent shows for children in public parks in Chitlapakkam.
“The idea behind ‘Sangamam’ is to prevent encroachments of public parks by using them often,” says Sunil Jayaraman.
Closer to the people
When an aspect of the neighbourhood has to be changed, all that is needed is to connect more and more with the stakeholders. After the ban on single-use plastic came into effect, Chitlapakkam Rising has been conducting weekly audits at the shops in the locality, says Sunil.
Closer to the issues
Problems are handled better if each of them is tackled separately. So, Chitlapakkam Rising has many focus groups, each dealing with a particular aspect of neighbourhood development. So, there is a group focussing on roads, another on lakes, another on solid waste management, another on RTI and RTE, and so on, explains Sunil. Each of the groups is encouraged to specialise in the areas assigned to them. And therefore, when an issue crops up in any of these areas, everyone knows who should be in the vanguard; and the rest will follow the group.