Young minds at work to improve civic conditions

BENGALURU: The third edition of Janaagraha’s annual Bengaluru Civic Fest saw students from across the country providing solutions to various civic problems through their projects. Over 14,000 students, studying from Classes 6 to 12 participated through the IChangeMyCity challenge portal co-created by Cisco. Altogether 25 teams were shortlisted to present their ideas at the fest on Tuesday. 

Charisma Paul, a student from Assissi School in TC Palya, said, “After hearing about incidents where people fall in open manholes, we raised awareness in our school and asked students to lodge a complaint with the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) when they see open manholes and keep following it up until it is fixed.” 

Sudeep M, a Class 8 students from Bluebell Public School, created a project on mobile addiction titled ‘Mobile Addiction, ministry of anti radiation’. He and his group conducted a survey on 500 school students on Hosur Road, during which they had to answer questions on the amount of time spent on phones. The study showed that 97% of them were addicted to their phones and only 30% played outside. “Seeing the data, we roped in a psychologist who came to school and gave a lesson on not to use phones. We went to classes to spread awareness on its negative effects,” said Sudeep. 

Mohammad Rayaan, a Class 8 student of St Joseph High School, created an electric bike that runs on water to reduce pollution. He filled a water can with seven-eight litres of water. Rashmi G from Siri School did a project on potholes with her group. Tired of the state of the road in front of their school, she and her friends decided to fix it themselves.