Unique mobile, TV ban in Karnataka village for social bonding

BELAGAVI:  The increasing use of smartphones and other gadgets has hit the social life of people hard. It is gradually diluting the care and affection between human beings who earlier visited each other’s homes, caught up with friends and organised family and village get-togethers. Many children have even stopped playing on the streets and playgrounds because of the addiction which affects their healthy upbringing.

With an aim to revive the ages-old traditions, residents of Vadgaon at Sangli in Athani, a small village on Karnataka-Maharashtra border, have decided to ban television and mobile phones in their village from 7 pm to 9 pm everyday.

Speaking to TNIE, Vijay Mohite, President of Vadgaon Gram Panchayat (GP) said that during the Covid pandemic, parents were forced to provide smartphones to their children to avail online education. The home-schooling has now made students addicted to gadgets. As a result, many students now misuse their smartphones without the knowledge of their parents, he said.

The gadget and TV addiction forced the Vadgaon Gram Panchayat to pass a resolution, as per which a loudspeaker has been installed on top of a temple in the village, which sounds a siren twice, at 7 pm and at 9 pm respectively.

When the siren goes at 7 pm, villagers switch off their TV sets and smartphones and step out of their homes to interact with each other, said Mohite. Now members of several Gram Panchayats from Karnataka and Maharashtra are visiting Vadgaon to see the public response to the initiative.

Sunil Cholekar, office superintendent of a private college in Belagavi said, “Villagers of Vadgaon have taken a very wise decision. It is the need of the hour. Hope other villages and cities replicate it too”.