Bala Janaagraha Civic Festeval: Over 450 students take part in online fiesta

Bengaluru: From innovative methods to manage waste in cities to creating an inclusive society for those with disabilities, the 7th Edition of Bala Janaagraha's Our City Our Challenge saw students submitting innovative projects that aim to resolve social, environmental and civic issues around us. The young change makers were celebrated at Bala Janaagraha's Civic Fest, an online fiesta attended by over 450 plus students' pan-India. The event also marked the valedictory of the six-month Our City Our Challenge, with 73 of the 1389 projects being picked as winning projects.

Winning projects were selected based on the type of issues picked up by the children, magnitude of efforts taken by the young change makers to resolve them and the quality of civic engagement undertaken by them to become influencers and create awareness on the specific issues they tried to address.

Some of the best projects included those aimed at solving waste management issues in cities. Bengaluru's waste issue often hits headlines. Hemapriya B S, Ankitha Nayana Raj, Nehal Shetty, Anvita R and Saanvi K S landscaped their neighbourhood to understand the percentage of citizens following the process of waste segregation in their neighbourhoods TG Layout and Maruti Nagar.

They accompanied BBMP Pourakarmikas daily, during the morning waste collection routine and advocated the importance of waste segregation to residents handing over mixed waste. In 32 days, these awareness drives started showing results and now the Pourakarmikas report that almost every household segregates waste at source.

Meanwhile, Aarav Jain and Adhyayan Sharma from Learning Paths School, aimed to solve the overflowing garbage bin issue. Through their project 'Garboball' they created an innovative bin which compresses waste into sheets and creates more space in the bin. Also, by installing netted hoops around the bin, they ensured that waste does not drop on the streets.Likith S N, Aditya S Uranakar, Varun V Javagal and Adarsh Jadekar of 8th standard in BEL Vidyalaya (CBSE) worked to make streets safe for visually impaired people. They created an instrument which creates a buzzing sound with light indicators and alerts people when they are near a blind person, so that they can make way and also offer help.Niranjan J, Nanda Kishore D, Nithin Kumar Reddy. S and Mithun of 9th grade studying in Sujana Convent School, Bengaluru, built a prototype streetlight which works on light sensors and automatically turns on and off."Quality of life in cities will be possible only when citizens take charge. Quality is not accidental rather it is an outcome of consistent, intelligent and constant effort. Our education system must embed lessons that make our youth responsible so that they will shoulder the responsibilities and contribute to nation-building," said S Kannan, Principal, Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya , Bengaluru."This is the seventh year of the Our City Our Challenge initiative and what makes Janaagraha pursue the initiative with the same passion is the manner in which children respond to the initiative. Children come with absolutely no baggage which we often see in adults and hence the approach used by them to resolve their local civic issues is refreshing.