The now popular civic governance learning programme conducted by
Bangalore’s Janaagraha centre, Bala Janaagraha programme, is hosting its
‘Mini Civic Fests’ finals on January 18 at Devraj Urs Auditorium,
Vasanth Nagar, Bangalore. For the uninitiated, the Bala Janaagraha
programme is conducted for students of 8th Standard of interested
government, aided and private schools in the city and other urban
centres. As part of the programme, the students, every year, prepare a
project on a particular civic issue and present it as a thesis of sorts.

This
year’s civic project encouraged students to understand the value of
urban planning and the various factors which form the basic focus of
city plans. The children chose one road near their schools or homes
(residential or school neighbourhoods), carried out a survey, analysed
the road and understood its positives and negatives and found solutions
to its problems.

“The objective of the exercise is to see to it
that students taking part in the programme would be more informed and
involved in active citizenship and participatory democracy than those
who did not. It is also hoped that through this knowledge building
initiative, youth will be emboldened to take first steps towards active
citizenry,” says Mahalakshmi B, convergence associate, JanaRoots,
Janaagraha, Vasanth Nagar. The road will also be given a quality score
by the children. They will measure the road, its width and length, and
interview the residents, businesses, experts, officials, all those who
use, live and conduct business on that road or those who are in-charge
of the maintenance of the road.

All the survey work has been
conducted either after school hours or on the weekends. Finally, the
students submitted a written report as well as prepared a power point
presentation summarising the work done, including their findings and
solutions proposed. “We’ve had nearly 11,000 students coming out with
around 900 projects during the Mini Civic Fest. They’ve put in their
best to fix the city roads they love, across the country. The top 18
finalists will be competing in the upcoming Bangalore Civic Fest Finals
on Jan 18th,” says Mahalakshmi.

According to Janaagraha
volunteers, the students are leaving no stone unturned to ensure the
selected road in their community is in better condition — free from pot
holes, has adequate lighting, no littering on the road, even ensuring no
one urinates against their school compound wall and much more. “The
students will be orally presenting their projects on the 18th, which
will be put live on our website. The students have taken great pains to
conduct their projects, getting involved with the public as well
concerned civic agencies,” explains Mahalakshmi.

Calendar of events

• The Mini Civic Fest (for Bangalore) for a cluster of 10 schools were held in December.

• The City level finals will be held on 18th January.

• The National fest, a first time this year, will be in Bangalore on 7th February.

• From 2013-14, the National level Civic Fest will be followed by a
  Principals’ meet / seminar. This is being held on 8th February, 2014 at
  Bangalore.