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.