Delhi Public SchoolS win Bala Janaagraha National Civic Fest
Delhi Public School, Patna students won the first position, followed by Delhi Public School, Pune, Delhi Public School, Coimbatore and Cambridge Court High School, Jaipur.
Janaagraha Center for Citizenship and Democracy (JCCD), a non-profit organization based in Bengaluru, works with citizens and the government to improve the quality of life in Indian cities. Bala Janaagraha is one of the flagship programs of Janaagraha, which is a uniquely designed & carefully thought out civic education program conducted forclass VIII students of government, aided and private schools across 25 cities in India.
For four months Bala Janaagraha students across 25 cities worked in true spirit of bringing in a desired change in their community through the project “Our Road”, right from selecting the road, identifying the civic issues, analysing and drafting solutions by involving the stake holders of the road, and approaching various civic representatives to address the problems and few pursued the matter with confidence and even got the solutions implemented!
About 40000 students from 527 schools, presented their project at various levels of Civic Fest: Mini Civic Fest, City Level Civic Fest, Zonal Civic Fest, and the top four finalists from Zonal Civic Fest presented their project during National Civic Fest held on 5th Feb at Bharathiya Vidya Bhavan, Bengaluru in presence of esteemed judges – Mr.Charanjit Singh, Vice President at HSBC Global Research Center , Bengaluru, Mrs. Maya Menon, Founder Director, The Teacher Foundation, Bengaluru and Mr. P.K.H. Tharakan IPS, Former Director General of the Kerala Police and Advisor to Governor of Karnataka
The four finalists, who presented the project included –
Cambridge court High School students from Jaipur will be representing the North Zone
Delhi Public School students from Pune will be representing the West Zone
Delhi Public School Students from Patna will be representing the East Zone
Delhi Public School Students from Coimbatore will be representing the South Zone.
The event unfolded with an inspiring and motivating speech by Janaagraha’s Co-founder
Ramesh Ramnathan by recognizing that the civic effort of the children is something that even adults have to learn from. “We can breathe easy knowing that the future of our country is in safe hands”, he said and audience whole heartedly agreed.
Also, new logo was unveiled by our Advisory group member Mrs.Mala Ramadorai, Chairperson Citi Academy for Special Education and acclaimed singer, Mumbai.
Followed by the first school to present their work was Delhi Public School, Coimbatore – Their experience of meeting officials like the ward councillor, MLA and the Health officer; then implementing changes such as garbage collection, removal of encroachments and road plumbing works, demonstrated the extent of their efforts. Their revolutionary ideas such as solar lights and differently abled friendly roads have already been incorporated in the plans to make Coimbatore a Smart City. They quoted their inspiration stemmed from Warren Buffett’s famous lines- “Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago.”
Cambridge Court High School, Jaipur similarly conducted street plays, signature campaigns, facilitated many changes in their chosen road and even filled some of the pot holes themselves. Their extra initiatives like paper bag production, cleaning up Jaymahal, tree plantations and kite campaign to save the birds in Jaipur, really shows their spirit and determination to be active citizens.
Delhi Public School, Patna, went far beyond expectations meeting the MLA, Municipal Commissioner and UDHC Minister to get their road fixed- street lights, pot holes, footpath, road levelling and garbage disposal; they left no stone unturned, when it came to transforming their road. They also created awareness through plays, cleanliness campaigns, posters and pamphlet distribution. Organic resin road and a biogas plant were also proposed as future projects that they wanted to follow up on.
Delhi Public School, Pune, did a tremendous job by adopting a slum and donating a blue drum for waste disposal in addition to the urban development they brought about in their road. They also promoted the use of decomposer machine and carried out a slurry and plantation drive. The integration and implementation of the alumni- Yash Wani’s efforts in making speed breakers that generate electricity was the highlight of their presentation. The students appreciated their senior’s effort and said “He lit the spark that ignited the fire in us to bring about change in our city”.
Young Champions of Change
Apart from the presentation by the above teams, four Young Champions of Change were also felicitated, who post the intervention of the programme, have done some remarkable work in their community and in school bringing noticeable change.
The four young champions of change are –
* Bharat Muleva & his team from My School – Bengaluru, initiated and implemented segregation of waste in their residence and school. Also, they spread awareness on the importance of proper waste management to fellow students, which resulted in the installation of a compost bin in their school. They showed great initiative and championed the message of “segregation of waste”.
* Abhishek Barmola & Shikhar Rastogi from Shri Guru Ram Rai Public School, Talab – Dehradun, presented the civic representatives with a detailed report on various civic issues plaguing in their community. They pursued the matter with great diligence, and ensured that the civic representatives addressed the concerned issues. They have shown great initiative and have championed the message on “Civic Participation”.
* Venkatesh Agarwal & his team from Delhi Public School – Pune, convinced the Corporator of their area to send recycled plastic waste to industries, so as to convert plastic to fuel. They have shown great initiative and championed the message of “reduce, reuse and recycle”.
*Neeti Verma and her team from Delhi Public School – Pune, conducted two Pollution Under Control campaigns, through which they screened 155 vehicles. Also, they distributed free saplings to improve the greenery of a stretch of road. They have shown great initiative and championed the message of ‘Going Green’
Essay contest for Alumni
For the first time, an essay contest for our Alumni students and the winners of the contest were also awarded in this platform –
The first place winner, Tulika Bannerjee, also from DPS Pune, has since worked with underprivileged children and believes that the only way forward is if everyone works together toward a brighter future. The second place was tied between Samyukta Mahot, St. Xaviers High School, Nagpur and Ambar Modi, DPS Pune. Ambar said, “What I learnt from Bala Janaagraha is that I can bring about a change, no matter how tough the situation is. I know I can do it.”
Third place was awarded to Pranthik from DPS Pune said, “We are given two hands; one to help ourselves and one to help others.”
Last but not the least, the volunteers fondly called as Bala Janaagraha Mitras, eighteen of them were also felicitated for their active involvement in conduct of the programme for the year 2015-16.
As rightly put by Mr. Tharakan said, “I am proud to be allowed to judge such a tremendous effort. Let us listen to them and make this world a better place for the bright young generations”
