City Pulse

The popular concept of  ‘Pay it forward’ aims to build a society where kindness is a norm, by creating a chain of altruistic behavior through random acts of kindness passed on by people to each other.

Volunteering is akin to this concept where people pick up issues close to their heart and work towards resolving them in a collective manner with like-minded citizens. 

In recent years, India has witnessed a wave of citizen movements and Bengaluru has been at the forefront of these movements. Bengaluru’s vibrant and active citizenry is emerging as a beacon to the rest of the country as there is a growing awareness among people that the job of governance cannot be left to the governments alone. Recent campaigns like the Mahadevpura rising, regular cleanathons, plogging etc are a case in point.

One event has led to another, creating a ‘chain reaction’ of sorts which not only keeps the community engaged but also helps resolve civic grievances in the neighbourhood. There are various platforms through which citizens can now volunteer and drive change.

To facilitate and scale up active citizenship, I Change My City recently opened up a volunteering feature on the mobile app. With this feature, the app aims to create a volunteering marketplace for citizens, voluntary organisations, community groups and associations, youth and students to engage and resolve civic issues at a neighbourhood level using the power of civic volunteering. 

Just a few weeks since it has gone live, we are witnessing citizens getting actively involved in civic issues using the feature.  As of October 30, 38 events have been created, where 324 active citizens spent close to 766 volunteering hours making a positive impact in their neighbourhood. The events range from cycling days, plog runs, awareness sessions, anti-plastic drives amongst others. 

Ajay K, a student of Bengaluru Institute of Technology (BIT) is the perfect example of an active citizen using the platform to drive social change. Sharing his experience, Ajay, mentions he was a volunteer at the drive against single-use-plastic (SUPs) which was organised using the new volunteering feature on the IChangeMyCity App in Malleshwaram. He was impressed on how the door-to-door campaign positively influenced people. 

“I thought initiating a change was a challenge. However, after the Malleshwaram drive, I realized that I can also use the volunteering feature to initiate a similar drive on my campus with my college mates,” says Ajay. 

Under the banner ‘Swachh BIT’, Ajay, who is also the president of BIT Eco Club, created the clean-up and awareness drive using IChangeMyCity’s volunteering feature. 

The drive conducted in September evoked a positive response. 127 students and citizen volunteers participated in the drive, and worked for a total of 381 hours to bring about a positive impact. Not only was the BIT campus cleaned, but the importance of saying ‘no’ to SUPs and carrying reusable cloth bags was highlighted.

While Ajay confirms his plans to conduct more such drives in other neighborhoods, the positive impact of the clean-up also influenced students of C B Bhandari Jain College. In a span of three days from October 9 to 11, a total of 85 students volunteered for 1.5 hours each. By contributing 127 volunteering hours, they cleaned up their campus and spread the word on the evils of SUPs and the need to switch to eco-friendly alternatives. 

Like Ajay, several citizens are hosting awareness drives as well as fixing civic issues in their capacity by using the volunteering feature on the IChangeMyCity app. One can also make a difference by contributing a few hours of volunteering on events created by other citizens or groups. 

Time is the best gift we can give to our society. Why not make a difference by spending a few hours in volunteering drives and initiating a positive change in our neighbourhood. You can find out more about the volunteering drives taking place in your neighbourhood by downloading the IChangeMyCity App from Google Play store or App Store. 

About I Change My City Volunteering Feature 

I Change My City aims to transformatively scale active citizenship in the city of Bengaluru through civic volunteering. 

The I Change My City app, which began its journey connecting citizens and governments on local civic grievances, expanded to include civic information and quality of infrastructure data.  The Citizen Volunteering feature now enables citizens to not just post complaints, but also create citizen volunteering events to proactively fix the issues. The feature is not restricted to only civic issues; it lends itself to creation of events and activities that focus on awareness and education, and assisting in social causes and initiatives. 

Citizens can download the app; create an event on the app with key parameters which include the category of event, a description of the event, the location where it will be held, number of volunteers and data and time. Automatic notifications and messages are shared with other citizens who are on the app. Events across the city, events in the immediate neighbourhood are both accessible for citizens to volunteer. Citizens can choose to volunteer and data on the number of citizens participating in a particular event, the civic volunteering hours contributed towards the cause or event are displayed. 

I Change My City volunteering feature was developed under the concept ‘by the people for the people’. The civic hours contributed are collated and shared online and on the app real time to inspire others. Even as cities work on addressing the complex urban challenge, this feature will allow for citizens to continually stay engaged in local civic matters.