City Pulse

With the Government imposing a ban on single-use-plastic in Bengaluru, citizens are gradually getting accustomed to the idea of using cloth bags. It is therefore critical that ‘Reuse’ has to become the new mantra for citizens. 

The challenge, however is that a lot of people forget to carry cloth bags when they go out and the result   is purchasing new cloth bags and paper bags which add to the waste generated. Student citizen volunteers from Bangalore Institute of Technology (BIT) have taken it upon themselves to spread awareness on practicing ‘Reuse’ in all aspects of life, especially the importance of reusing cloth bags and contributing less waste to the landfill. 

These students have made waste-free Bengaluru their mission and have become foot-soldiers imparting awareness on reducing waste and reusing cloth bags through door-to-door campaigns.On Wednesday, November 13, 30 students from BIT accompanied by para swimming champion Punith Nandakumar, visited houses and commercial establishments in Jayanagar, VV Puram and KR Market to impart awareness on the harms of single-use-plastic and the need to reuse cloth bags.The students used the newly updated ‘Citizen Volunteering Feature’ on the IChangeMyCity App, to create the event as well as unite volunteers for this cause.

“This is the second initiative organised by students from BIT, using the I Change My City Volunteering platform,” says Sapna Karim, Head, Civic Participation at Janaagraha. “In the past, around 127 students had collectively spent 381 volunteering hours cleaning the BIT campus under the ‘Swachh BIT’ initiative. The students have also invested time in door to door awareness campaigns in their neighbourhood.”From June 2019, when the newly updated ‘Citizen Volunteering Feature’ on the IChangeMyCity App was launched, 356 citizens have contributed over 835 hours of volunteer time through 44 events.

“The volunteering feature on the IChangeMyCity app has given us a very effective platform to drive change in our immediate neighbourhood,” says Ajay K, the student citizen volunteer from BIT who has been regularly using this feature. 

About I Change My City App’s Citizen Volunteering Feature 

I Change My City aims to transformatively scale active citizenship in Bengaluru through Civic Volunteering.

The I Change My City App aims to sustain a volunteering marketplace for citizens, civil society and city governments.The I Change My City App, which began its journey connecting citizens and governments on local civic grievances, has now expanded to include civic information and quality of infrastructure data. 

The Citizen Volunteering feature 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.