| How many times have you ranted over potholed roads and spilling garbage? Pick up the broom, teach a child and make a difference on your own. To inspire you to do that, Lead India finalist and projects head of a top corporate house, Malay Mahadevia gives his... |
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MANAGING HOME - According to Malay, Resident Welfare Association (RWA)s can come off age than just managing garbage collection and collecting maintenance charges of their respective societies. The city has close to eight lakh residential units in old city area and around 4 lakh in the western area. A conglomerate of 100 houses/ 50 societies, principally steered by housewives and senior citizens can work wonders in individual localities. Right from managing infrastructure like electric lines, water supply, drainage and even essentials services like providing servants, securitymen, plumbers, the RWAs can manage it all. The budget would be nominal yearly/monthly fee for this RWA. But what makes the business model work is that such RWA would imbibe the sensitiveness of housewives to civic issues and expertise of retired seniors towards managing finances and operations. Besides, these associations would have officers that would liaison with various agencies. And to top it all associations would be more powerful lobbies would force local corporator and even MLAs respond to any need of the association. |
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Only 72 per cent of the city is covered by a sewerage system. Almost 168 million litres of raw sewage is dumped into the Sabarmati without being treated. At many places for instance--- in the western, central and eastern part there are anywhere between 1,400 to 1,700 scrapper pits that are seldom cleaned by the AMC. The waiting pe-riod for cleaning these pits is almost 20 days. A group of RWAs here can chip in by hiring professionals who can manage these pits independently. Besides AMC can pay these RWAs to clean up silted sewerage systems in various areas that lie within their jurisdiction. |
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BABY’S DAY OUT - One of the biggest bane for working women in the city today is where do they keep their children while they slog it out at their work-place. Today working mothers worry about their child’s safety at day care centres, especially on issues relating to molestation, emotional harassment and corporal punishment. It is here that housewives in individual societies can volunteer to help such distressed mothers. Of course its not for free. There is a business proposition in it. The best part being that a working mother can be assured that their children are being looked after by a person whom they trust. |
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BOOKWORMS WANTED - Amdavadis lack reading habits. Its a pity that there are hardly any libraries around. In fact reading habits should be inculcated right at the primary school level. Corporates as part of their corporate social responsibility in the city or even institutions should be asked to contribute quality interactive story books to schools. This way learning and reading becomes an enjoyable affair for children. This innovative library can help children get hooked to the habit of reading. There are institutions which have spent sufficient time researching on what sort of book packaging can increase a child’s attention span. The libraries can have an activity bay where children are exposed to interactive media where they see audio visual representation of what they have read. This can be moderated by an instructor or a story-teller in the library. |
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LET THEM PLAY - Its a pity that against the urban development norms of around eight to 10 square metre open space for each person an Amdavadis get a dismal 0.37 square metres. This would mean less space for children to play and less space for outdoor games and recreational activities. Malay suggests educational institutions who sit on huge real estate to rent out portions of the their open space to hobby groups and sports associations. Its all about managing available space in the city. Its a service that one renders towards the holistic development of the city and mind you its not for free. For instance one can have special teams in the institution itself who would manage specific requirements of say cricket , football, hockey or a joggers association. |
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SAVING THE TRICKLE - Everyday almost 25 per cent of water is wasted during distribution and transmission. Most of it happens at customers end, as they do not replace their pipes within the required seven years. On top of this a regular Amdavadi is averse to paying for this essential service that can very well be diverted to sprucing up water supply infrastructure. Malay insist that water supply should be metered but should be payable if an individual exceeds the per capital consumption limit of 140 litres a day. The RWAs according to him can take up responsibilities of collection of charges from various societies after charging an incentive fee from the AMC. |
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Its high time that the so called city fathers or city stakeholders show some responsibility towards the city Amdavadi’s today show complete apathy towards civic issues. Is it hard for a corporate giant to walk into a school nexty to his office or for that matter a senior government representative to tell a group of youngsters on the importance of maintaing clean roads, following traffic rules or it could be respect for public property. |
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WE ARE BETTER POLICEMEN
ACEPT study recently indicated that maximum burglaries happened in areas with a large number of high rises. Managing records of antecedents of domestic servants, guards and labour engaged in various domestic services should be part of the function of all residential associations in the city. RWAs can prepare a detailed list of the labour employed in their societies and ensure that their declared domicile is checked---this can done by just sending a simple postcard to their declared address, if the postcard returns, the RWA can know that the servant has lied. RWAs can charge residents for this service. In fact instead of blaming the police for their inaction residents should emphasise on community policing. |
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A PAT ON THE BACK
Lets face it. No one volunteers to do a philanthropic act unless he is assured of something in return–its a trader mentality. He is ready to shell out the moolah and even go to unimaginable extent of goodness unless he is assured of a pat for his work. For any community based activity, an Amdavadi should be given due credit in public. Here, for instance there could be local associations or government agencies who can reward him for his act done in community interest. |
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CULTURE TOURS
How many of us have actually enjoyed school excursions to a historical place or even bothered to know our city’s history or culture. Citizens in residential societies can organise a tour for children in their locality to various places during vacations. It is simple – we have teachers, professors, academicians living in various residential societies–during vacations they can guide a gang of kids to a historical place and educate them about various historical importance of such places. This involves narating them the importance of such places.
The RWAs can pay towards the expenses of these academicians through a common fund. The RWAs can go a step further in forming a hobby group for kids that can organise summer camps for them during vacations.
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