Bengaluru: Indiranagar Rising motivates youth to become change makers

Bengaluru: On Saturday (April 18), when the entire city was completely shut for the Karnataka Bandh, Mr Kiran Nayak, a Bengalurean, troubled by the city’s broken roads, had his moment of epiphany on the streets of Koramangala.

On a deserted road with lean traffic that day, he walked up to a broken road median and started fixing it. Soon, he was joined by two other passers-by, Saravanan and Chandru, and the trio repaired the median in half-an hour without spending a penny!

Mr Nayak took to Facebook to share his spotfix. His post read, “This broken median in ?#?koramangala had been bothering me for days. There was truly a ‘Somebody else's problem’ field looming around it. Took the morning off and decided to fix it myself. Thanks to Saravanan and Chandru who saw it happening and decided to help out. And thanks to The Ugly Indian for showing us that this is possible. The job took 30 minutes and we spent no money.”

At the other end of the city, members of Indiranagar Rising decided to clean up CMH Road on the same day when the normally busy main road was free of traffic. The members knew that they would not get another opportunity to find the street empty. Within hours, the re-fix was for all to see!

The city may have transformed itself from Garden City into Garbage City, but active residents, community members and youngsters are ensuring that the changes take place. They no longer wait for BBMP officials to clean up the streets or fix a broken drain. Inspired by the popular citizen group, ‘The Ugly Indian’, every area now has its own Rising Groups. Jayanagar, Basavanagudi, Banaswadi, Koramangala and Indiranagar are some of the areas that have such groups.

In Indiranagar alone, many parts seem to have magically transformed over the past few months. Some of their prominent works include garbage black spot clearances near 12th A Main (opposite Hopcoms - near NPS), the Humming Tree Spotfix and reclaiming 12th Main footpath.

To find out if their continuous efforts to make the change have paid off, the members of Indiranagar Rising even conducted a six-day test near Humming Tree on 12th Main. They were successful in ensuring that citizens stopped dumping garbage on the footpath! One of the most important footpaths in the area now belongs to the pedestrians.

With nearly 2,800 likes and followers, Indiranagar Rising is motivating many youngsters to sign up to become active change makers. Many users have applauded the efforts, saying, “Rising Groups will be the face of the future. Most of the local spotfixes are being done by the members of these groups. Why do we need officials at all?”