A siren goes up everyday at 7 pm in Mohite Vadgaon village in Sangli district of Maharashtra everyday. It’s not a prison break but break from digital disruptors. All mobiles are switched off in the village with a population of 3000. Children open their books and study. Some children go for group studies too. All the houses across the village quietens down in a minute. It is time for digital detoxification for the whole village. Elders too chat in hushed voices. Another siren goes off at 8.30pm to denote the end of the detox period. It is a routine followed even on Sundays.
The ‘Project Siren’ was started in a Mohite Vadgaon but now five villages has adopted this practice.. For over eight months, at the least half a dozen villages in Maharashtra’s Sangli district have been following this at sunset and nobody’s complaining.
SIREN PROJECT
The man behind this novel idea is 2016-batch IAS officer and CEO of Sangli Zilla Parishad, Mr. Jitendra Dudi. Speaking with Indian Masterminds, Mr. Dudi said, “During Corona-induced lockdown, online studies was in vogue. Children were away from books. They were also hooked to online gaming. But, the people of the village and the teachers together came up with this project and the administration supported”.
It was started to bring children back to books. As its videos went viral, other villages also started adopting it. Now many villages are following such digital blackout. “We are supporting and promoting this project. Several villages in this block too have evinced interest,” he said.
THE IDEA
The idea was mooted by Vijay Mohite, the sarpanch of the village. Residents have been following the the digital detox in letter and spirit. “When physical classes resumed after Covid lockdown, teachers found children had become lazy. They did not want to read and write and were mostly engrossed in their mobile phones before and after the school hours. There weren’t separate study rooms in the homes of the villagers. So, I put forth the idea of a digital detox,” he said.
BENEFITS
This initiative is benefiting the children and children are very happy too. Many children are promoting the Siren Project as well. They have even been helping younger siblings in their homework. Earlier they all use to turning on the TV every evening.
Siren project is gradually becoming popular in the whole district. In today’s digital world, this is a unique way of teaching children by staying at one place. Enquiries are dropping in now from other parts of the country too.
