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Moulding a new school of thought
Idea behind the initiative is to inculcate civic sense among school children..........Prachi Nayak. Juhu The Children's Movement for Civic Awareness (CMCA) is a group of 50 women volunteers united to impart civic guidance to students by tying up with city schools. Formed in 2004, CMCA Mumbai has followed in the footsteps of the highly successful CMCA Bangalore and Hubli-Dharwar chapters. Today, the volunteers have formed 44 civic clubs in 23 schools and have impacted the lives of over 8,000 students in Mumbai, since inception.
Some of the schools that have CMCA clubs are the Little Flower of Jesus High School, Villa Theresa High School, Pali Chimbai Municipal School, Jamnabai Narsee School, Hiranandani Foundation School, Gopal Sharma School. "We form civic clubs that create a ripple effect in schools, homes and neighbourhoods," informed Vinodini Lulla, coordinator for CMCA Mumbai. On our annual day students from all schools share their ideas with other students through exhibits and we felicitate students who have caused a change in civic society.
While Seema Kalla, a volunteer at Jankidevi Public School explained, "We educate students from both affluent and poor backgrounds with the aim to create a new generation of citizens that will not turn an apathetic eye to the problems surrounding them, but know what action to take and how."
Volunteers also meet every month to discuss new techniques and submit progress reports of their students. Their job is well planned as they are given a set of tried and tested modules to deliver through discussions, experiments, group activities, field trips. "Students are first taught to be proactive by conducting an audit of their own school in areas of water, electricity and waste and they come up with ways to optimise use of resources and avoid wastages," said Lulla.
"We inform them about civic sense, water conservation, solid waste management, saying no to plastics and road safety," said Reena Gupta, a volunteer with Utpal Sanghvi School. She added, "We also guide them on how to vote, file an RTI, get dustbins installed, stop people from spitting, littering, smoking in public places and to be active citizens."
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