Amid the growing addiction of people with gadgets including cellphones and TVs, a village in Maharashtra's Kolhapur district has made a unique appeal to its 15,000 residents — switch off cellphones and television sets between 7 pm and 8.30 pm daily and read or talk to family members.
The gram panchayat took this unanimous decision to fight gadget addiction among children, according to a report by The Indian Express.
"We have all been getting addicted to cellphones and televisions, resulting in problems such as lack of concentration and loss of conversation between family members, which further escalates into family problems," Raju Magdum, the sarpanch of Mangaon, told the publication.
While the switching off of television sets and cellphones would be voluntary in the initial days, the gram panchayat has plans to make this mandatory in future.
According to the report, each household would be given five chances to adhere to the guidelines. If a household violates the norm for the sixth time, an increased property tax would be imposed.
"A siren has been installed at the top of the gram panchayat building with a range of 3 km. It will blow at 7 pm every day for three minutes, asking villagers to turn off electronic gadgets. Our employees as well as gram panchayat members will initially visit houses to create awareness, asking people to not use gadgets and instead have a chat with family members or read a book," Magdum said.
The gram panchayat has reportedly also written to cable operators in the area to disconnect their services between 7 pm and 8.30 pm every day.
Interestingly, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shahu Maharaj held the first joint conference against untouchability in this village on March 21, 1920.