Everybody can be a Change Maker!
Meet Sneha Singh, a social activist from Thane, India, who fearlessly raises her voice against civic issues plaguing her beloved city. Her relentless efforts have led the city of Thane to witness changes to a better society.How did you get involved in civic reporting?
The Central government started a Smart City Initiative, as part of which my city Thane was selected. As part of the Initiative, the Municipal Corporation created a Twitter handle named @TMCaTweetAway to take complaints of citizens online and thus eliminate the need to take rounds of Municipal offices again and again. I didn’t have a Twitter account till the pandemic struck. Until then, I used to see TMC’s tweets anonymously. Our city has significantly few active people, because of which not many complaints surfaced online. My locality Majiwada has numerous issues like broken footpaths, traffic, garbage, and streetlights matters to name a few. Before the Pandemic, I used to just talk about civic issues with my peers, and not work on them. After the harsh lockdown was eased, I started clicking pictures of issues in my locality, and posting it; tagging the Thane Municipal Corporation Twitter handle. They would respond to complaints by saying “We are forwarding your complaint to the concerned department”. As usual, the concerned department as well as our elected representatives fail to do their work. This prompted me to aggressively report issues, to keep the Municipality on its toes. I love this city; this is the city where I was born and brought up. As a responsible citizen, I felt obliged to help by raising issuesWould you say that you are working towards a social cause by being involved in civic reporting?
Yes, definitely. For instance, if I spot a dangerous pothole on a busy road, the first thing that comes to my mind is to inform the concerned authority about the pothole and get it fixed as soon as possible, to avoid any accidents. I have personally seen an accident caused by a pothole- A woman on a scooter skid and then slipped on the road. Suddenly a heavy truck ran over her, killing her instantly. Her child, who survived the accident, was right there, in shock seeing his mother’s body. It made me think, why are the authorities not repairing the roads? Is it because not many people reported it? Or is there something else? Thus, I started civic reporting. Any civic issues in the city affect each and every individual. So, I do feel that I am working for a social cause.What inspired you to be a changemaker?
Nobody, in particular, inspired me to be a changemaker. I had taken it up as a challenge to bring a change in my city. Thane is next to Mumbai; they are like neighbors. In Mumbai, we see many prominent celebs, journalists, and educated citizens bringing civic issues to the spotlight. The same does not happen in Thane. There is a Twitter handle named ‘Pothole Warriors’, which focuses on the potholes in Mumbai, and then there is MNCDF Bombay (Mumbai North Central District Forum Bombay), which raises civic issues in Mumbai. Coming to Thane, hardly anybody has time to take up these issues. So, I thought “why not be the torchbearer of raising civic issues in Thane”? Thankfully, since I began raising various issues in the city, other citizens have joined the movement and continue supporting me.How long have you been involved in this work?
I was curious about the civic issues around me since I was studying in 5th Standard when I began to notice these problems around me. I started raising my voice through Twitter in 2020, which gained momentum in 2021, and now, we are doing this interview!What are some of the approaches and methods you used while highlighting civic problem ?
I hadn’t planned on using any particular approach or working with a certain method. But I am mindful of the words I use to highlight the issue by keeping it a little different, making the report more impactful. For instance, if there is garbage lying on the road due to the absence of dustbins, most people will raise a complaint saying “Garbage is lying at this place please clean it up”, whereas I would word it as “Due to the absence of dustbins, people are dumping garbage on the road which is emitting a foul smell, kindly arrange for dustbins”. Both sentences have the same essence but will be treated differently. You cannot keep complaining, you must give solutions too. Now, in case my issue is not getting resolved through Twitter, I raise a complaint on the Grievance Redressal Portal of Maharashtra to seek a reply as to why the said issues are not being addressed. If I don’t get a satisfactory answer, I go to my local political party members to seek help. But I have noticed that usually, nobody is bothered about such issues. So, the best way is to put it on Twitter, tag the Municipality and let other people who are not aware of the issues notice them.What are some of the problems you face while tackling the issues of road safety and cleanliness?
There are two aspects to road safety- civic issues caused due to authorities and civic issues caused by citizens. When it comes to road safety- faulty roads, substandard materials used for constructing roads, unplanned roads and traffic and others occur due to our authorities. The authorities act with a superiority complex. The municipality showed inaction despite reporting potholes, so along with my friends, I filled the potholes up with debris to make them less dangerous. One of the basic things we learn in school about cleanliness is not to litter the roads. But the authorities do not make provisions for adequate dustbins, and some of us are forced to litter the streets due to a lack of options. There are multiple problems like this. Even if your intentions are right, there are many obstacles, people are there to pull you back from doing good things, I say this from personal experience. So, one needs to be careful while reporting. Due to the support of around 5400 people following me on Twitter, I can make some changes. So basically, innumerable things come in between this work.
How do you think the public can be educated better about this issue?
I feel that the public is educated. But a man who works for 10 hours and then travels for 2 hours because of traffic every day, will find it hard to do civic reporting due to lack of time. At the same time, we have people who are not bothered to help despite having time. For instance, a model with around 300k followers on Twitter or other social media can help make a change by tweeting and reporting a civic issue. But we do not see influencers doing this. They engage with their followers by posting pictures or promotions, but not civic issues. I’m sure they also face the challenges of traffic congestion, potholes, and others while commuting, but they do not raise their voice for the right thing! I try my best to encourage people to report problems in my locality and the surrounding area.How can a citizen contribute to making their neighborhood better?
Simple things first; if one spots a pothole, they can click a pic and tweet the location of the pothole. This is the simplest thing one can do!What do you like best about this work?
The fact that it helps each section of society is the best part. I work at the ground level, so I write many letters to authorities about the improvement of conditions of a certain issue. Through this, I found that we have many good people in the system, but they are helpless. Instead, they give me some alternate tips to raise the issues higher. I also discovered the negatives; the evils of a society who don’t let people get better roads, footpaths, and so on. Whenever one of the issues I raised gets resolved, I treat myself to my favorite food to keep me motivated. It keeps me going. I feel happy seeing others happy.Do you consider yourself an activist? Why or why not?
I consider myself an activist because I am trying to bring a change to our city. I am trying to make my city a place where pedestrians can walk without any fear, where traffic jams don’t occur frequently due to bad infrastructure, where a woman feels safe walking at night, where litter isn’t lying around, and a city that votes for the leaders by judging what work they did for the city and not for just personal gains.
Would you like to convey a special message to our audience?
Everyone should try and contribute to reporting as much as they can. I had a dress which had a small tear but I ignored it. Later, that small tear turned into a big hole, it could not be stitched now, because it was too late. Had I not ignored that small tear before, I could have saved the dress. What I meant to say is, if you think a said issue will get resolved automatically, then you are wrong; you must raise your voice for the issue. You must follow the accounts that tweets or post local civic issues in your area. You must participate in their campaigns. Larger participation will pressurize the ones in power to resolve our problems faster. I would also like to thank Yuva1 for taking up civic issues all over India. You are the one who has the potential to lead people to raise their voices. Many people want to report issues anonymously without disclosing their names, and faces, and this platform gives people the freedom to post anonymously. I hope Yuva1 will be the tool of the common people to raise civic issues and reach out to our elected leaders and make sure the issue gets resolved.
