A survey on various topics concerning the city is conducted by the civic club children of CMCA every year. The findings are then presented by the children as Children’s Report Card to the concerned government authorities and possible solutions listed down as a plea and presented to the authorities. So far, Children’s Report Cards on Greening, Traffic, Plastic, and Water have been presented. The uniqueness of this year’s survey was that it was done by the children of the children on “Me and My City”.

In a country where child labour is rampant and where basic rights such as education, sanitation and clean air remain inaccessible to so many Indian children, can we dare to dream of a notion like a child-friendly city? The children dared & proudly presented their findings to the officials.

The children’s report card by CMCA is a modest attempt to elicit a few perspectives of our city’s school going children – the rights of our young citizens to express their opinions and influence decisions about their city, their right to feel safe in their neighbourhoods and to be safe on our roads, to live in an unpolluted environment - to be equal citizens with equal access to public services and amenities. 

The release of Children’s Survey Report was on the 4th of Dec 2008 at St Joseph Boys high School. It was attended by Shri. Sudhakar Rao, Chief Secretary, GoK, as a special guest. The other guests for the day were the former Secretary of state Dr Ravindra,  Dr Gopa - Director PAC, and Mr.G.Govardhan - Chairman Swabhimana. 

Abdul from Baldwin boys, Amal from ASC Public school & Rashmi from Govt. Girls Pre University College, Basavanagudi presented the report. The CMCA Survey has elicited various unique perspectives on what children of Bengaluru feel about their city and their lives in the city. A range of issues including safety, greening, rights of children, their access to civic amenities and services were covered in this survey. 

Honourable chief secretary Mr. Sudhakar Rao could not help but agree with all what was presented. He expressed his pride in CMCA involving kids in such activities. In fact he pointed out to the children that the problems mentioned in the report were being faced by adults too. The fact that the children are aware of the problems itself is a step forward. 

Urbanisation in Bangalore was in a rapid pace & the govt was not prepared, so the actions taken with regard to traffic did not help. This was in response to the finding about Traffic being the least pleasant aspect of the city in the finding.  He has in principal agreed to set up a combined meeting of all the parastatal agencies concerned along with the CMCA Civic club members.

Regarding Power, he said that along with increasing power capacity, it was important for people to conserve the same. 

He has promised to ask the BBMP to work on a Children’s budget. He also suggested that CMCA work alongside Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). He ended his talk with a request to all to cooperate and work with the Government even if they felt it was unfriendly.

Dr Ravindra former CS felt the study was in depth and all relevant points were addressed. He appealed to the children to walk or cycle to school if they lived close by. “Learn to save not waste”, was another request to the children from him. He said that the Child friendly Bangalore wish list can be presented to the CM & BBMP & an action plan can be drawn on the based of the same.  

Dr Gopa Kumar Thampi director PAC ensured that the CMCA voices would be heard. He also said that when all hope is lost, initiatives like CMCA instill confidence. He also mentioned that PAC will do its best to reach the voices of the children to the officials concerned. 

Vrunda Bhaskar, National Coordinator for CMCA clarified that the voices of the children should not be taken as mere cribbing but one should appreciate that they have at least made the effort of understanding the problems faced by the city. 

She also mentioned that CMCA would like to conduct this survey once in 3years and try and include more children into this survey. And this calls for all likeminded people and organization to work together towards making this city a child friendly one. 

Feedback from Civic Club members & others

Varsha singh from BM ICSE school, felt that the programme would have been more meaningful if the children were given a chance to speak or ask questions to the chief guests.

Getting to know the findings itself was interesting to Brijesh from Chinmaya Vidhyalaya. The fact that government school children think very differently from private school children was an eye opener.