October Activity – Local Government and Us

1. To understand the role of local government in context to certain issue.
2. To know how citizens can help local government to fulfil its role.

Communication, Problem Solving

Civic Duty, Teamwork

Paper and Pens

1. Assign the tasks to students to research about the role of their local government from discussion with elders/ reference books/online.
2. Office Bearer will need to prepare statements for conclude the activity part.
3. Inform the President and Vice President to make sure that the pre activity task is to be completed before the main activity.

Estimated Time – 30 minutes.

Group Work – 15 mins

Teacher will divide the class into 4 groups. Then tell them, to listen to this story. (Note - Ask the students to close their eyes and imagine the story as it gets narrated – optional, teacher can decide.)

There was a beautiful local park just near Green Valley school. This park was the place for children to play, families to spend some time, elders to walk, etc. There was big problem with the local park, it had a huge garbage dump at the entrance. The local government given their role to keep the park clean and safe acted and cleaned the whole park. But as days went by the garbage started to pile up and started to smell. And now, the park is again in same condition. Few Grade 7 students at this school were very worried about this park situation and wanted to make the situation better.

Imagine this is the issue of your area near the school and you are these Grade 7 students, now in groups you must work on these two questions and prepare a presentation (oral/written/drawing). The list of issues is given in Annexure 1

• Why this issue is difficult to solve for government?
• How can you as citizen help the local government to solve the issue?

[Note – some ideas for presentation - role play/interaction (local language) between govt. official and citizen, or create a story, or drawing presentation on notebook, etc – group has the freedom to choose how to present it, 1 group can choose only 1 method of presentation. (Students can use local language, bring fun elements while making dialogues keeping in mind the respect of class.]

If time is limited, groups can discuss the possible reasons and actions and come for presentations with their notes.

Presentation Time – 15 mins

1. Teacher will begin by inviting each group to come forward and present.
2. Each group will get about 2-3 mins to do the presentation

Office bearer will put on Desh Apnayen wall notes prepared for group presentation done.

NOTE - If time permits, teacher can give Office Bearer opportunity to do conclude this activity as mentioned below. Incase if time is short, invite the office bearer to ask the students – What did they learn from the activity?

Office Beare will divide the class into groups – One group is Govt group led by President, and one is Citizen Group led by Vice – President. For every issue, Govt group will share what role Government for this issue? and Citizen group will share how they will help government to fulfill its role.

Pick the issue, and each group 1-2 mins to discuss their role, (cover atleast 3-4 issues in this manner)

1. Stray dogs in your village
2. Breakdown of water pipeline, which reaches water for your house tap
3. No playground in village for children to play
4. Buses in your locality not on time Outbreak of malaria (any disease students know) in area
5. Construct new roads
6. Random vehicles parking on the road

Teacher will conclude the key learnings -

• Role of local government is important; they need to understand the needs of people and accordingly make facilities.
• It is important that citizen works together and support the government to fulfil its role by following citizen’s duties, make sure that government is taking required actions, help and volunteer to solve problems together for betterment of community.

For this activity, the following can be updated by office bearers on the wall.

• Group Presentations

• No field visits to the local government during the activity. This is not covered in activity.
• Avoid clapping during the activity when solution is announced, as it will disturb other students.

For activity photos to be shared to engagement officers, please share clear pictures of

• Photos of main activity (2 photos)
• Officer Bearers Leading the conclude the session. (2 photos)
• Desh Apnayen Wall (2 photos)

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSckLyW77raPixZJMNYx6ksok5We8yB8WQmVqU7wyD57vgtTew/viewform?usp=sf_link

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfVYVtPrf49R-_43k91Im0EAyW2_3P2TyuWgb4fVkboWq5kZw/viewform?usp=sf_link

Annexure 1 –

1. No Streetlights on roads – There are no streetlights on road, causes lot of inconvenience to people in the area like accidents of people driving vehicles, animals getting injured, etc.
2. Poorly maintained Local Park - The local park, which is the only place for children to play, people to exercise, etc is in very poor conditions. Some of the issues that need attention are Broken benches, gates, garbage dumps give out bad smell, unhygienic conditions, etc.
3. Shortage of water – There is scarcity of water in the area which is causing problems to do even the basic tasks like cleaning, cooking, etc.
4. Gutter overflow – Dirty water is flowing down the road creating a messy and unhygienic situation.

Note: Teacher is also free to add any other local problems they see around them. This can be translated for children in the language they best understand.