Residents of Linch village in Mehsana district drafted a resolution on Thursday banning the use of mobile phones for kids. The resolution was passed unanimously in a meeting of the Panchayat held in presence of many villagers. Now, the use of mobile phones has been banned for the minors in the village.
The village has a population of around 17,000 and a majority of them belong to the Patel community.
The village elected a woman as Sarpanch of the village in last elections and Anjana Patel is the village head. She observed that excess use of mobile caused several troubles for the young generation in village and she succeeded to convince the residents of Linch to ban use of mobile for kids.
Anjana Patel said, "Naturally excessive use of smartphones should be avoided and it has adverse effect on young generation. There were couple of incidents in our village in which kids fell in love with someone in adolescent age due to social media failed in a relationship and committed suicide. While in some cases, teenager girls eloped with someone. It was found that smartphones they were given by their parents played a bad role to influence them to take extreme steps and that is why mobile phone use for children is banned in Linch."
"If this would have been done forcibly, no one would have agreed. But all the residents have unanimously supported me taking this decision. It is not that children are not allowed to touch the phone but they can use their parent's mobile under their watch so that how they use smartphone remains under the knowledge of parents and they are not misled," Patel added.
The Sarpanch has also fixed the fine for the rule breakers and have formed a special intelligence brigade of young men in village who would serve as volunteers to keep watch on children.
They would inform Sarpanch if any child is seen using a mobile without a parent's guidance and resolution to punish them would be brought in village meeting.
NO CELLPHONES
- The village has a population of around 17,000 and a majority of them belong to the Patel community.
- The village elected a woman as Sarpanch of the village in last elections and Anjana Patel is the village head.
