April 29th, 2022: Over the last couple of months, Kuviraa partnered with two other organisations, Reap Benefit and Citizen Matters to launch the #IfIwerethemayor contest to engage young people (ages 14-19) in local governance in the run-up to Mumbai’s BMC elections 2022. We asked young people to send us entries of what they would do if they were to become the mayor.
Through this contest, over a period of 5 weeks, we received entries in English, Hindi and Marathi in the form of essays and videos from close to 100 young people between the ages of 14-19 from across Mumbai. These young people highlighted that if they were to become they Mayor of Mumbai, they would work towards improving infrastructure by reducing potholes in Mumbai, managing traffic and noise pollution, improving Mumbai’s waste management & garbage disposal, increasing accountability in governance and improving the quality of education in BMC schools by including character building, appropriate behaviour with the intention to make Mumbai safer for women and young girls.
After much deliberation between the team, nine best entries have been selected as winners for the contest. Here is the list of winners of the contest (in no particular order):
Krishna Pandey, KC College (16): Krishna wishes to work on living conditions of the urban poor and work on gender equality if given the opportunity to become the mayor
Tvesha Somani, JBCN International School (16): Aims to focus on addressing Mumbai’s poor Air Quality
Tanisha Agrawal, Jamnabai Narsee International School & Antarang Foundation Youth Advisory Board (15): If Tanisha were the mayor of Mumbai, she would address noise pollution in the city
Angelina Pinheiro, JBCN International School (16): Angelina hopes to make suitable garbage disposal solutions accessible to encourage recycling and conservation of valuable resources in Mumbai
Saira Manihar, Gurukul English High School and Jr College (17): Saira’s goal is to improve the education system in Mumbai and teach students about character-building and behaviour skills to make Mumbai safer for women
Pooja Jha, Dhai Akshar Education Trust (16): Pooja wants good lawyers to be made more accessible in Mumbai, and better (teaching) techniques to be used in schools
Disha Singh, Dhai Akshar Education Trust (19): If Disha were the mayor of Mumbai she would ensure more accountability in governance and the school system, and also ensure distribution of essential facilities in all areas of the city
Poonam, Happy Feet Home Foundation (18): Poonam wishes to improve the cleanliness levels of government facilities such as schools and hospitals
Satvarsh Satish Kumbhar, Udyachal High School (15): Satvarsh wants to take measures to reduce traffic and potholes, reduce urban flooding and wastage of water, and open health care centers with increased resources.
Congratulations to all our winners and thank you to everyone who participated. We hope that many other young people, especially young girls, come forward as active citizens and take initiatives to be involved in issues of local governance, as well as hold our representatives accountable.