BENGALURU: Nothing will change in this country’ and ‘there’s no point trying to make an impact’ are common complaints we hear, making it rare to find a positive individual who vigilantly participates in citizen-led movements. One of the younger volunteers of Citizens for Bengaluru (CfB) - an organisation that has been in the news for campaigns such as Steel Flyover Beda, Chuku Buku Beku, and more - 26-year-old Ritika Sharma, inspires people she meets during carpool rides. She speaks to them about volunteering for city-related causes.
“I stay in Domlur and would use cab-pooling apps to commute to my earlier workplace in Kadubeesanahalli. I generally like to start talking to people if they are not preoccupied - we might as well chat while we are stuck in traffic. Often, my work with CfB comes up in conversations with co-commuters,” says Ritika, who has been active with CfB since the steel flyover campaign.
Listening to her talk about the campaigns she is working on, got quite a few numbers of people to volunteer for civilian movements. While she remains modest about the number of such people, Srinivas Alavilli, co-ordinator of CfB, says,” When we have first-time volunteers at meetings, we ask them how they heard about us. About 30 to 40 of them have said that Ritika told them about the campaigns on cab rides. It can’t get more creative than that!”
While this isn’t something she does consciously, Ritika, at one point, found herself meeting the same set of people commuting to work on the fixed route, and kept in touch with them. Recalling her first incident, she says,” I used Uber pool and met the same people several times. We decided to coordinate and book cabs together to save time, and then eventually became friends. They would ask me about CfB, and soon after, started attending meetings.”
Interestingly, she participated in the human chain for the Steel Flyover Beda campaign only because a popular RJ who endorsed it was going to be present. “When I saw over 8,000 people form a chain to protest, I got inspired and stuck on. It’s not really that difficult - I remember easily getting 50 signatures from my apartment for the petition. As individuals, we do a little, but as a group, it makes a huge impact,” she says.
Ask her about how her peers react to her work, and she admits that there are a lot of naysayers. “They are not too encouraging - they feel that nothing we do makes a difference. I feel like that at times too, but when I see the amazing work civilians do and the impact it makes, I am encouraged,” she says, adding that she forces herself to get out of bed on the weekends to volunteer, for she feels such causes are worth it.
Though she has a finance background, she now works in IT and HR. “ I work on MG Road now, and I am an ardent BMTC-user. Even before Bus Bhagya campaign happened, I used public transport and would cabs only if bus connectivity wasn’t available. I have been using buses for the last 10 years to commute to college and work,” Ritika says, who spends her free time with Volunteer for a Cause (VFC), doing a variety of cause-oriented volunteering for animals, children, senior citizens, the disabled and more.