Raahgiri: Promoting A public Culture of Sustainability
By Madhuri Mittal
08 August, 2014
Countercurrents.org
After the week's hectic schedules of work with most of the time being spent on busy and congested roads/streets of Delhi, Sunday morning in capital city can be of so much fun now. The City of Cities, Delhi, is growing with the dynamic nature of urban systems influencing on environment, socio-economic and physical characteristics of the city, like all the other urbanizing cities in the NCR (National Capital Region) and in rest of the India. Gurgaon, one of the cities in the NCR and economic hub of the Haryana state, had come up with an initiative to make a sustainable and environment friendly city. The car-free citizen initiative taken by Gurgaon with different stakeholders is the first India's initiative towards green future. The success of Raahgiri in Gurgaon encouraged Delhi to adopt it as a weekly event for celebration of life with joy and togetherness while inducing sustainability in them.
The concept of Raahgiri is inspired from Cyclovia of the Bogota city, Columbia. Bogota, popularly known for its Bus Rapid Transit System (BRTS) in the urban transport sector, had introduced Cyclovia which means 'bike path' to promote Non-Motorized Transport (NMT) for a better and healthy life. It is also a weekly event in Bogota and is practiced in various parts of the world.
Raahgiri day, as it is known, is not just a concept to promote car-free and pollution-free streets but also a step to create a new public culture.
Raahgiri has successfully completely 4 weeks now in Delhi. It happens in the early part of every Sunday at Connaught Place, the heart of the capital Delhi. As stated, the decision to choose Connaught Place also rests on the idea to promote public transport and pollution-free life. Connaught Place is well-connected with Delhi Metro. Below is my experience of Raahgiri.
With the well connectivity of Ghaziabad (city adjacent to Delhi, comes under NCR) with Connaught Place (CP), me and my friends commuted by metro, a public transport, to the venue i.e. - inner circle of CP. The Raahgiri event starts at 6 a.m. and lasts till 10 a.m. Various leisure activities including yoga, zumba, fitness activities like - aerobics, cycling, skating, sports - football, cricket have been kept to hold the public interest in the day and for socialization purpose. We saw these activities and felt people's enthusiasm towards this initiative. We saw all age-group people doing cycling, walking, clicking pictures, playing badminton, football and spending cool and calm morning in the labyrinth of the inner circle streets of the CP. There was a long queue for hiring cycle. Zumba activity in which people were choreographed or made dance by Delhi Salsa Club on the latest tracks of the bollywood had a huge crowd again including an all age-group giving the feel of a flash mob on the street. Aerobics was another interesting venture/activity which attracted public. Children are the most benefited group out of all whom we saw enjoyed to the fullest by participating in all the activities.
The celebrity for the week’s event was Kunal Kapur, one of the judges of Master Chef show. He participated in the cycling event thereby promoting it.
This 4-hour event seems to be promising in motivating people to use non-motorized transport and public transport by organizing it in CP as it is quite well connected with other areas of the city. The entire concept through its activities of cycling, dance, aerobics will instill some healthy habits which is very much required these days when people are spending most of their time accessing internet. This will also encourage them to spend life beyond the virtual world. This street festival has not only rejuvenated people's lives but has also given a new dimension to Connaught Place to promote a culture of environmental sustainability.
Madhuri Mittal is an architect. She is currently doing her M.tech in urban management and development from TERI University. She is also a member of Mission Bhartiyam, an NGO working in the fields of Peace & Harmony, Human Rights and Environment.
Comments are moderated