Indian village’s ‘digital detox’: turn off your phones, TVs or face higher property tax
- While compliance is voluntary, local authorities could raise property taxes if families repeatedly ignore the appeal
- This is not the first such detox in India, with five villages in 2022 introducing bans on devices and the Jain community’s 2021 digital fasting challenge
An Indian village is calling for its 15,000 residents to turn off their phones and televisions at sundown in a “digital detox” campaign it hopes will encourage people to mingle more with neighbours and allow children to study undisturbed.
Raju Magdum, council chief in the village of Mangaon in Maharashtra state, said he was horrified at how everyone was glued to their screens every night.
“Families are not talking to one another, children are not focused on doing their homework and neighbours are not stopping to chat in the street to see how they are doing,” he said.
From March 8, a special siren will sound at 7pm daily, signalling that it is time for residents to switch off their gadgets. At 8.30pm, the siren will go off again to mark the end of the “detox” period.
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Compliance is meant to be voluntary. But if a family repeatedly ignores the appeal, local authorities will penalise them by raising their property tax.
Most village homes in India are not big enough to include a separate study room for children. With everyone cooped up in the same space, the distraction of mobile phones and television sets – and parents watching their favourite soap operas – affects children’s ability to focus on their studies.
Magdum said more villages in the area were getting ready to follow suit. “Children are badly affected and not doing very well at school. During the pandemic when schools were closed, they all got used to spending more time than usual on their phones,” he said.
The idea of a digital detox first surfaced last year in Sangli district, which adjoins Mangaon. Five villages introduced an hour-long evening ban out of concern over the lack of social interaction and children failing to concentrate on their homework.
Jitender Dudi, a government official who oversees development of Sangli district, considered the ban to be effective.
“It’s been about six months now and I’m seeing much more conversation and laughter, just more eye contact in families, and much more social interaction,” he told This Week in Asia.
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“The whole atmosphere becomes festive and gregarious at 7 o’clock, but somehow that doesn’t distract the children as much as the phones and TV did. People connect and that’s what the purpose was,” he added.
In 2021, the Jain community launched a digital fasting challenge in a bid to wean young people off their phones. More than 2,000 people agreed to shun screens for 12 hours every day for 50 days to be mentally “cleansed”.
The prize for those who managed it? Some quiet time in a forest.
