Vadodara: As Navratri celebrations reach their crescendo, so does Khambhat 's growing movement for digital detox. For some time now, students from Khambhat's colleges have been actively leading a campaign to promote a break from mobile phones. Students between the ages of 7 and 18 years, enrolled in schools, are taking an oath of ‘ e-fasting ,' pledging to reduce their screen time and instead engage with their families.
This Navratri, a unique garba promoting ' mobile fasting ' has been written and is being performed at public places like bus stops to spread the message. "For the past four years, we have been running the e-fasting campaign to combat mobile addiction. We encourage children to play physical games, socialize with friends, and spend quality time with their families.
To date, 67,000 school children have taken the e-fasting oath," said Hasan Rana, had of the MCom dpartment at Shree RP Arts KB Commerce, and Smt BCJ Science College, Khambhat, and drector of Gujarat's e-fasting project. Rana, who authored the garba lyrics, shared that the idea of integrating the message into the festivities came about before Navratri began. "We wanted to present our message through garba, so it could reach a wider audience.
I rehearsed it many times at home," he said. In early September, leading up to Teacher's Day, the garba was first performed in front of 500 students at St. Xavier's High School in Khambhat, using symbolic props like ‘thalis' and ‘belans'.
The response was ove.
