India village goes offline daily to help people talk

For two hours every day, a village in India's Maharashtra state rebels against two modern-day addictions - television and mobile internet.

A siren goes off at 7:00pm every evening in Vadgaon village in Sangli district. It is an indication to all residents to switch off their TV sets and mobile phones, BBC reports.

The two instruments of "addiction" can be switched on when the village council sounds the siren again at 8.30pm.

"We decided at the village meeting on 14 August - the eve of India's Independence Day - that we needed to stop this addiction," Vijay Mohite, president of the village council, told BBC Hindi.

"From the next day, all television sets and mobiles were shut down when the siren went off."

Mohite said children had become dependent on TV and mobile phones for online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic. As educational institutions reopened this year, children returned to regular classes in schools and colleges.

"But they returned [from class] to either play on their mobile phones or sit and watch television," he said, adding that many adults were also spending too much time on their devices and not talking to each other.

Parents also complained that they were having trouble supervising their children due to their addiction to either TV or phone. They say the daily two-hour digital detox has helped them immensely.

However, it was not easy for the village council to get everyone to agree with the idea of a digital detox. Mohite said initially, when the council discussed the issue and a proposal was taken to the villagers, men scoffed at the idea.

Then, with the help of the village women and subsequent meetings, the solution was decided upon. At first, as the siren went off, council staff and groups of villagers had to go around, urging people to switch off their TVs and mobile phones.

"[Now], the decision has finally been implemented fully across the village," Mohite says.

Dilip Mohite, a sugarcane farmer who has three school-going sons, says he can see the difference the decision has made.

"The children were just not concentrating on their studies before," he says. "Now, there is normal conversation [at home, even] among the adults."

Switching off your TV and phone helps, even if it is done briefly, says Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor of clinical psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (Nimhans).

"Covid has increased preference for online activities or time spent on online activities," he says.

A study conducted by Dr Sharma and his colleagues among 682 adults (495 female and 187 male) between July and December 2020, showed that "problematic internet use" was a rapidly emerging phenomenon among adolescents and young adults. It is one of the most critical challenges that has emerged from increased internet usage.

Conscious digital fasting as a family to engage in quality-based activities is a cornerstone for decreasing dependence on online activities, Dr Sharma says.