In the village of Vadgaon in Sangli district, India, the village siren sounds every evening at 7pm, alerting residents to switch off their TVs and mobile phones. The devices can be switched back on when the village council gives the signal again at 8:30 pm.
Vadgaon has a population of around 3,000, made up largely of farmers and sugar factory workers who are very conscious of device use. Vijay Mohite, chairman of the village council, said that during the Covid-19 epidemic, children were hooked to TVs and mobile phones because of online watches, which eventually turned into device addiction.
Educational establishments have reopened since the outbreak, but the council felt that villagers were still spending more time staring at gadgets than with each other. So the idea was born to install a siren above the village church to tell locals when to switch off their devices.
