According to Yasmin Khala, at one point, their neighbourhood used to have garbage lying all over. The situation had become so bad that children stopped playing cricket as their parents were afraid that they would get sick from staying on the streets too long. The women in the neighbourhood were understandably very unhappy about the situation. Gangabai suggested that they should go to their Ward Councillor and protest, as they were the ones who had elected him and he was answerable to them. A small group of women went to the Councillor’s house and shouted slogans. When he enquired the reason for their protest, Gangabai described the unhygienic situation of their locality. Hearing their grievance, the Councillor promised to go with them to the Municipal Commissioner, who was responsible for implementing the decisions of the Municipal Corporation. He also asked them to get a petition signed by all the adults in the locality saying that garbage was not being collected. The next morning they went to the Municipal Corporation’s office, where the Municipal Commissioner began giving excuses at first. But he was soon silenced by Gangabai and others, and he had to give in to their demands. He promised to take care of the situation. In spite of this promise, Gangabai threatened that if the problem was not solved within two days, then she would get a larger group of women to protest before the Corporation office. In the end, after another larger and noisier demonstration, the sanitation service in their locality became more regular.
By doing what she did, Gangabai proved herself to be an active and alert citizen. The democratic structure of the Indian social order requires the people to not only take part in electing their representatives from time to time, but also be aware of the work being done or not done by their representatives. The elected representatives are accountable to the people who elect them, and the people have the right to hold them countable for any negligence on their part. Gangabai was right in suggesting that they should protest before their Ward Councillor as he was their elected representative, and he was entrusted with the responsibility of taking care of the problems faced by his ward.
(it is from ncert solutions of civics)
