• Digital Detox! A village shows the way

    Lifestyle
    Digital Detox! A village shows the way

    As the nighttime siren sounds, the residents, usually farmers or sugar mill workers, must turn off their screens for the next hour and a half. 

    Digital Desk: Every evening at 7:00 p.m., a siren atop the
    Bhairavnath temple in Mohityanche Vadgaon, a village in Maharashtra's Sangli
    district some 350 kilometres from the state capital Mumbai, blares for 45
    seconds. The sound of sirens is nothing out of the ordinary in the state's
    sugar mill belt, where they announce the start or conclusion of the work shift
    every day. The 7 p.m. temple siren, however, has a different meaning for the
    villagers of Mohityanche Vadgaon.



    Previously, when people needed to
    unwind after a long day at work, they would scroll through social media while
    watching the latest prime-time show or daily soap operas on television. Not any
    longer.



    As the
    nighttime siren sounds, the residents, usually farmers or sugar mill workers,
    must turn off their screens for the next hour and a half. Children can learn,
    children can read, or people can simply spend quality time with each other or
    their families.



    It has been
    nine months since the village's 3,500-odd residents have practised this daily
    "digital detox," which has prompted surrounding settlements to follow
    suit.