Bengaluru Needs You is a citizen movement led by Prof. M.V. Rajeev Gowda to constructively involve and empower citizens, and engage with civic authorities to bring about positive transformation in Bengaluru. We have three main verticals to our operations: Women, City and Youth.

Our charter is:

Youth To sensitize, empower and enable the youth of Bengaluru to be local change agents, and provide them with a platform and support networks to nurture their ideas and solutions for change.

Women To create women leaders and make Bangalore city more gender-sensitive, safe and friendly for women

City To work towards environmentally sustainable, socially inclusive and community-driven growth and development of Bangalore city

Our strategy is to create awareness and engage citizens through campaigns and immersive learning programs; demonstrate impact through participatory local action; promote innovation and technology-driven social change; and achieve large-scale impact through policy advocacy

Studio Chaape is the spacious, adaptive, and high energy workspace for our multi-disciplinary team. Our team includes architects, journalists, engineers, urban planners, development and policy researchers. Here, we explore, imagine, create and collaborate. It is a stimulating hub which welcomes all those with disruptive ideas for social innovation.

Our Work

At Bengaluru Needs You, we have worked on several issues relating to our three verticals such as garbage, urban planning, women safety, education, healthcare, infrastructure and design issues in the city. We have also conducted Civic Action, Political Action, Environmental Action and Urban Action internships. The internships serve a platform for youth to study the city and its issues and come up with possible solutions based on case studies, field visits, brainstorming and policy research. We also consult the local officials and elected representatives, present our solutions to them and push for implementation of collaborative solutions.

Bengaluru Needs You also works with diverse institutions and NGOs, such as B.PAC, Praja, the Ugly Indian etc. Along with IIM-B and Praja, Bengaluru Needs You has presented a plan for suburban train for Bengaluru. The ‘Namma Railu’ plan concentrates on using the existing railway infrastructure in and around the city to provide better connectivity to regions around the city intended to reduce traffic congestion.

With the aim of removing the ‘Garbage City’ tag for Bengaluru, Bengaluru Needs You has an initiative called ‘Swalpa Cleanup Maadi’. Under this community-driven initiative, we have partnered with ‘The Ugly Indian’ volunteers to identify and clear garbage black-spots within the city. A recce is done on the blackspots and the timing, quantity of garbage and the major stakeholders are identified before the cleanup. After the cleanup, the site is redesigned and beautified. As a result, thirteen garbage black-spots have been cleared and beautified in various areas within the city.

Bengaluru Needs You also works in various wards within the city on civic issues. This involves field work for data collection, compilation and analysis at our Studio Chaape. Possible solutions to these issues are prepared by discussions, brainstorming and policy research and are presented to policy makers and elected representatives. The Urban Design team at Bengaluru Needs You works on key design issues in the city. Currently we are working on redesigning the space under Hebbal flyover and making the area pedestrian friendly. We are also working at the Tin Factory junction in K.R. Puram to come out with solutions to ease the traffic congestion here.

Recently, Team Bengaluru Needs You was on News9 for a discussion on all the work we’ve done till now.