Community centre or centrepiece?

SP Vasudeva

Community centres are places of social interaction and to organise functions by people who cannot afford the luxury of booking hotels and marriage palaces.

The Chandigarh Administration had started community centres for such purposes which were later transferred to the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation (CMC).

There are at present about 43 such centres in the city of which about five are located in the rural areas. There are other community centres owned by social, cultural, caste-based and religious organisations that give concessions to members of their own. However, these centres, especially those belonging to the CMC, are not being used to their potential. These are mostly utilised for hosting marriages by people who do not belong to the area where these are located, causing noise and dust pollution. The parking of vehicles beyond their capacity also disturbs the normal life of the people of the locality.

A paradigm shift in the management of the community centres is, therefore, required to bring about positivity and help people living in the vicinity avoid disturbance.  Since these have been constructed for the welfare of communities, they need to be handed over to the local communities through constitution of the local area organising committee (which are already in place) wherein a local representative of the CMC and the councillor of the area could be its members.

This empowerment of the local people would be in line with what has been done for the management of infrastructure of panchayats in the rural areas and in urban areas as well in some cases.

The shifting of responsibility to the local people will lead to better upkeep and management and minimum disturbance to those living in the vicinity. All the families of the area can be made a member at a nominal fee. It can be monthly, quarterly or yearly.

Since there is a community centre almost in each sector, booking and utilisation should be limited to the local inhabitants only. The delegation of financial power to the local committees can be done in phases. The CMC can prescribe the minimum amount on which booking can be done for various purposes, authorising the local management committee to fix higher rates, if acceptable. Games, both indoor and outdoor, recreational activities, competition for children, catering to food items and drinks which are missing at present, can be added so that on normal days, these serve the purpose of clubs with visits restricted only to members. 

These measures, if taken, will lead to an increase in revenue of these units and better management, being in local hands.

Chandigarh has literate people in all sectors to implement such a long-term endeavour. To cater to the increased demand of holding marriages for which these centres are mostly utilised, Jahaj Ghars can be constructed away from habitations to halt the further construction of community centres. Value addition to the already existing community centres can be effected to make these even better for visit by the people.