A Catalyst for Change in Prashanth Nagar

In the town of Prashant in Kolar district lives a woman named Gowri Bai. At 48 years old, she exudes a spirit of determination that refuses to wane with age. "I want to keep learning and growing," she says. Once a schoolteacher, Gowri now depends on rental income for her financial stability. She lives with her husband and son.

She has been associated with Buzz women since 2021, after she completed the  Self-Shakti/financial literacy and Spoorthi Fellowship/leadership training. She completed the Buzz Green/ecological initiatives in 2022. She then came to complete the Buzz Vyapar / entrepreneurship program in January 2025. And now has completed the final program at Buzz, the Nagarika Sakhi/Civic Engagement program in March 2025.

In the first module of the Nagarika Sakhi program, she resonated with a character named Akkamma , who inspired community-driven solutions. Gowri identified two main issues: the filthy drainage that contributed to health problems and the lack of functioning streetlights. In the second module, she learned how to go about solving the problems that inspired her to take action. 

Initially discouraged by her husband and government inaction on her single-handed attempts,  she re-tried through the power of collective effort. Gowri states, 'I realised that we have to work together to make a change.' She mobilised women from her self-help group. 'If we come together, we can solve our problems,' she encouraged. In January 2025, they submitted a written petition, prepared by Gowribai and signed by the 10 women, to the local councillor to clean the drainage system. The counsellor assured them of the necessary action. In February 2025, their efforts paid off, resulting in a clean and healthier environment. By May 2025, she and the group of women collectively tackled the street light issue. "Our locality is cleaner and brighter now,” she reflected. 

Gowri took further steps to ensure her community prospered. She actively guides women in obtaining necessary documents like ration cards, aadhar cards and certificates for old-age pensions because she realises while these documents are necessary, there isn’t necessarily an accessible way of getting these documents. 

Her action towards social change isn’t restricted to her abilities as a Nagarika Sakhi. From the learnings of the Buzz Green program, she has grown a few plants in the limited space of her house compound to encourage the habit of planting trees. She has also reduced plastic usage and now uses cloth bags. After the Vyapar program, she is ready to take on her next project – producing homemade cloth pads for menstruation management, aiming to promote both health awareness and environmental sustainability. Her goal is to reduce reliance on plastic sanitary products that are harmful to the environment while starting her own business. She envisions starting off by the end of 2025. 

'This is just the beginning; I want to take on each cause that arises,' she states with determination. Gowribai truly does it all!