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5 ways to teach your children about money

It’s never too soon to teach your child the value of money and how to spend money responsibly. Here’s how.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Kids these days are so attuned to what’s happening in the outside world, they will quickly demand some new product they see on TV, or ask for money to eat the new pizza advertised in the papers. As indulgent parents, we go along with most of our kids’ demands, but stop to ask yourself this: are you harming your child by indulging his every demand?

Instead, why not teach your child the value of proper spending? By giving them whatever they ask for, children do not learn to value money or the effort it takes you to earn it. Unless they learn these lessons, they will grow up fiscally irresponsible and suffer from reckless spending habits.

That is not to say that you clamp down on your child’s every demand and keep preaching about money to him – doing this will instil a negative connotation in the child’s mind, that money is the most important thing to possess. Here’s what you can do:

1. Be a responsible spender yourself. You have no right to preach to your child if you are a reckless spender. Nor can you tell your child to share his possessions or pocket money with a sibling or close friend if you don’t know how to share. Take the middle ground, instead. Cut the temptation to buy everything in sight when you go shopping, and make sure your child sees you shopping for household groceries and paying the household bills before making personal purchases. Let your child see you compare the labels on products and explain why you chose one product over another. This will get the child thinking that shopping must be done thoughtfully and not recklessly.

2. Ask your child to help you balance the books. Children enjoy being treated like grown-ups. The next time you list the monthly expenses in your budget book, invite your child to help you calculate the numbers with a calculator. Your child will be happy to be trusted with the calculation process, and will also learn to see numbers in a new light. Discuss simply where you overshot your expenses and where you saved up. Your child will immediately get an idea about the household budget and if you are in a position to buy him or her something new.

Teaching how to save and spend3. Take your child into confidence. Too often, parents make the mistake of shielding their children from their financial troubles. They are doing so with the intention of not scaring their children and making them insecure. However, if you don’t reveal to your child that your current financial situation is slightly worrisome, he or she will have no clue why you are not increasing their pocket money despite repeated requests, or avoiding giving them money for a new mobile phone. Sit your child down and explain that you are currently facing a slight crunch. Don’t burden them with too many scary details but let them know that you are trying your best to tide over the problem. A sensitive child will even offer to help by breaking his piggy bank for you.

4. Insist that your child save pocket money every month. Give your child a weekly or monthly allowance, and tell him or her that no extra money will be given in that time period under any circumstances. This automatically prompts your child to watch how he spends his money. Also inculcate the habit of saving a part of his pocket money every month. When he or she has saved a sizeable amount, give him a small treat. If he or she has been saving up to buy something, add the equivalent amount that he has saved to encourage him further.

5. Let your child earn privileges. The one thing we must take away from Western parenting is the manner in which parents in the US and UK make their children earn their pocket money by taking up small jobs. We must follow a model where if a child wants to treat his friends on his birthday, you can give him a job to do around the house and pay him per completed task. This teaches the child to help around the house. Also, encourage older children to put their talents to use to earn money – they could give tuitions to younger children, or take art and hobby classes. Let them keep the money they make, but occasionally ask them to go out and buy vegetables or a few groceries without giving them the cash for it. This will inculcate the habit to contribute to the household expenses without being selfish.

What are the ways in which you teach your child about money? Tell us in the comments section below.

(Pictures courtesy micheleborba.com, www.speakingtree.in. Images are used for representational purpose only)

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Mumbai gets modernised air rifle shooting range

The State Governor inaugurates a modernised air rifle shooting range at Dadar; it has trained several shooters in nine years.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The Governor of Maharashtra Ch Vidyasagar Rao recently inaugurated the modernised Air Rifle Shooting Range at Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak, Dadar, Mumbai. Ace shooter Anjali Bhagwat, Chairman of the Swatantryaveer Savarkar Rashtriya Smarak Ranjit Savarkar, former MP Bharat Kumar Raut, Trustee Manjiri Marathe and many national shooting players were present on the occasion.

Governor inaugurates the rifle range

Said Ranjit Savarkar, “The Rifle Shooting Range has produced several national and international shooters. The Range has been modernised by incorporating the latest Hybrid 8 lane Olympic Standard Target System. This is the only non-Government range in India to have modern facilities.”

The 10- meter Rifle Shooting Range was inaugurated by Anjali Bhagwat and Suma Shirur on February 19, 2006.

Vishwajeet Shinde is the Chief Coach at the Range. During the last nine years, more than 3700 students have received basic training at the Range.

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BMC completely lax on addressing citizen complaints?

Report on working of Ward Committees, lack of questions asked by councillors paint a very sad picture for Mumbai city.
by The Praja Foundation

Every year, Praja Foundation releases a report on the working of Ward Committees and civic problems in Mumbai. What we can see is that the situation of civic governance in the city has deteriorated drastically when it comes to the redressal of citizens’ civic complaints. The civic administration, which is a service providing body, has revealed itself to be inefficient and lax when it comes to resolving civic issues. In 2014, on an average it took at least 87 days for closing ‘contaminated water supply’ complaints in ‘S’ ward and 59 days to ‘repair pipe sewers/main sewers’ in ‘H/E’ ward. Contaminated water supply complaints should be resolved in one day according to the Citizens’ Charter, and sewers should be repaired in 7 days.

To add to these woes, what is seen is complete apathy on the part of our Municipal Councillors, 27 of whom have not raised a single question in ward committee meetings all year! Not only that, there are three councillors who have not raised a single question in the last three years – Anita Yadav (representing Sassoon Dock, World Trade Centre, Geeta Nagar), Ujjwala Modak (representing Bandrekar Wadi – Ismail College – Natwar Nagar) and Jyotsna Parmar (representing Mahim Sonapur – Labour Camp)!

Nitai Mehta, Founder and Managing Trustee of Praja Foundation, says, “Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Devendra Fadnavis recently announced Project Mumbai to become an International Financial Centre to attract global investments, jobs and development. How can we achieve this status when basic civic needs of citizens are being neglected time and again? And to add to citizen woes, our elected representatives are clearly not interested in raising civic issues and taking the Executive to task for not resolving them and proving efficient services.”

Despite the many problems in the civic governance of the city, the councillors have not been as active as necessary in addressing all issues. Between 227 of them, the Municipal Councillors have only asked 970 questions in 298 ward committee meetings in 2014, which is a meager three questions per meeting!

Milind Mhaske, Project Director at Praja further added, “Only 35  per cent of the 66,747 civic complaints in 2014 have been closed by MCGM, whereas 63 pre cent have not been addressed.”

On an average it takes the MCGM 17 days to address civic complaints such as contamination of water, drainage chokes and blockages, and lifting garbage, when it should actually take only three days. High rate of complaints regarding these issues is hazardous to the life and health of Mumbaikars. How can we have a global city which is unable to address these basic issues on wards which have seen high rates of contaminated water complaints, such as P/N, K/W, R/S wards, have also seen a high rate of diarrhoea cases (196 cases) in the last three years, and wards where pest control complaints are not resolved, K/E, K/W, P/N wards have the number of malaria and dengue cases (75 cases) skyrocket.

The number of complaints on the state of roads in Mumbai has decreased by 48.3 per cent in 2014 as compared to 2013, whereas the number of complaints on in 2014 drainage has seen a decrease of 26.1 per cent. Complaints on water supply issues have risen by 25.8 per cent and solid waste management by 32.8 per cent.

Even though on paper, the system looks good, when it comes to implementation, there are serious flaws. The MCGM already has a decent complaint redressal mechanism, Central Complaint Registration System (CCRS), which should have been a one stop shop for registration of complaints, integrated with latest tools such as Mobile Apps. Despite the existence of 1916 and CCRS, people are not using these services enough. This is mainly because they are not being advertised and promoted sufficiently. A parallel system for pothole complaints has also been introduced, with a separate portal – http://www.voiceofcitizen.com/ in 2011.

According to Mhaske, “The Municipal Commissioner went on to announce that citizens will also be able to register complaints related to Storm Water Drainage and Solid Waste Management in the portal. Plans are being made for systems that are, eventually, never implemented. Ideally, the MCGM should have integrated all the tools into the CCRS and worked on existing gaps to strengthen the system.”

Despite the many problems in the civic governance of the city, the councillors have not been as active as necessary in addressing all issues. Between 227 of them, the Municipal Councillors have only asked 970 questions in 298 ward committee meetings in 2014, which is a meager three questions per meeting! 109 questions out of 970 (11%) were on the issue of renaming of roads and chowks. 27 councillors have not asked a single question in the year 2014, with K/East ward having the highest number of councillors (4) who have not asked a single question. Three councillors have not asked a single question over the past three years!

Mehta concludes, “The apathy shown by our elected representatives is appalling. By raising appropriate issues and questions in ward committees, our elected representatives can improve civic governance in the city and see to it that citizens’ lives are made easier. The civic administration should be more engaged with the reality of citizens’ lives and take proactive steps to improve implementation rather than announce lofty schemes.”

(Picture courtesy www.thehindu.com. Image is a file picture)

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Mumbai is counting its trees

IT based census of trees recently included Governor’s residence, Raj Bhavan, Mumbai, which has about 3,000 trees of Mumbai’s 19 lakh trees.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) is currently on a tree-counting spree all over Mumbai. Recently, the exercise was carried out at the Governor’s official residence in Mumbai, the Raj Bhavan.

The IT-based census of trees in the Raj Bhavan took place on Friday; it turns out Raj Bhavan has 3,000 trees. Additional Municipal Commissioner SVR Srinivas (in pic above) is in charge of the project.

The Tree Census has been undertaken by the BMC for the first time, carrying out the exercise using IT. The process involves GPS-based tracking and GIS mapping of trees. The earlier census was conducted in 2008, but manually. Then, the tree count in Mumbai was 19 lakh.

According to the information provided by the BMC, the tree census using GIS and GPS-based paperless exercise involves physical survey and recording of individual trees in the defined area with relevant details such as spatial location, botanical name, common name, girth, height, canopy diameter, canopy type, condition (healthy, average, poor), family/genus, phenology, economic importance (medicinal, ornamental, fruiting), flowering season, colour of flower, carbon sequestration potential, etc are collected.

The exercise is scheduled to conclude in a couple of months. As per figures from the 2008 tree census, Bhandup has the most number of trees in Mumbai (1.59 lakh), with Andheri East coming in second (1.56 lakh trees) and Borivali coming in third (1.44 lakh trees). Chandanwadi has the lowest green cover, at just 3,919 trees.

(Picture courtesy indianexpress.com. Image used for representational purpose only and shows BMC Additional Municipal Commissioner SVR Srinivas undertaking a tree census in Mumbai)

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Attend: Fashion Dialogues with Sonali Dalwani

Learn all there is to learn about accessories and their place in fashion from renowned accessories designer Sonali Dalwani, tomorrow.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Students of fashion in Mumbai, pay attention.

Whistling Woods Neeta Lulla School of Fashion is hosting its 2nd edition of ‘Fashion Dialogues Series’ with Sonali Dalwani, the owner of Crimzon Accessories, tomorrow at Film City. The ‘Fashion Dialogues Series’ is a platform for those who are looking to get their creative ideas into action. Accessories play an important part in completing the look of an outfit and through this workshop, Sonali will give tips to budding designers on how to make attractive accessories.

Sonali curates the customary Indian craftsmanship market at Crimzon Accessories. Her collected works include bags, belts and shoes designed from excellent silks, faux leather and with natural fibers. She works with worldwide trademarks and design accommodations of USA and Europe, like Ponz, Quintana, Valentino, Channel, Charles Jordan, Karl Lagerfeld, Mary McFadden, and Ungaro.

This session of ‘Fashion Dialogues’ will be an interactive session where Sonali will share her views and give tips to the fashion aspirants on accessory designing as a career. “An accessory could be anything to everything that people wear in addition to the garment. The focus of the masterclass will be on talk points like how to start your own accessory brand, importance of styling and accessorising and understanding the expressive power of accessorising,” says Sonali, adding that she would also focus on different materials of bags, shoes and belts, which add a different dimension to one’s look.

Whether you’re a fashion design student or a fashion enthusiast, this will be the perfect opportunity for you to develop your skills.

Head to Whistling Woods International, Film City Complex, Goregaon (E), February 21, 2015 from 11 am to 2 pm, Entry is open to all.

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Western Railway stops rodent control operation at last minute

The operation aimed at killing at least 10,000 rats at Mumbai Central station; WR stopped the operation at the last minute.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Here’s an interesting turn of events – today, a pest control company was to conduct a free rodent control operation at Mumbai Central station, after the Western Railway (WR) approved of the drive. However, just before the drive could commence, WR officials reportedly shut it down without assigning a reason.

Said Dr Sanjay Karamkar, owner of Laxmi Fumigation and Pest Control Ltd. “As a part of our Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, our company initiated the process of rodent control at Mumbai Central station at platform 1 to 5 yesterday, February 9, 2015. Considering the menace of rodents at railway stations and their increasing population, this initiative was a boon.We had pledged to catch about 10,000 rodents at the railway station. It was at the commencement of the drive that Western Railway Administration got cold feet about the publicity and the apparent defamation that it would face, considering the huge number of rodents at the station. They then compelled us to abort the process.”

In 2014, the same company had successfully caught 8,000 mice in a hospital in Indore. Dr Karamkar says he had all the requisite permissions from WR for the drive, which was a free pest control operation. “The Railway administration had agreed and granted us the permission, but on the day of the operation when 15 of our representatives were about to begin their operation, they were stopped by the railway authorities and were asked to leave the premises without any explanation,” he claimed.

Dr Karamkar added that despite questioning the authorities, he was asked not to continue with the drive and no explanation was given for the revocation of permission. He also alleged that WR was probably afraid of bad publicity after the drive. On his part, he has issued a written complaint to the Union Railway Minister, Suresh Prabhu, against Western Railway administration, by email.

(Picture courtesy moreindia.in)

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