Volunteer
A 30-day citizen hackathon · Bengaluru

Namma Paws

Every street in this city has a heartbeat. Some of them have four paws.

She was born under a parked car on a rainy night in July. She doesn't know she's a "problem" to be solved. She only knows the hand that feeds her, the gate she guards for free, and the child who waves at her every morning on the way to school. This hackathon is for her, and for every Bengalurean who walks past her, whether you stop to pet her or not.

Volunteer Sniff out the tracks
30 daysof building together
0 prizesjust bragging rights
1 cityand all its tails
"We are not choosing between people who love dogs and people who don't. We are choosing a city where nobody has to be afraid - not the child walking to school, not the senior on her evening walk, and not the dog who was born on these streets and has nowhere else to go."
- The promise of Namma Paws
Why we're doing this

One city. Two kinds of hearts. One shared street.

Bengaluru's strays are not going anywhere, and honestly, neither are we. The only question is whether we live together badly, or beautifully. Namma Paws collects ideas from everyone: the feeder at 6 AM, the jogger who crosses the road to avoid the pack, the vet, the techie, the auntie, the eight-year-old with crayons. All of it counts.

Namma Paws If you love them…

Help us make their lives healthier and safer - vaccination, ABC (Animal Birth Control), feeding done right, shelter from the rain, and a human who knows their name. Your compassion deserves a system behind it.

Namma Paws If you don't…

You matter just as much here. Tell us what worries you - safety, hygiene, noise, garbage. The best solutions protect you too. A well-cared-for stray is a calm stray. Help us design the rules of peaceful coexistence, and the conflicts melt away.

Tracks · Pick your way to help

Every talent has a tail to wag

You don't need to code. You don't need a degree. You need a heart and something uploadable - an idea, a PDF, a prototype, a sketch, a voice note of a dream. The barrier to entry is exactly one paw high.

Flagship Track
Namma Paws

The Guardian Collar

"A heartbeat on the street, a ping on your phone."

Design a smart collar + companion app for neighbourhood-adopted strays. Hardware folks, software folks, and dreamers who can describe it on paper - all welcome.

  • Monitor health - temperature, activity, distress signals
  • GPS tracking & geo-fencing - get an alert when your street buddy wanders too far
  • Care dashboard - feeding schedules, vet assignments, medication & vaccination reminders
  • Transfer of care - going out of town? Hand your stray's profile to another verified Stray Parent in one tap

See App for Pet Parents    See App for BBMP
Namma Paws

Paper Paws

"Big ideas, simple words."

Not a techie? Perfect. Write your idea straight into the submission form, or upload a PDF. A two-paragraph idea that works beats a hundred slides that don't.

TextPDFAll ages
Namma Paws

Little Hearts, Big Art

"Crayons can change a city."

Kids - draw, sketch, paint how you see the dogs and cats of your street. The best of the Wall of Paws gets displayed right here on this website, for the whole city to see.

KidsDrawingsFeatured gallery
Namma Paws

The World Did It Well

"Borrowed wisdom, local love."

The Netherlands became virtually stray-free without culling. Istanbul made street cats family. Bhutan ran a nationwide sterilisation program. Research what worked elsewhere, and map how Bengaluru can adapt it, ward by ward.

ResearchCase studiesPolicy
Namma Paws

The Peace Treaty

"Fewer fights, more wagging."

Design frameworks for harmony: apartment & RWA feeding policies, mediation playbooks, signage, do's-and-don'ts guides - anything that turns feeder-vs-resident standoffs into handshakes.

Civic designConflict resolution
Namma Paws

Full Bowls, Clean Streets

"Feed the dog, not the dump."

Smart feeding-station and water-bowl designs, hygiene protocols, and the garbage connection - open waste feeds uncontrolled stray populations. Solve one, soothe the other.

DesignWaste mgmt
Namma Paws

Count Every Tail

"You can't care for what you can't see."

A citizen-powered stray census: mapping tools, ward-level dashboards, and clean data that BBMP can actually use to plan vaccination and ABC drives where they're needed most.

DataMapsCivic tech
Namma Paws

Foster & Forever

"Every gate could be a home."

Adoption and fostering networks, foster-while-you-travel systems, and ideas that move a pup from a drainpipe to a doorstep - one warm decision at a time.

AdoptionCommunity
Namma Paws

Tell Their Story

"Change minds. The streets will follow."

Short films, photo essays, podcasts, reels - storytelling that makes the city look at its strays differently. Sometimes the most powerful prototype is a feeling.

FilmPhotoAudio
How it works

Four phases. Thirty days. One city transformed.

Clear, simple, and built so that a school kid and a startup CTO can both follow the same path from idea to impact.

1

Register

Sign up solo or as a team of up to 4. Pick a track (or two). Get your welcome kit, the WhatsApp community invite (opt-in), and the event calendar.

Days 1–7
2

Build

Work on your idea at your own pace. Join vet talks, BBMP AMAs, mentor hours and meetups along the way. Stuck? The pack helps the pack.

Days 1–25
3

Submit

Upload whatever your heart made - text, PDF, source code, prototype URL, artwork, video. If it's uploadable, it's submittable.

By Day 25
4

Evaluate & Celebrate

A panel of vets, technologists, NGO leaders and BBMP representatives reviews every entry. Leaderboard goes live, top ideas get tabled with BBMP - with you in the room.

Days 26–30
Schedule · 30 days of wags

Mark your calendar, clear your lap

All online sessions run on Google Meet, and every recording is shared with all registrants afterwards - miss nothing, even if life (or a litter of puppies) gets in the way.

Day 0 · June 21st, 2026 @ 4:00 PM IST At Ace Hacker & Online

The First Meeting. The one that starts everything.

Every movement begins with a room. A handful of people who looked at each other and said - yes, this matters, and yes, we are the ones who are going to do something about it.

Volunteer
Day 1 · Sat, 6:00 PMOnline · Google Meet

The Big Bark - Kickoff Ceremony

Meet the Founding team, hear the full story behind Namma Paws, walk through the tracks, rules, and the road to Day 30. Bring your humans and your questions.

Join on Google Meet Register first
Day 4 · Wed, 7:30 PMOnline · Google Meet

Vet Talk #1 - Reading a Stray's Health

A practising Bengaluru vet teaches you to spot distress, injury, mange and malnutrition from a respectful distance - and what to do (and not do) next.

Join on Google Meet
Day 8 · Sun, 11:00 AMOnline · Google Meet

BBMP AMA - Inside the City's Animal Welfare Machinery

BBMP's animal husbandry team answers anything: how ABC drives work, how to report responsibly, what citizens get wrong, and where they genuinely need our help.

Join on Google Meet
Day 11 · Wed, 6:30 PMIn person · JP Nagar

Pack Meetup #1 - Ace Hacker Office, JP Nagar

Chai, biscuits (human and canine), and stories. We'll record a community podcast with participants - your street's tale could be the one the whole internet hears.

RSVP for the meetup
Day 15 · Sun, 5:00 PMOnline · Google Meet

Vet Talk #2 - ABC & Vaccination, Demystified

Why Animal Birth Control is the kindest math the city can do, how anti-rabies programs work, and how your hackathon idea can plug into real medical workflows.

Join on Google Meet
Day 18 · Wed, 6:30 PMIn person · Nook, Manipal Center

Pack Meetup #2 - Nook, Manipal Center

An evening with NGOs, feeders and first-time volunteers. Bring your half-built ideas - this is where prototypes find teammates and teammates find purpose.

RSVP for the meetup
Day 21 · Sat, 4:00 PMOnline · Google Meet

The World Did It Well - Global Best Practices Panel

A guided tour of the Netherlands' CNVR success, Istanbul's street-cat culture, and Bhutan's nationwide sterilisation drive - and a working session on what Bengaluru can borrow.

Join on Google Meet
Day 23 · Sun, 11:00 AMIn person · Nook, Jayanagar

Story Circle & Podcast Day - Nook, Jayanagar

Final in-person gathering before submissions close. We record participant stories and podcasts for publishing, and mentors do last-mile reviews of your work.

RSVP for the meetup
Day 25 · 11:59 PMSubmission deadline

Paws Down, Pencils Up - Submissions Close

Upload your idea, PDF, code, prototype URL, artwork or video. Late tails, sadly, can't be wagged.

Submit your work
Day 30 · Sat, 6:00 PMOnline · Google Meet

The Leaderboard Howl - Results & The Road to BBMP

Leaderboard reveal, community showcase, kids' art gallery unveiling - and the announcement of which ideas we're tabling with BBMP, together, in the weeks that follow.

Join on Google Meet

📼 Can't make it live? Every online session is recorded and shared with all registrants. Meetup podcasts are published on the internet for the whole world to hear Bengaluru's heart.

Working with the city

BBMP: partners, not villains

It's easy to point fingers at the city. It's braver to extend a hand. BBMP's teams want a Bengaluru without conflict just as much as we do - and Namma Paws is where citizens and the city finally sit at the same table. With biscuits.

They speak, we listen   Namma Paws

BBMP officials join AMAs and physical meetups at Ace Hacker JP Nagar and Nook spaces to share how ABC drives, anti-rabies programs and rescue operations actually work - and what they wish citizens knew.

We speak, they listen   Namma Paws

We’ll become your voice. Your submissions are compiled into a Citizens' White Paper and formally tabled with BBMP - with participating teams invited into the room.

Then we build, together   Namma Paws

The strongest ideas don't end on a leaderboard. We work alongside BBMP and the winning teams to pilot them on real streets - feeding stations, census drives, collar pilots, ward-level peace frameworks.

The goal   Namma Paws

A Bengaluru where the city's systems and the citizens' compassion stop working in parallel and start working in tandem - making Namma Bengaluru India's most animal-friendly metro.

Community · The pack stays together

A hackathon ends. A pack doesn't.

Namma Paws isn't a 30-day event with an expiry date. It's the founding month of a citizen movement.

  • WhatsApp community (with consent) - opt in during registration to stay connected with fellow stray parents, vets, NGOs and volunteers.
  • Regular online & offline meets - brainstorm new ideas, track execution of the winning ones, celebrate the small victories (and the new puppies).
  • Work with city officials - the community becomes the standing bridge between Bengaluru's citizens and BBMP, long after Day 30.
🔒 Consent first, always. You join the community only if you tick the box. No spam, no surprise additions, and you can leave anytime - though the pack will miss you.

Sign up to Volunteer
Namma Paws
The prize
There are no prizes.
The prize is the city.
Namma Paws

No cash. No gadgets. No giant cheques. What you get is better: your idea, tabled with BBMP. Your name, on the work that changed a street. A dog that sleeps safer tonight because of something you uploaded. And yes - eternal bragging rights, with a digital badge to prove it.

🏅 "I hacked for Namma Paws" - Bragging Rights Badge
Eligibility · Who can join

If you have a heart, you qualify

We designed the entry bar to be exactly one paw high. Here's the fine print, minus the fine print energy:

Namma Paws

Individuals or teams of up to 4. Fly solo or form a pack. Register once, build together.

Namma Paws

Every age group is welcome. Kids participate with a parent or guardian's consent, and get their own art track.

Namma Paws

Everyone belongs: NGOs, vets, volunteers, students, professionals, hardware tinkerers, coders, artists, and concerned citizens, including those not fond of animals. Your perspective completes the picture.

Namma Paws

For Bengaluru, by Bengaluru. Open to residents of Bengaluru and anyone from other cities whose idea can be implemented here.

Namma Paws

If it's uploadable, it's eligible. Ideas in text, PDFs, source code, prototype URLs, sketches, artwork, photos, audio, video.

Namma Paws

Completely free. No registration fee, no hidden costs, no catch. Compassion shouldn't have a paywall.

Somewhere in this city, a tail is waiting to wag for you.

She'll never know your name, your job title, or your GitHub handle. She'll only know that one day, the streets got kinder, and you were part of the reason why. Thirty days. One idea. Your city.

Volunteer for Namma Paws
30 days · 0 prizes ·
1 kinder city
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