Youth are not useless; they are used less: SIMC

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South Asian Youth Peace Meet became a common platform for youth from different parts of the South Asian sub-continent to come together and join hands to resolve the tangled relationships and conflicts; and unite for peaceful existence.

CJ: akanksha singh

Sun, Sep 27, 2009 17:43:33 IST

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Youth Peace Meet :

‘If there is to be any PEACE……….it will come through being and not by having.”
- Henry Miller.

THESE LINES blind opens our present state. People seemed to forget that it is the state of ‘being’ which describes peace and that it is not an ‘entity’ which we can ‘acquire’.

South Asian Youth Peace Meet tried to imbibe this notion within us. It told us that it is not impossible to be at ‘peace’ and that we the ‘youth’; can be agents of peace in this non peaceful atmosphere in which we are living in state of numbness. This meet brought young people from South Asian countries like Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal and Maldives to think, be aware and form well informed opinions about the current scenario in politics, the economy and the society in the world today.

South Asian Youth Peace Meet became a common platform for youth from different parts of the South Asian sub-continent to come together and join hands to resolve the tangled relationships and conflicts; and unite for peaceful existence.

Day one of this meet was dedicated to communal harmony and peace and eminent panel tried to explore and simplify the intricacies and complexities of this controversial issue which has became the backbone of disharmony among different countries today.

The very gist of this entire movement of peace was summarised very well by Azghar Ali Engineer’s these lines-
“My god- is god of love and worship, who is not bounded by any religion, any culture or any country.”

He started of by appreciating the start of this three-day meet on peace on the occasion of Eid and Navaratri as this meet became the symbol of harmony and unity for both the cultures in the Indian sub-continent.

Talking about the communal harmony Ali Engineer very rightly said that fundamental values like justice, peace, harmony etc, are present in every religion. No religion is inferior to other. Terrorism is not promoted or advocated by any religion. Common people want to live together and in peace; but the bureaucrats, politicians and people in authority inculcate regionalism and communalism.

He told us that very roots of such communal riots and disharmony among different communal groups goes back into the colonial period. We never had communal riots until colonial rule began in India. Colonial power manipulated our regional identities and that formed the basis of communal disharmony even today.

He emphasised on the very fact that justice and peace is integral to all religions and that we all have those imbibed in us but are in dormant state. If we want justice and peace around us, we have to realise that within us first and that can only be done when we realise and respect the true religious sentiments of each person.

Romesh Bhandari throwed light on media’s role in promoting communal harmony and peace. Media plays a very crucial and important role in either promoting communal harmony or communal conflict. He gave various ways to support his statement like- correct and judicious use of pictures and headlines. Many a times the picture and the headline can hurt a community’s sentiments and that can lead to conflict and riots. The content of the story printed or broadcasted can also lead to strengthening of stereotypes and can create further deterioration of relationships between two communities. The role and responsibility of media needs to be more efficient and judicious to deal such sensitive and complex issues so that they can act as an agent of communal harmony and peace.

Second day of South Asian Youth Peace Meet dealt with youth affairs and politics. Eminent dignitaries from Sri Lanka, Nepal and other parts of our country came and discussed the various dimensions of youth affairs which can act as a driving force for the youth to act and react for peace.

We see a missing link between the youth which is active and the youth which is not bothered. We find ourselves laid back in many situations and conditions. South Asian youths are still shouldering the burden of our past- the partition, the conflicts etc.

Young Indians need to step out and chalk out objectives to achieve- work has to be done for integrated South Asia.

This meet brought together many voluntary organisations from different parts of South Asian region who are working for the cause of peace, unity, and human rights etc with the help of active youths. This forum became the platform all these organisations to show their big or small efforts to work the cause.

One such organisation was India’s first.Org. This organisation was responsible for ‘Jago re’ campaign. Their main aim is to connect the youth with socially relevant issues. They tagged today youth as ‘change makers’.

Another eminent speaker Maneek Sharma showed a completely different way to the youth to bring about change. And that was through sports. Being the Commonwealth Games 2010 Coordinator, Maneek said that sports inculcate harmony and that sport can act as an agent of social change. It offers alternatives to wars, gang involvements and foster team work skills.

Dushyant Singh focused on the tourism in India with respect to South Asia with focus in regards to tourism and its economic aspects to uplift economy. He illustrated by giving astonishing facts regarding how many students go abroad to western countries and not more than one fifth of such number of students come to South Asian region for studies.

The cherry on the cake for the second day of the meet was interaction by Kiran Bedi and youth icon Imran khan.

Kiran Bedi has been a role model for many Indian women; and she described the- who, what, why and how of peace. She gave us a way to follow the right path and volunteer for peace. She graced the occasion with her phenomenal words of inspiration and her presence. Imran khan the leading actor of Bollywood also came and showed his concern and initiative for world peace and encouraged youth to work for it by volunteering for peace.

Along side the panel discussions on different themes for three days; South Asian Youth Peace Meet also organised Model United Nations (MUN) which is an academic simulation of the United Nations that aimed to educated participants from all South Asian countries about civics, effective communication, globalisation and multilateral diplomacy. Through model UN, students took role as diplomats, investigated international issues, debate, deliberated, consulted and participated and tried to develop solutions to world problems.

Also throughout all these three days, many cultural and extra curricular activities were organised like dandiya night, face painting, rock show, amazing race, csss workshop, love thy neighbour, dance- a –piece and many more.

The last day was dedicated entirely to climate change and energy sustainability and energy efficiency. The discussion brought out various serious mind gripping facts about the troubled environment we are right now living in. The problem of climate change is still not getting attention from the problem makers which will result into serious setbacks in coming years. The present scenario and reasons for various climatic problems were discussed at length emphasising on how big this problem is and can turn into unstoppable force later on. Sanjay Upadhaya talked about the role of legislation and governance in climate change in South Asia. He insisted that political seriousness is needed for current climatic solutions and energy conservation. There is a gap between plans commissioned and execution of those plans. This gap needs to be filled by each one of us individually. He explained the three basic comprehensive legal frameworks on mitigation, adaption and redressal.

Sharad Pustake suggested alternative means to avoid disturbing environment and reduce deterioration of the same.

He said, “Individual efficiency is totally dependant on natural resources including human brain and muscle power.”

We know the problem and most interestingly we know the solution to it. But what is needed; is the execution of those solutions to solve the problems. It’s in our hands, in all possible ways. What is required is our initiative, our actions.

This three day meet not only opened awakened us from our numbness and ignorance it also showed us ways to bring about change in ourselves, to our society, to our country and to our planet.

The Meet ended with magical performance of Rahul Sharma, son of maestro Pandit Ravi Sharma, a well known sarod player. Rahul Sharma with his band played soothing music and ended this three day South Asian Youth Peace Meet with notes of peaceful tunes.

Memorial quotes:

“Today’s youth are not useless……but used less.” -Monica Trivedi, Chairperson, Young India wing, CII

“Do not afraid of trying.” -Maneek Sharma, Coordinator, Commonwealth games 2010

“Change makers are Youth.” -Indiafirst.org

“Peace cannot come with non-peaceful means.” -Ipshita, Head, YP foundation.

“If an impossible negative can raise such havoc like 9/11 attacks; then think what a positive possible can do?”

“What way we practice and take religion; determines communal harmony and disharmony.” -Azghar Ali Engineer.

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