Youth leadership

Youth participation and leadership are some of the prime focuses of our work. We always discuss contemporary topics concerning youth participation and leadership in our regular gatherings. According to our understanding, anybody in their early adolescent age to early 40s can be considered a youth in our context. They are at a crucial age where they begin understanding themselves and their world. They also explore their identities and roles. Through our activities, we organise discussions on important issues affecting their day-to-day lives and participation in different institutions.

We have been inviting external resource persons to our platform to have an interactive discussion on issues pertaining to caste, class, gender, disability, sexuality, child rights, mental health, education system, digital security, etc. We greatly emphasise youth leadership and ownership. Our objective is to build a sustainable model where young people take charge and feel accountable for taking the mission of the group ahead. We have encouraged our youths to moderate the discussions and virtual reading sessions to develop leadership and participation skills. In this way, they develop the confidence to raise and address concerns pertaining to social causes.

We also engage with our team members, youth, and children to sensitise them on diverse and intersectional identities to create a safe space for learning and unlearning.

Virtual reading sessions: Every Sunday, we organise a virtual reading session with our students and team members. In this session, we invite students and educators from central universities and premier institutions with expertise in anti-caste movements to share their ideas and thoughts on different social issues.

Supporting community educators: We support our community educators in buying books, getting photocopies of notes and books, data recharge, providing smartphones and second-hand laptops, and paying application fees for their higher education. We also provide them with counselling and health support. We have three female and two male community educators teaching on an honorarium basis in the Patna, Jamui, and Jehanabad districts of Bihar. We also have one female librarian at Aurangabad Library.

Supporting Students with Disabilities: Apart from the socio-cultural marginalities, many students from marginalised backgrounds do not have access to education because of their physical disabilities.

We have tried to support the needs of our students with disabilities. In 2022, our team raised funds for an electric wheelchair for a student with a locomotor disability.