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Generation Next walks the talk in instant action
by Usha Saxena and Gaurav Gogoi
This article is written by Usha Saxena and Gaurav Gogoi, of the Adolescent Intervention Team at Pravah, a Delhi based organization that works with adolescents and youth in schools and colleges, facilitating the journey from self awareness to social awareness, social responsibility and citizenship action.
During the course of our interactions with school students, we often faced the question of how to make citizenship action 'cool' for teenagers - young people who tend to reject, rebel against or appear least concerned about anything other than their own peer group interests!
All our interventions, at Pravah, focus on a young person's journey from self-awareness to knowing others - their friends, family members, neighbours, fellow citizens and the world. We also believe that this self-awareness and social consciousness means little, if new sensibilities are not translated into some kind of positive action that benefits the larger community, the outcome we call 'citizenship action'.
In one of our intervention efforts, we focused on environmental awareness among teenagers. We describe here two groups of students, from two very different schools - both separately working on the same campaign - 'Trees for Delhi'. These students differ from each other in many ways - in terms of socio-economic background, geographical origin, etc. Yet they are all the same in one way - they are all teenagers!
One group was from the Modern School, Vasant Vihar, and the other from the Kerala Education Society School, Central Delhi.
Citizenship Action: Environmental Awareness
The group from Modern School, Vasant Vihar, consisted of members of their Heritage Club. The students described their heritage walks to historical monuments, the cultural programs to showcase national heritage etc. When asked if they had perhaps missed out one aspect of heritage, the students were quite confused. They were asked to observe their immediate surroundings and identify the oldest living thing they saw. There were many wise-cracks about ancient teachers and even the Principal or Mr. S in the canteen! It was after many guesses that they identified trees as their heritage as well! They were also very surprised when they were told that their school building was located on one of the world's oldest mountain ranges - the Aravallis!
In earlier workshops, we had observed that many of these students, coming from affluent homes, had little or no awareness of many of the social and economic ills that plague so many of our fellow human beings. They also seemed completely unaware of how their own lifestyle choices - their preference for MNC-branded goods, their 'hanging-out' at malls and multiplexes - adversely impacted the lives of so many.
The other group of students from Kerala School readily talked about their love for the scenic greenery of Kerala, their home state. They vehemently declared that Kerala would be nothing without its coconut trees, banana trees and jack-fruit trees. However, Kerala was seen as a brief, vacation stop-over at a beloved grand-parent's house, and they felt that Kerala wasn't modern enough. These youngsters, too, were quite in-tune with the concrete, flyover-rich scenery in Delhi! They identified this Delhi as the face of urban development. Their own aspirations were also directed towards driving a big car, enjoying the life in a thriving metropolis.
Our interventions with both groups of students focused on sawing through the thick layers of peer pressure, and adolescent insecurity about conforming or having to measure up to others. Like most of the school students we engage with, these young people initially showed a very cursory interest in the 'big picture' of social issues and causes that form the basis of our interventions. However, as they learned to relax with themselves, their friends/classmates and teachers and Pravah facilitators, we began to see a glimmer of that dedication and concern that we so firmly believe exists in every young person, anywhere in the world! As the workshop progressed, our faith in the positive power of young people - that power to make a difference in this world - was strengthened hundredfold.
As a natural culmination of our intervention with adolescents, the students come together to put into action a project with the potential to bring about a happy change in society. Be it a street play on communal violence, or an awareness campaign on alcoholism or an action campaign on keeping their surroundings green and clean - these student-led action projects are all winners, all the way!
The Action Project: Modern School
The sight at the Priya Cinema complex in Vasant Vihar on the afternoon of the 20th of March was a heart-warming one. A group of 18 enthusiastic, bubbly and determined young people from Modern School, Vasant Vihar were dashing around, animatedly talking and urging people to sign up for a very necessary campaign - Trees For Delhi! The students were participating in a 2-day residential camp conducted by Pravah.
The busy Josip Broz Tito Marg up to Chirag Dilli Flyover is lined with tall, majestic old trees- those sentinels of all of South Delhi's oxygen supply - with inexplicable yellow-painted numbers on them, 236, 237, 468, 469, 470 and so on. These numbers indicated the order in which these 3000 trees, on this 14 km stretch from Ambedkar Stadium to Ambedkar Nagar, would be cut down, to make way for a shiny, new road, for big, shiny new high capacity buses, shiny new cars and our own shiny Commonwealth Games! Over 25,000 trees have already been felled for various flyover and road-widening projects all over the city.
Students of Modern School stopped to enquire about these kindly, peaceful senior citizens of Delhi who are unceremoniously being dispatched to that Great Big Hole in the Ozone Layer in the Sky! These students along with Pravah facilitators, also visited the mall construction sites on the Ridge areas, interacted with workers there, getting to know them better and getting a peek into their hard lives. The students also took an eye-opening stroll through the Aravalli Bio-diversity Park and the surrounding Ridge areas. They experienced how this peaceful, ancient mountain range has been ravaged by short-sighted city planners and so-called 'land developers'.
The youngsters made presentations to clarify their understanding of their experiences through comic strips, posters and wrote poems and slogans about these experiences at the construction sites and the Ridge. They used these posters, comic strips and slogans at their campaign at Priya Cinema Complex.
The students' campaign action at the Priya Cinema complex was aimed at raising people's awareness about the stand of Delhi's young citizens. The slogans read 'Say NO to more malls!', 'NO malls over mountains! Save the Aravallis! Save our Natural Heritage!' and so on. Approaching strangers and convincing them to sign up for the campaign seemed like a daunting task at first to these students. However, their enthusiasm and the strength of their convictions won over even the busiest, wariest passer-by at Priya complex that day! The young Modernites found allies and well-wishers in school and college students, busy shoppers, office-goers on a lunch break and elderly citizens relaxing near the fountain. The students collected over 200 signatures of support from other concerned citizens for an open letter to the Chief Minister of Delhi, protesting against the felling of the trees and the destruction of the Ridge in the name of urban development.
The Action Project: Kerala Education Society Senior Secondary School
23rd March 2007 was a special day for 60 students of Class IX of Kerala School. The students were on the last leg of a series of workshops with Pravah. On this Friday, the students and teachers took a break from their holidays to come to school for a special purpose. They were keen to make a difference on a particular social issue.
The day began with a performance by a theatre group 'Mandala - The Magic Circle'. The play talked about the issues of peer pressure, self belief and assertiveness amongst adolescents in school. The ensuing discussion drew a parallel between the story of adolescents in the play and the current development projects in the city. They debated on the issue of urban development and reflected on the current trends. Delhi's natural heritage and pride - its majestic, old trees and its once lavish Ridge forests - are being sacrificed so that Delhi bears a resemblance to other international mega cities. The discussed how such trends may not be in the best interests of the city and its diverse inhabitants. One student cited the example of the Commonwealth Games which has lead to severe displacement of people and deforestation. The students also took up other examples such as High Capacity Bus Project and the tunnel being made under Sunder Nagar Nursery which will result in felling of 5000 trees.
Empowered by this enlightening debate, the students conceptualized a public awareness campaign for the same day. After all, Generation Next believes in walking the talk and backing their words with instant action! The group of students and teachers from the school, along with Pravah facilitators, took a walk out of the school premises to a nearby traffic intersection where the next 30 minutes were pure magic. The students hollered slogans for trees at the top of their voices and displayed the charts that they had made about the importance of trees. The slogans were created on the spot by the students. 'We Want, We Want, More Trees!' and 'If You Want to Breathe Free, Then Save a Tree!' were heard. The students also collected signatures from passers-by on a petition to send to the Chief Minister of Delhi. The petition requests the Chief Minister to halt the felling of trees and instead focus on alternatives like reducing the number of cars in Delhi.
Looking at the energy and passion of students at that moment, one could almost mistake the scene to be that of a carnival or a school farewell party. On that day the students of Kerala School surely showed that raising awareness on a social issue is absolutely important, fun and definitely 'kewl'.
Action forward
In keeping with our values at Pravah, students from both schools also made an 'action forward' plan. Many students from both schools have pledged to continue raising awareness on the issues amongst their family and friends at home. Some students have made a plan to write an open letter to the President of India asking him to intervene on behalf of Delhi's leafy denizens and ancient mountain range. Many students from Modern School have vowed never to visit the new malls coming up on the Southern Ridge and to continue the effort to save the natural heritage of their city. Some students of Kerala School have promised to continue their efforts to achieve the Delhi of their dreams - a clean, green Delhi. A glimmer of hope from these young citizens - a glimmer that we believe will turn into a glow that will light up the country and the future!
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