Youth For Democracy Forum

PRIA’s Youth-n-Democracy (YnD) campaign was launched in 2017, in which young college going students, from different disciplines, studying in colleges across India were engaged in conversations around experiencing and practising Democracy in Everyday Life. The YnD team at PRIA has been successful in engaging more than 40 colleges across 20 states of the country.

On 1st to 3rd November 2018, 34 young participants, carefully selected from a pool of more than 120 applications received from all over India, came together to network, learn facilitation and advocacy skills, and understand the nature of diversity and inclusion from a personal lens. This was the first edition of PRIA’s Youth For Democracy Forum, and was a wonderful culmination of the two-year long YnD campaign.



The learning journey for the forum participants started with a ‘Pre-Task’. All participants completed a short module on ‘Youth, Democracy and Everyday Life’, offered by PRIA International Academy (PIA). The module refreshed the concepts of Democracy In Everyday Life which the students had engaged with in the face-to-face workshops during the YnD Campaign over 2 years.

31st October was when the participants started arriving, fresh and eager to participate. The #MeTooIndia movement, which has gained currency on social media, was the starting point for a session that evening on Sexual Harassment at Workplace, facilitated by Ms. Nandita Pradhan Bhatt, PRIA’s Gender Lead. The session ensured that participants of all genders were comfortable in working together, appreciate and respect each other, and communicated PRIA’s zero tolerance to sexual harassment within and outside the PRIA campus.

1st November, officially the first day of the Forum, began with a session on diversity, plurality and negotiating differences, facilitated by Ms. Deboshree Mohanta and Ms. Yashvi Sharma from Martha Farrell Foundation. We encounter diversity in our day to day life, but to have tolerance and respect for those different from us and, further, to include them in our everyday lives, is a learning process. A participatory exercise helped the youth learn about each other, to “look into the eyes of the other”, and introspect deeply on their own behaviours in stereotyping and labelling the other.

Three parallel skill building sessions were held post-lunch on the first day. The sessions were designed for the participants to learn advocacy skills – through digital forms, through writing and through theatre. Mr. Shivang Raina from Centre for Civil Society conducted the workshop on Writing For Advocacy, Ms. Shilpi Marwaha from Sukhmanch Theatre conducted the workshop on Theatre for Advocay, and Ms. Nitya Sriram from FrogIdeas facilitated the session on Digital Advocacy. Participants learnt how a particular medium can be used to engage general public in conversations and advocate for a cause. Perhaps the most important learning from all three sessions was that “advocacy is for life”, and “advocacy takes patience”. It is often years before one can see the change one has been advocating for.



Day 2 of the Forum started with an early morning session by Mr. Suheil Farrell Tandon from Pro Sports Development, introducing the ideas and methods of using sports for development.

The session on Participatory Research was facilitated by Dr. Kaustuv Kanti Bandyopadhyay. “The new knowledge produced through participatory research, inherently will lead to social change in favour of all the stakeholders,” said Dr. Bandyopadhyay, explaining the relevance of the methodology in today’s time. It piqued the interest of many participants, who were curious to know more about this methodology called Participatory Research.

In the afternoon, the participants were expected to use their understanding of Participatory Research methods and advocacy skills in the field, conducting field based assignments. A session at UNESCO cluster office, New Delhi with Mr. Eric Falt, Director helped these Indian youth learn more about UNESCO’s mandate in India and the important role youth can play in promoting education and protecting India’s cultural heritage.

Groups of participants spread out across South and Central Delhi to practice the skills they had learnt in the earlier sessions. Divided into mixed groups, they set off to different field sites to engage with the general public on Democracy In Everyday Life and to understand what the concept of Safe Spaces means to the average India. Video Logs (Vlogs), Opinion Polling and Picture Association were three major methods used to interact and converse with the public. On completing the field work, groups were expected to prepare a presentation of their findings and learnings.

Day 3 of the Forum began with each group making a presentation in a plenary session of what they have learnt and the data they have collected. Dr. Rajesh Tandon, Founder-President, PRIA critically evaluated the presentations, sharing advice on how communication and facilitation are keystones for effective advocacy. He also gave the young participants some handy tips on how to overcome the challenges they will face when working with communities, and how effective communication can help build agreement among different stakeholders for their cause.

Introspection and identity rounded off the last session of the Forum. Facilitated by Ms Nandita Bhatt, each individual participant was asked to define themselves using objects they relate to, to respect others for their identity and also get respect for their own identity. Understanding “Who Am I?” helps an individual break down barriers to communication and inclusion, and to find others with similar goals. Participants were supported to form networks among themselves and articulate small, doable goals which they can carry forward in their communities. By the end of this session, most participants were able to constitute themselves into networks driven by similar interests and agendas, and pledged to take the YnD campaign forward as independent, self-sustaining change agents.



The Forum ended with a musical night of good cheer and amazing food, in which participants sang and danced to their heart’s content.

For the participants, the Forum was not only about the knowledge and skills they learnt, but also the relationships they had made. It was a splendid journey for these young people to have explored their diverse identities together, and in the process become more inclusive and tolerant.