For some years, Akshara had stopped viewing the world from diverse perspectives. For her, her views and ideas about patriarchy and society were quite ‘radical’. In conversations around gender with her peers and family members, she always supported ‘exclusively female viewpoints’. However, it was after joining the Youth-n-Democracy (YnD) Fellowship program that she developed the ability to consider other perspectives.
It was early July when Akshara read about the Youth-n-Democracy Fellowship program. The Fellowship sounded like a great learning opportunity, particularly the designing and implementation of a Social Action Project. However, as informed by her seniors Akshara, was quite skeptical if she’ll be able to manage the Action Project along with her final year of graduation. Nevertheless, she decided to give it a shot!
After the initial few months into the Fellowship program, Akshara started observing several changes in her thought processes. The sessions in the ‘Self, Identity, and Society’ module helped her to not just become comfortable with herself, her ideas, and beliefs but also develop acceptance towards others. Recalling her journey of transformation, she says, “The sessions, discussions, and activities (participatory training methodology) that had an emotive aspect were beneficial and engaging. Earlier I used to find everything problematic and wrong. Now, I can view things with a holistic lens.”
The sessions in the YnD Fellowship have been designed on the principles and values of participatory research and training methodology, which believes that cognition (thinking), emotions (feelings), and actions (learning by doing) are legitimate modes of learning and knowing.
As part of the Fellowship, the YnD Fellows are supposed to design and implement a Social Action Project on issues that impact them the most. Akshara's interest in gender and patriarchy was deepened and diversified during the Fellowship program. She initiated a project for young girls around consciousness-raising with two other Fellows. The idea was to create a safe space for girls to discuss existing social prejudices by deploying the tool of consciousness-raising. It was through this project that she was able to see how practicing ‘Democracy in Everyday Life’ looked like. “Reflecting upon our learnings and experiences, I feel that we were able to provide a secure and safe space to the participants to share their opinions and ideas in an unbiased manner. During the sessions, we would run out of time, but we ensured that everyone got a space to share. Some of the participants have also started sharing these ideas with their family members. The process of change has already started. And, this is what democracy is right? To create a space where every opinion is valued and discussed in a just manner.”
It was later that she realised the entire process of planning, designing, and implementing a project on her own had made her a confident individual, now open to new ideas and experiences. Moving ahead in her life, with renewed acceptance towards herself, Akshara wants to create a culture of safe dialogue for her family, friends, and larger community!