New Delhi, December 5, 2018---Standing Together to Enable Peace (STEP Trust), Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti (Ministry of Culture, GoI), and UNESCO MGIEP organized the ‘South Asia Regional Youth Peace Conference- Fuel the Goals’ from November 28-30, 2018 at Gandhi Darshan, New Delhi, India. About 100 youth leaders representing over 80 organizations from across South Asian countries and different parts of India participated in this conference.

The objective of the conference was to create a platform to eliminate stereotypes, prejudices across all borders, to understand micro-macro aspect of the issues, identify common challenges and develop plan of action, to build a network of youth leaders. 

The countries represented include: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. As part of the ongoing celebrations of the 150th birth anniversary of the Father of the Nation, the young people have came together to create an action plan to power the Sustainable Development Goals through the lens of love and kindness.

The Conference was inaugurated by Mr ShriKrishna G Kulkarni, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi at Gandhi Darshan, New Delhi, on the 28th November, 2018. 

 Speaking at the event inauguration ShriKrishna G Kulkarni underscored on how the Mahatma was a man of action. He called upon the youth leaders to take to nonviolent action to promote peace and sustainable Development Goals in South Asia. Shri Krishna Kulkarni during the interaction said that ‘Indians are seekers and not just believers and that’s our source of plurality and that secularity is in our DNA’. 

Mr. Abel Caine, from UNESCO MGIEP addressed the gathering about UNESCO’s ‘# KindnessMatters Global campaign to mobilise the world youth to achieve 17 SDG through acts of kindness. He stressed on youth participation for mobilization of stories of kindness.

The Director of Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, Mr Dipanker Shri Gyan talked about the interventions of the Samiti for peace and nonviolence in different sections of the society. He said the life and message of the Mahatma offers insightful education for peace, nonviolence and a path for living an ethical life.

Ms Shreya Jani, Managing Trustee of Standing Together to Enable Peace Trust said:

As peace builders, we must listen to the stories and wisdom of our elders carefully, of visionary like Ba-Bapu, Mandela, Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks and many more who have taught us that we are all interconnected in a web of relationships one that includes our enemies

The conference was a continuation of the Youth Peace Tables conducted in July-August 2018 exploring the five themes: 
•    Gender
•    Food Security,
•    Interfaith Harmony,
•    Digital Media
•    Art Democracy and Dialogue

Additional the conference seemed to equip young leaders with skills and knowledge based on peace education, critical enquiry and socio-emotional learning as a tool to engage with their peers.

The South Asia Youth Peace conference was also collaborating for its Tea breaks with Fairtrade India as part of the Fair-trade Week bringing in sharp focus responsible consumption and production practices.

The food security group interviewed farmers gathered in Delhi on the challenges they are facing and also ate one meal with 35 rupees per person that is less then a 50 cent mark solidarity with the famers and vulnerable communities. They documented this in videos and well as face book post there by drawing attention on SDG 1 and 2 looking at hunger and poverty and its human impact. 

The Digital Media team explored how there is a need for online and offline synergy for building a truly empathic and kind world. Through workshop they learnt how to work towards cyber safety, media literacy and how to increase your digital footprint for a good cause. The visited the MSL group to understand how public relations and advertising companies use social media. The deliberated that online action must be supported by on ground change.

The Art, Democracy and Dialogue thematic went to Jan Madhyam a school for differently able children where they were touched by the dedication of the staff and the abilities of these children. The children taught them how to make paper wheels and pens. Spending a day on a campus which grew its own vegetables, had solar power and provided creative and holistic education made it clear to this group how much inclusion is not word but way of life. They have decided to work towards helping each other keeping the dialogue moving.
 
The gender thematic explored hyper-masculinity and its impact on gender discrimination, mental health and inclusion. They were led through a puppetry workshop in which they created archytpes of marginalized gender identity puppets. These puppets where then taken to Rajghat for walk in the public, so they could experience walking in the shoes of the marginalized identity and as well as sensitize the public on the gender spectrum.

The interfaith thematic explored what or who is a fundamentalist and what are the dimensions of faith. They also went for an interfaith exploration as part of their field trip experiencing worship in  Gurudwara Bangla Saheb,  Birla Mandir, Humayun’s Tomb Mosque and Budhist Vihara in Delhi. The explored through videos, expert talks and discussion what threads in South Asia bind their spiritual practice.

The conference ended with the youth leaders creating a flag of intention writing down their commitment and handing over these intentions to the director of Gandhi Samiti Diapnker Shree Gyan and Lakshmi Das ji senior Gandhian as custodians of heir commitments.

•    The 100 youth delegates present at the conference each submitted their stories to the #KindnessMatters Campaign before coming to the conference and pledged to promote kindness and empathy in the future by committing to one action when returned back to their work and organization. 
•    The gender action plan which included creating safe spaces for LGBTQ youth and opening up channels for peer to peer counseling and educating young people on sexual and reproductory health issues. 
•    The Interfaith group action plan committed themselves many actions such as establishment of peace centre across 3 panchayats with 100 youth to create open and safe space for interfaith dialogue and understanding by revamping the room allotment system in hostels across the district to ensure religious, regional, linguistic and cultural diversity of students to share a living space at Rahila Educational and Resources Centre (RERC) in Kabul. 
•    The Digital media group decided to work jointly on 5 campaigns online to promote gender equality and peace building based on the ground work of their group members.

The conference ended with the youth leaders creating a flag of intention writing down their commitment and handing over these intentions to the director of Gandhi Samiti Diapnker Shree Gyan and Lakshmi Das ji senior Gandhian as custodians of heir commitments.

Media Links

1)    http://pib.nic.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=185980
2)    http://www.uniindia.com/mahatma-gandhi-s-150th-birth-anniv-three-day-south-asia-youth-peace-conference-inaugurated/india/news/1420748.html
3)    https://safalta.com/current-affairs/mahatma-gandhi-s-150th-birth-anniv-south-asia-youth-peace-conference-organised-in-delhi--20705.html
4)    http://banktoday.in/2018/11/30/south-asia-youth-peace-conference-held-in-new-delhi/
5)    http://www.byscoop.com/2018/11/29/south-asia-youth-peace-conference-inaugurated-in-new-delhi/
6)    https://www.jobdarshan.com/south-asia-youth-peace-conference-held-in-new-delhi/
7)    http://www.latestgkgs.com/current-affairs-6228-a
8)    https://govjobadda.org/current-affairs/south-asia-regional-youth-peace-conference-held-in-new-delhi/5c02f556d71a2755fdca5b68/
9)    https://currentaffairs.gktoday.in/south-asia-youth-peace-conference-held-delhi-11201862955.html

Join the #KindnessMatters global campaign and make a difference:

a)    For submission of one’s own story: https://bit.ly/2x2tFPx
b)    For submission of someone else’s story: https://bit.ly/2NG3Pv8

For more information write to:
Mr. Abel Caine: a.caine@unesco.org  
Ms. Piyali Sarkar p.sarkar@unesco.org

Ms. Deepika Joon: d.joon@unesco.org