"Don't trivialize kindness by only focusing on the self", cautioned Dr. A.K Dubey, Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, the dialogue’s most cautious as well experienced voice. “In every nook and corner, violence is there that's why we need to be more inclusive about kindness”, he cautioned.

As the dialogue moved from what to how, Ms. Faith Gonsalves, whose organization, Enabling Leadership builds leadership skills among the young using non-orthodox avenues such as sports (football) and music led the deliberations on the role of education, especially teachers.

’’A strong model of peace and kindness can be initiated by teachers’’, she said. Ms. Bijal Damani and Ms. Anokhi Parikh who works with children and educators in places like Kashmir joined her. Anokhi made a case for the importance of emotional competencies, ‘’having an emotional vocabulary for students is the need of the hour’’, she sounded the alarm. To augment the role of education, Mr. Pratik Mishra, a third-year undergraduate student pursuing Computer Science Engineering in KIIT Deemed-to-be University, Bhubaneswar, shared their ‘Kalalight’ Project story of using drama and street plays to create positive change.  

While sharing ideas on the overall role of the media, especially social media, Ms. Tara Bedi from Instagram said, ‘’the power of social media can be best seen when you have calamities like Kerala Floods or Nepal Earthquake. These are the times when you can actually witness awesome acts of kindness.’’

On the same lines, Mr. Vikas Pandey, Senior Journalist at the BBC shared powerful stories of individuals who have significantly changed their societies and challenged young people to take advantage of social media to document and spread such powerful positive stories, ‘’even a small story has the power to impact millions of life’’, he said.In defense of Social Media amidst questions and accusations of being a biased, narcissistic echo chamber of hatred and divide, Mr. Suprotim, the young Co-Founder of Calcutta Instagrammers made a case on how they have used Instagram to create positive change in Calcutta. He also highlighted the role of Social Media in the coverage, as well as mobilization of relief efforts during the catastrophic Kerala floods. The powerful case of Robin Hood Army – a Social Media led volunteer-driven organization that has been able to feed more than a million people in 86 cities in India - shared by Ms. Saloni Sharma rested the case for social media, at least for now.

To highlight the role of youth as well as the much-needed powerful collaboration between young people and governments, Ms. Annu Verma shared her powerful experience with Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, an initiative of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. Dr. Dubey reiterated that the doors of the Ministry - the youth’s ministry - are wide open for such co-created collaborations.

The lively audience flooded the participants with questions via Twitter and received befitting responses from both the youth, as well as senior TAG^e participants.

Action

TAG^e participants, youth and senior decision makers alike, ensured that it was not just feel good platitudes by proposing actionable ideas on how to create a culture of kindness: from online and offline shared community spaces, an App/confession Box to sensitization activities for educators and avenues for volunteerism. Ms. Nehal Dhingra, a volunteer with IRCS concluded with what she called the three Cs: Call, Connect and Collaborate. UNESCO MGIEP TAG^e team has promised to work with the most passionate of the participants to realize some, if not all of these incredible action ideas.

Such is the TAG^e experience: lively, equal, provocative and action-oriented!

For more information:
Mr. Kuany Kiir Kuany: s.kuany@unesco.org
Ms. Radhika Bhatnagar: r.bhatnagar@unesco.org

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