Making the young guns experience as how the rights and duties in our constitution are being lived, the public initiative, Samvidhan lIVE - The Jagrik Project, is building youth’s capacities for meeting the challenge of ownership of common spaces as they reflect in the real world. By Jigyasu Joshi
The constitution is perhaps the most important piece of documentation for any country. It begin with the words, “We the people”, but there is still a question on how many of us, the “people”, are actually even aware of what a constitution does or intends to do. Are we concerned about the rights we have under it and what those rights actually mean or are we so indifferent that we just follow and never questionIJ
The constitution is in fact the very essence of any democracy on which it builds itself, functions and survives. India touted as the world’s biggest democracy also governs and runs itself based on the various acts and “rules” as a layman would call it, written in the constitution. Still, there are many who are not aware of what role does these rights play in their lives. So, what if we told you that right now more than 500 young Indians have geared up not just to understand the constitution better but quite literally live it and make it their own. In a first of its kind public initiative, the CYC (ComMutiny - The Youth Collective) in collaboration with 25 youth centric organisations have come up with a unique game aptly titled Samvidhan live - The Jagrik Project.
“It is an exciting campaign woven in the form of a game which will bring together 500+ youngsters, 14-25 years of age and take them on a journey spanning 5-6 weeks. Through these weeks, these Jagriks will engage in various activities built around the constitution, divided in pairs, across the country,” said Shruthi Basavaraj, project supervisor, Blending Spectrum at The YP Foundation, one the NGOs working in collaboration with CYC from Delhi. The member-organisations are helping in conducting the project that will take place simultaneously in 14 states pan India.
The Jagriks will play the games or the tasks given to them in an uber-interactive way which will also engage the people around them, thus ensuring an active participation of their community. The journey of these participants would enable them to reflect by facing different challenges and grasping the opportunities. “It is a chance for these youngsters to know their constitution better by living and breathing it. It is built not only to spread awareness in the millennials about the constitution, but also to make them understand and realise about the crucial part they play in it. And what better way to do it than creating a game around it,” explained Shruthi.
For Musheer Ali, project coordinator, Blending Spectrum, the idea behind the initiative is taking out the constitution hidden in the text books, to a more engaging platform. “It is a thought, that our constitution is way too important to just be studied in a classroom,” he said.
On being asked as to what importance does this initiative holds, Ali said, “There was a space missing for the young Indians to understand and experience what the constitution is all about. This campaign is all about taking the whole process to a more experiential level. Mere words written on a parchment hardly make sense till we have lived them, understanding “the right to equality” by living it rather than reading about it, is what makes this initiative so simple yet genius.”
Sharing an incident, Ali recalled, “We had a task in which a child has to complete his whole day on Rs 32, which our Government says is enough for a person to survive on. So girl picked up that task and even completed it. After the completing when we asked her about her experience, she began crying while telling it to us. For surviving a day with such a small amount, she had to skip her lunch and dinner and instead she ate two eggs in the day before going to the school and had a bowl of noodles in the evening. And then the “higher authorities” assures that the amount is enough.” He added that through such reality projects, the adolescents with whom they are working will get to know about the real world and what can be done to make it better.
Designed to engage the young Indians in a refreshingly ingenious way, the tasks or the reality projects would be all about real-life simulation played by the Jagrik pairs. Though the campaign is built in the format of a reality game; it is far from being competitive. “The idea is to create a collaborative environment rather than a competitive field,” said Shruthi.
