August 12 is marked as International Youth Day and to celebrate the same UNICEF office for Madhya Pradesh had organised an interaction wherein young students of School of Planning and Architecture, School of design of Jagran LakeCity University, young people from Dhar, Harda and NCC cadets shared their experiences, and areas of their work and innovative projects on support to visually impaired, menstrual hygiene, financial literacy, water harvesting, waste management and others.                                             

Listening to these voices and experiences were Rajesh Bhat, Programme Director All India Radio, Bhopal, Manish Shrivastava, Bureau Chief PTI, Sundip Puranik, Bureau Chief, IANS and Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist UNICEF. The theme of this year youth day was From Clicks to Progress: Youth Digital Pathways for Sustainable Development.

Gauranshi Sharma, UNICEF India youth advocate, spoke on how digital opportunities is opening new avenues for children and how sports can help provide children opportunities. She spoke on the challenge of mental health of children.

Students of School of Planning and Architecture, Jagran lakecity University school of design, shared their projects to prevent child sexual abuse, menstrual hygiene for autism children, booklet on use of millets, Sundesa – empowering children with knowledge of sustainability through interactive videos and games, child immunization drop outs, use of waste from tailoring shops, financial literacy etc.

While young people from Harda shared the work, they are doing for gender justice and how they are working to provide safe spaces in Harda. Young people of Dhar shared and demonstrated the project on rain water harvesting.  Cadets of NCC share the work they do as part of the NCC training.

Anil Gulati, Communication Specialist UNICEF said that Innovation by youth using digital avenues can harness and bring in sustainable development.

Rajesh Bhat, Programme Director, All India Radio great to see young people working on social issues in particularly child rights and improving lives of people.

Manish Shrivastava, Bureau Chief Press Trust of India, encouraged young people to take up social initiative and contribute to nation building.

Sundip Puranik, Bureau Chief IANS said it is great to see youth working sharing innovations and contributing to society.

Shefali Chaturvedi anchored the programme. Pushpa Awasthy, Nutrition Specialist, UNICEF, Sujan Sarkar, M4R Officer UNICEF, Dr Prashant Kumar, Health Specialist UNICEF listened to voices of young people.