National Youth Yojana Camp

India needs the spirit of freedom movement...

The youth of 28 provinces of India came together for the Rashtriya Yuva Yojana's National Youth Camp in Jaipur. Snehalaya staff were among the participants and included Akhil Himoni and Vikas Sutar from our Yuva Nirman project, who initiated the third day of the program and open seminar, Mere Sapno Ka Bharat.

The youth of India wants social harmony, peace, decent jobs and business opportunities to ensure their livelihood. The growing conflict on emotional issues is depressing the youth. The Indian constitution allows everyone to practice their language, culture, dress and food with dignity. Unfortunately their are gangs that still impose restrictions on this liberty. Along with this there remains corruption, poverty, increasing drug trafficking and addiction in the country.

The assembled youths strongly expressed their views on the issues of unequal economic and social development and concluded that India needs to retain the spirit of the freedom movement.

It was also stressed that if the youth takes to the streets again as seen in 2011, all the parties, government and opposition will have to take a stand on the issues affecting the country.

In tribute to this, that evening, a procession of all the campers went through Jaipur city with the youths carrying patriotic slogans in their own regional languages conveying messages of goodwill. All-faith prayers were then held before the public in riot-hit areas before the night ended with a cultural program.

Plantation

The host state, Rajasthan is basically a desert and while the surroundings of Jaipur have become greener due to the Ganga Canal Project, there remains a lack of rain. Tp help address this, the youth camp planted trees in barren areas of Jaipur. Our Yuva Nirman team left a memory by planting a tree of love on behalf of Snehalaya Parivar.

Misconceptions about Gandhi

The Jodo Bharat Yuva song was performed early in the morning followed by all saluting the Indian flag. Agus Indra, who runs the Mahatma Gandhi Ashram in Bali, Indonesia, spoke at the camp in the morning. He was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India last year for promoting Gandhian thought in Indonesia and maintaining social harmony there. The national anthems of both Indonesia and India were then sung to honor the relationship between India and Indonesia.

Agus Indra said that the exploitation of nature is bringing the human race to the brink of destruction. He added that history has often shown the destructive nature of religion too and no Mahatma will come and change all this. It is up to the youth to keep Gandhi active in their minds, to stop this cycle of destruction. He cited Bhaiji Dr Subbarao who followed Gandhi for eight decades and highlighted that while Gandhian thought is eagerly understood by the sensible world, in India negative feelings are being cultivated by promoting unhistorical issues about Gandhi.

Buddhist thought

Former Advocate General of Rajasthan, Giridhari Bafna, addressed the camp about Buddha, Lord Mahavir, He highlighted the ideological unity between Gandhi, Dr Ambedkar and Acharya Vinoba Bhave who enlightened everyone to strive for social, economic, political justice and equal opportunity without discrimination in their own eras.

Buddha studied the human mind deeply and showed the world the paths of eternal happiness and truth. Bafna added that those who show duality and hatred are further dividing our society, He told how neither Mahatma Gandhi nor Vinoba Bhave were born orators. But their experiences and work made them speak out.

Gautama Buddha said that actions are more important than words. When he was asked by his disciple what today's sermon was he said: "I don't preach every time. I also do action. That is preaching." At that time the disciple's eyes were opened.

Bafna stressed that the most powerful man in the world is one who never talks too much and that we should aim to express our opinions in the fewest words.