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Events
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Forthcoming Events
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International
Conference on
Peace: Plurality and Equality: Social Responsibilty of the
Youth |
| South
Asian Youth Partnership Forum |
Call to
Future Leaders of South Asia
Growth potential
of South Asia has not been realised. Much of the population has
a marginal living through out the region. The mess that the South
Asia is in can be attributed to policies that were conceived in
the last century. At the beginning of the new century we should
take a stock of what we have achieved and look ahead to the future
with determination and courage. It has become a necessity that
blinkers of yesteryears have to be thrown in the dust to develop
a new vision. With the shrinking of distance and rise of nationalism
world over, realities must be shaped on personal experiences of
service and collective enterprise. Participation in the process
of decision making for the future needs inclusion of conscious
people from all walks of life. The future is too precious and
fragile to be left untended.
As a homogenous
region, sharing historical, cultural, and even linguistic continuity
and harmony, the region has great potential to make mark in the
world. Some of the central message of the region are common. Thus
forging a youth partnership for development of common perspective,
negating past inadequacies, has to be developed as a forward-looking
authentic goal.
Call
for Youthful Leadership
A leadership
must come form the youth in a changing world to challenge old
paradigms. In a fast changing world, the vision of future must
be examined over and over again, therefore continuous challenging
of goals and methods are essential. The traditions are important
and so are community differences, yet they need not become shackles
to opening of new horizons. Building on traditions of peace, courage,
knowledge, is more important than ritualising political and cultural
practices.
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Peace:
Plurality and Equality
Peace seems
to have become an exceedingly rare commodity this millennium.
As the war cries and war mongering fill the air, it is important
to remember and reflect that cessation of war is not peace. Trampling
and subjugating human rights of individuals, communities or nations
cannot be normative of peace. Every country has, many cultures
living beside each other, speaking different languages, subscribing
to different faiths, and economic needs and needing different
community baskets. How do we cope with it is the question. Dominating
monocultures through religion, ideology, partriarchy necessarily
causes repressions, which cause structural violences in societies.
Globalisation through consumerism, propagating an uniform world
order is threatening the very survival of the fragile Earth. Plurality
and Equality are two basic value tenets, essential for nurturing
of a peaceful and humane world order.
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Social
Responsibility
Social Responsibility
is neither charity, nor a matter of overcoming any guilt feeling.
It is essentially that feeling of love through which you reciprocate
in giving to them, who have given you the opportunity to grow.
Food that we eat, the clothes we wear, the knowledge that is ours
is all through the effort of many others, known and unknown to
us. Reflecting on every situation, the debt to traditional communities
is immense. The commercialisation of every form of art and production
has taken the skill away from the peasant and traditional communities
impoverishing and making them inaccessible. The electronic media
is further restricting skills and the joy of the people by ever
reducing of countless sources from which they were derived even
usurping vocabularies and banalising expressions. Multiple communities
have thus become poorer not only economically but also through
loss of their skill, knowledge and voice. Do we, who have had
increasing opportunities, have responsibility to serve, that which
has been usurped? If we do not feel the necessity can peace exist?
These will be the central questions of the conference.
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Participation
of Young Women
Active participation
of young women is sought to give value to this platform of action
towards a different and more humane future. They must merge feminine
value to soften "macho" values that have been the source
of much of the contradictions in the world. We expect half the
leadership group to be women of excellence.
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Leaders
of the Future
Youth that
strive for excellence, would naturally catch imagination of the
future generations and also earn veneration of the older generation
be it in the field of music, dance, sports, science, technology,
industry to name a few. In society today, the countries are managed
by the elders who are wise and thus cautious and deficient in
spirit of adventure afraid of treading on untrodden paths. Future
moderation must be based on creative juxtapositions respecting
the finer aspects of life that improve upon its quality, negating
the politics of disharmony and power of the arms.
The conference
urges the younger generation of today to redefine the definitions
that shape our collective future. What should the vision of the
future be? What should be the computations of "hear-directed"
over "brawn-directed" policies be in shaping the paradigms
of progress?
What should
in this age of enlightened self-interest be the focus of change?
The human or material well being ? The debate has been ensuring
for decades now that the finite nature of the earth has been understood
and the inter-relatedness of actions in this global village. The
leadership for a more humane world tomorrow, shaped by right policies
and right actions needs to emerge from the youth in this region.
The active participation of the youth is sought to redefine the
needs, directions and targets for a Better future.
Trampling
of basic human rights exists in all societies irrespective of
their state of development . This must go. The rapidly changing
pace of change world-wide requires a faster and more concerted
effort in drawing upon the ideas and energies of the youth to
work in consonance with each other. The better means of communication
and information sharing makes networking and alliance building
easier and more cost effective.
This series
of seminars is a call to all the Young people from the South Asian
Region to volunteer to play a role in moulding a different world.
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Pre
Conference South Asia National Level Consultations - Outcomes
The plan is
to develop a South Asia Youth Partnership Forum, which will serve
as a broad based platform for youth from all disciplines and areas
to voice their opinions and build effective action programs.
Over the last
year 2002 the countries in South Asia have had National Level
Youth Consultation Conferences, through the generous support of
the Konrad Advenauer Foundation. Some of them will come as representatives
to this conference to build bridges of understanding between the
youth of other countries of South Asia and give a final shape
to the Forum.
Every young
person is welcome to participate since every individual is an
important building block of society. The conference will definitely
enrich and develop understanding and personality.
In Sri Lanka,
the Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement organised the conference in
collaboration with PIDT and KAF. The Sarvodaya Movement which
is an unique self-help organisation that takes an integrated,
holistic approach to development, professional disciplines and
religions and were a true cross-section of youth from across the
country. The major outcome was the understanding the Youth of
Sri Lanka were divided on religious basis and each one needed
to make a pro-active effort to understand the other’s culture
so that they could develop into a peaceful Nation.
In Nepal,
the Child Welfare Society (CWS) organised the Conference in collaboration
with PIDT and KAF. The Child Development Society primarily seeks
to improve the socio-economic conditions of families and children
living in difficult conditions and enable their socialisation.
The CDS was able to network with a large number of volunteer groups
from across Nepal to participate in the Conference. The major
reflection generated during this consultation was that Nepalese
youth should be active in attempting to see that the rich plurality
of cultures existing are made to participate in the process of
development without prejudices. It was also deliberated that self
reliant small-scale projects could pave the way to a better future.
In Bhutan
the Youth Development Fund (YDF), organised the Conference in
collaboration with PIDT and KAF. The youth Development Fund is
an umbrella organisation to take care of the Bhutanese youth to
ensure that they may play a important role as global citizens
through love and care. The young participants felt that the Conference
had provided them an opportunity to meet other kinds of young
persons from their own country, whom they may never have occasioned
to meet before. It also provided them with confidence that they
must be responsible in shaping their countries destingy and their
dreams could be fulfilled.
In Bangladesh
the Research Development Collective (RDC), organised the Conference
in collaboration with PIDT and KAF. The research Development Collective
works primarily in the realm of enabling understanding of cultural
plurality and human rights. The young participants, most of whom
were recent graduates from various disciplines felt that it was
the first time that they felt the sense of social responsibility
and were happy that they would be able to volunteer later through
the Forum.
In India,
ARTHIC-NGO, a member of the Indian Association of Volunteer Effort
organised the Conference in Collaboration with PIDT and KAF at
Hyderabad. The Conference was well attended by young professionals
and it was concluded that each person would volunteer small actions
in their own spheres of influence. It was also concluded that
an e-newsletter could be one of the primary vehicles of experience
sharing and cross-inspiration which could be launched through
the website.
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Conference
Dates
The dates
of the international consultation are scheduled to be from 7th
to 10th April 2003. The climate at Delhi will be
warm and pleasant with low diurnal differences.
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Conference
Venue
The Conference
will be held at India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi. Accommodation
for the participants will be made at Youth Hostels nearby. Please
do not contact any of these locations for ascertaining details
of the conference. All communication must be addressed to the
Conference Secretariat given below.
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Papers
Invited
Each one
of you are invited to prepare a paper on the theme of the conference
and elaborate on ideas of activities that the South Asian Youth
Forum could undertake. It will not be possible to let everyone
share their paper at the conference however they will form an
useful background for the deliberations. All the papers found
suitable by the screening committee will get published in the
conference publication which will be widely circulated. Each paper
should contain your completed contact details. The last date of
submission of the papers is March 22nd 2003.
Program
Overview
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Day1
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7th
April, 2003
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Sunday
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Inaugural
Ceremony
Cultural Evening
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Day2
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8th
April, 2003
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Monday
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Tour
of Delhi: Understandings in people’s History
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Day3
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9th
April, 2003
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Tuesday
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Technical
Sessions-Skillshops
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Day4
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10th
April, 2003
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Wednesday
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Workshops
Futures Presentation
Celebration of Awareness
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About
us: Conference Organisers
People’s
Institute for Development and Training
With the acronym
"pidt" meaning "oppressed" in Hindi are the
primary motivator-organisers of this Conference Series under the
stewardship of Prof. Subhachari Dasgupta. PIDT works on holistic,
transformatory development paradigms and has been evolving self
reliant, sustainable communities in many states of Northern India
for the last twenty-two years. Moblising Youth for social change
has been the backbone of PIDT activities in rural India. PIDT
hopes to act in it’s pivotal role of bridging the digital divide
through encouraging young professionals to understand and volunteer
to serve the marginalised. PIDT advocates Peace and self reliance
through supporting enlightened personal choice and enabling community
freedom. PIDT houses the National Volunteer Centre of the National
Volunteer Centre of the Indian Association for Volunteer Effort.
The Indian
Association for Volunteer Effort is a network of Indian voluntary
organisations that promote and support volunteering activities
throughout the Indian subcontinent spanning about 21 states at
present. The Indian Association of Volunteer Effort has evolved
out of the inspiration of the International Association of Volunteer
Effort (IAVE).
The IAVE
is an international voluntary organisation recognised under category
II of the UNESCO and with a membership in 91 countries. In 2001,
PIDT held the VIIIth IAVE Asia Pacific Regional Conference which
was participated in by about 350 participants from 17 countries
involving people from various disciplines of human endeavor.
The South
Asian Youth Partnership Forum has developed out of the youth program
of the National Volunteer Centre.
The Konrad
Adenauer Foundation is a political foundation from Germany
and support democracy initiatives and poverty reduction throughout
the globe in the memory of the great statesman Konrad Adenauer.
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Membership
The Indian
Association of Volunteer Effort has a nominal fee of INR 120/-
only. This will enable you to
- Receive
all communication regularly about activities.
- Get member
concessions on forthcoming events
- Receive
the e-newsletter (to be published shortly)
- Be part
of a large "volunteer" network.
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for
further details contact Conference Secretariat at
People’s
Institute for Development & Training
People’s House
A-12 Paryavaran Complex, Saidullajab New Delhi-110030 INDIA
Telephones: +91-11-6863408, 6530282, 6530296 Fax: +91-11-6894407
E-mail address: pidt@del6.vsnl.net.in
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