Hyderabad,India,September 2008:Realise the important
role you have to play in nation building said Dr. J. Geetha Reddy,
Minister for Major Industries Government of Andhra Pradesh addressing a
gathering at Youth Assembly which she inaugurated at Sri Sathya Sai
Nigamagamam.
The theme of this First Youth Assembly is "Celebrating Service".
Speaking to the gathering of about 400 youth assembled for Hyderabad's
first of its kind of Youth Assembly organised by city based Abhyasa
Residential Public School on the line of The United Nations Youth Assembly
held once in two years at UN headquarter in New York. You are the present.
You can make our future better. Realise your potential she told the youth.
Speaking further she added that 70 per cent of Indian population is
comprised of youth and people below 35 years.
India is young. While china is ageing. Let us gear up to make difference.
Let us involved in community projects she said.
The root cause for this First Youth Assembly of Hyderabad is Master
Chaitanya, an old student of Abhyasa Residential Public School. He was,
when as a student of Abhyasa in the year 2007 got selected for UN Award
for Excellence in Community Service at United Nations Youth Assembly in
New York. Since then he was planning to organise our own version of
Hyderabad's Youth Assembly of young people who seek practical ways to
contribute to the achievement of millennium development of goals of United
Nations. At the age of 16 years, Chaitanya floated a NGO of his own called
"Passionate" and inspired to replicate UN's Youth Assembly here in city
where he belonged to.
The Youth Assembly is a conglomeration of youngsters, who wish to make a
difference to their world, declared Master Chaitanya.
Speaking further at the inaugural function Master Chaitanya, a student of
college now and young achiever said this is a unique platform to involve
college students into community service. He shared his experience at UN.
This was the function organised entirely by the youth under Master
Chaitanya's guidance. I am not perturbed at 400 attendance, though we
planned to have about 1500 of them. We are not disappointed. If they don't
(read as youth) come, we will go to them and inspire and sensitize them
towards community service and social entrepreneurship.
Talking about why this Youth Assembly, he said the Youth today, especially
in India is focussed more towards self-esteem, recognition, self-success
etc. thereby creating a "world of competition"--where life is all about
--"winning and losing" and "passing and failing".
There may be success, but, little of self-actualisation. Individuals feel
that success comes somewhere, sometime in life and "sharing" can take
place only then. We need to realise that most of the Natural Resources are
actually available to us freely and we are creating an artificial scarcity
by accumulation or conspicuous consumption. When we ‘share’ without
inhibitions--there would be all around prosperity.
If we don’t share, we are also responsible in creating the unrest in
society. After all, if we are going to leave our neighbour hungry, while
we enjoy uninhibitedly, we are definitely creating a hatred and vengeance
in their minds. The privileged youth should aware these and must be
sensitive to this responsibility. This is the goal of the Youth Assembly,
Chaitanya shared with the audience.
Earlier Mr. R. Prabhakara Rao, retired DGP of AP, Mr. Vinayak Kalletla,
Founder Principal of Abhyasa Residential Public School, Mrs. Jamuna,
veteran film star, heart-throb of yester years, Mr. Ravishankar from
Bangalore addressed the gathering.
Later after the inaugural formalities, Ms. Karuna Gopal, President of
Foundation for Futuristic Cities spoke on "Acceleration of Social
Transformation--Role of Students Leaders". While speaking she said, on
average every year a bout six lakh youth commit suicides in our country
and another four lakh make suicide attempts. Because of which we loose
many young national resources. We can't afford to loose them. You youth
can come forward to contribute to the society by starting a small centre
which can be named either "Tell Me If You a Problem" or "Share it with Me"
kind of ones on the lines of a call centre and help many youth who are
under depression. This will be the great contribution you will ever do to
your own people. She spoke about how youth are becoming victims of
Fashion. And advised them not fall prey to this glamour world.
Talking about youth craving to own best of the best gadgets and gizmos,
she said, we keep changing our gadgets very frequently. But, how far it is
correct. 90% of the mobile users don't use 90% of the features of the
mobile phone they use. Such a gadget is designed to dump only.
By this we are all contributing to ever heaping electronic waste in this
country. On the last count it was found that 50 crore computers were
junked in the year 2008 alone all over the world. This electronic waste is
causing lot of health hazards. Youth has a role to play in addressing this
issue she said. Finally she advocated the youth to be Architects of the
City. You can be a social marketer. A citizen ambassador
The two day conference will conclude on Saturday. Many luminaries, youth
achievers are expected to address the youth tomorrow too. Some of these
include Dr. Sudershan of Lead India 2020, Mr. Tapan of Art of Living, Dr.
Jaya Prakash Narayan of Loksatta, Ms. Amala Akkineni of Blue Cross
society, Mr. Nagarjuna Akkineni, film star; Ms. Bhargavi Pillai, a
playback singer fame of Pappu Can't Dance Sala Fame, Mr. Syed Sultan Ahmed
of S.S. Edutainment Pvt. Ltd., Bangalore etc. and others.
Reachout's News Bureau
Sept'08
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