"We'll all be equal"
Since 2009, We The People has been helping the youth of India reclaim their civic rights
"Imagine that you and others are shipwrecked on a deserted island with no scope for escape or rescue. What sort of rules will you make for your group to ensure survival?"
This question is posed to teens in a school in Gurgaon. "We'll all be equals," suggests one. "We'll equally share all the resources we find," says another. "We'll all be free to express opinions," says a third. "There will be no one master, no one ruler in the group," another pipes up. "Have you," asks Vinita Gursahani Singh, founder-trustee of We The People, "read the Preamble of our Constitution?" Some students reply in the negative while a brave voice says they all found civics really boring. "It lays out the exact same principles that you're talking about," says Singh.
Since 2009, We The People, or WTP, a non-profit organisation, has been conducting workshops and programmes to teach ordinary Indians what it really means to be a citizen in a democracy. Its focus group? India's youth (14-25 age group). Incredibly, these interactive workshops on citizenship rely on only one basic document - the Preamble. "If read and understood, the Preamble is a very empowering document, a statement of our collective ethics. In many ways, it is much like the vision statement of a company, only on a much larger scale," says Singh. "Through informal 'Citizens Cafes', and formal citizenship programmes, we've reached out to thousands of young people across 19 cities, from Jorhat to Nashik." Moreover, WTP has developed a toolkit for citizens that educates them about the various ways in which they can reclaim their civic rights to improve their quality of life.
It all started when Singh, alongwith lawyer Seema Misra and other civil rights activists, realised that developing an active and informed citizenry was critical in their overall efforts to improve governance. "How could we do this, given that most of us felt powerless to change anything in our own neighbourhoods, let alone the country!" she says. "More and more people we spoke to reported feeling alienated from the process of democracy, believing that what they did individually could make a little difference." This feeling of apathetic powerlessness, Singh and her cohorts believed, could be dispelled by informing people about their civic rights, and demonstrating simple but effective ways to demand them.
"In my years as a Right to Information, or RTI, activist, I realised that when people felt they could actually do something, they became less apathetic," she says. With help from corporate trainers, Singh and her friends developed smart training modules, learning aids and citizens' toolkits. "Through our initial 'Citizens Cafes' held everywhere from skyscrapers to slums, villages to cities, we showed people exactly how to research and file complaints, how to file RTI applications and effectively seek redress for civic grievances," she explains. This, however, was not enough and WTP was too small an organisation to do more.
That was when WTP decided to focus on training facilitators who could conduct citizenship programmes in institutions. "Our reach suddenly increased (over 600 people have been trained through this programme) and some amazing stories of hope began to emerge," says Singh. At Heritage School, Gurgaon, Class IX students in the citizenship programme adopted Sadar Bazaar, a particularly dirty locality in Gurgaon.
They conducted a cleanliness audit and filed a well-researched complaint with the Municipal Corporation, Gurgaon. "Even I was amazed to see how Sadar Bazaar was cleaned up," exclaims Singh. Another young girl felt so motivated by WTP's citizenship workshop that she helped her mother obtain rations through their ration card, denied to her for years. She researched ration shop rules, procedures and how to make complaints using the Delhi government website. "Her application was so solid that the authorities had to address her complaint," says Singh. WTP conducts programmes at other schools in the Delhi-NCR region, such as Sanskriti, Manav Rachna and some government schools as well. "I've noticed that the Central Board of Secondary Education curriculum doesn't have project work for civics, although a practical knowledge of the subject is a life-skill that every potential citizen must have," says Singh. "We need to bring civics, and indeed the Preamble, into the mainstream, instead of something in the hands of 'activists' on the fringe."
Comprising mainly volunteers and funded by individuals and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, WTP aims to make the Preamble a part of every Indian's life. "I'd like to appeal to the human resource departments of companies to volunteer trainers to conduct our programmes. We're limited only by the number of volunteer trainers we have," she says. The Delhi elections have shown how potent people power can be, but Singh is no stranger to this. "All we need is to ignite a million small sparks across India, and together we can transform our nation," she says.
To learn more, visit www.we-the-people.in, their page on Facebook or email at info@we-the-people.in
Next up, a free map-based mobile safety app uses crowd sourcing and conducts detailed safety audits of cities, to empower users to make safer choices on the street
This question is posed to teens in a school in Gurgaon. "We'll all be equals," suggests one. "We'll equally share all the resources we find," says another. "We'll all be free to express opinions," says a third. "There will be no one master, no one ruler in the group," another pipes up. "Have you," asks Vinita Gursahani Singh, founder-trustee of We The People, "read the Preamble of our Constitution?" Some students reply in the negative while a brave voice says they all found civics really boring. "It lays out the exact same principles that you're talking about," says Singh.
Since 2009, We The People, or WTP, a non-profit organisation, has been conducting workshops and programmes to teach ordinary Indians what it really means to be a citizen in a democracy. Its focus group? India's youth (14-25 age group). Incredibly, these interactive workshops on citizenship rely on only one basic document - the Preamble. "If read and understood, the Preamble is a very empowering document, a statement of our collective ethics. In many ways, it is much like the vision statement of a company, only on a much larger scale," says Singh. "Through informal 'Citizens Cafes', and formal citizenship programmes, we've reached out to thousands of young people across 19 cities, from Jorhat to Nashik." Moreover, WTP has developed a toolkit for citizens that educates them about the various ways in which they can reclaim their civic rights to improve their quality of life.
It all started when Singh, alongwith lawyer Seema Misra and other civil rights activists, realised that developing an active and informed citizenry was critical in their overall efforts to improve governance. "How could we do this, given that most of us felt powerless to change anything in our own neighbourhoods, let alone the country!" she says. "More and more people we spoke to reported feeling alienated from the process of democracy, believing that what they did individually could make a little difference." This feeling of apathetic powerlessness, Singh and her cohorts believed, could be dispelled by informing people about their civic rights, and demonstrating simple but effective ways to demand them.
"In my years as a Right to Information, or RTI, activist, I realised that when people felt they could actually do something, they became less apathetic," she says. With help from corporate trainers, Singh and her friends developed smart training modules, learning aids and citizens' toolkits. "Through our initial 'Citizens Cafes' held everywhere from skyscrapers to slums, villages to cities, we showed people exactly how to research and file complaints, how to file RTI applications and effectively seek redress for civic grievances," she explains. This, however, was not enough and WTP was too small an organisation to do more.
That was when WTP decided to focus on training facilitators who could conduct citizenship programmes in institutions. "Our reach suddenly increased (over 600 people have been trained through this programme) and some amazing stories of hope began to emerge," says Singh. At Heritage School, Gurgaon, Class IX students in the citizenship programme adopted Sadar Bazaar, a particularly dirty locality in Gurgaon.
They conducted a cleanliness audit and filed a well-researched complaint with the Municipal Corporation, Gurgaon. "Even I was amazed to see how Sadar Bazaar was cleaned up," exclaims Singh. Another young girl felt so motivated by WTP's citizenship workshop that she helped her mother obtain rations through their ration card, denied to her for years. She researched ration shop rules, procedures and how to make complaints using the Delhi government website. "Her application was so solid that the authorities had to address her complaint," says Singh. WTP conducts programmes at other schools in the Delhi-NCR region, such as Sanskriti, Manav Rachna and some government schools as well. "I've noticed that the Central Board of Secondary Education curriculum doesn't have project work for civics, although a practical knowledge of the subject is a life-skill that every potential citizen must have," says Singh. "We need to bring civics, and indeed the Preamble, into the mainstream, instead of something in the hands of 'activists' on the fringe."
Comprising mainly volunteers and funded by individuals and Sir Dorabji Tata Trust, WTP aims to make the Preamble a part of every Indian's life. "I'd like to appeal to the human resource departments of companies to volunteer trainers to conduct our programmes. We're limited only by the number of volunteer trainers we have," she says. The Delhi elections have shown how potent people power can be, but Singh is no stranger to this. "All we need is to ignite a million small sparks across India, and together we can transform our nation," she says.
To learn more, visit www.we-the-people.in, their page on Facebook or email at info@we-the-people.in
Next up, a free map-based mobile safety app uses crowd sourcing and conducts detailed safety audits of cities, to empower users to make safer choices on the street