Anshuman Singh and Rahul Tripathi, Gandhi Fellows, Batch 2018-20 started a youth engagement based project named “Son Youth Parliament” with the support of co-fellows Amit, Khushi, and Priyanka in the Aspirational district Sonbhadra. which is the second-largest district of Uttar Pradesh, India and the only district in India which borders four states namely Madhya Pradesh in the west, Chhattishgarh in the south, Jharkhand in southeast and Bihar in the east. Sonbhadra is also the highest tribal populated district in Uttar Pradesh.

Son Youth Parliament (SYP) is a unique educational program which brings together young people from all Sonbhadra district to discuss local and current topics like low Student Learning Outcomes, Female literacy issues, low attendance, dropouts, unemployment, child labour, child marriage, water availability, pollution, and bad transport in a parliamentary setting. It encourages independent thinking and initiative in young people and facilitates the learning of crucial social and professional skills and also supports the development of young people into a politically aware and responsible citizen by involving them in Indian political thinking and promoting intercultural understanding.
 

How it began–

Before joining the Gandhi Fellowship Anshuman and Rahul were the part of Youth Parliament in their city and they had life-changing experiences from that initiative. At their Fellowship location, they observed that youth plays key role in creating a movement/Jan-Andolan within the community. This led them to engage with youth and they started developing the idea of a parliamentary setting. In August 2019, they got a chance to engage with youth for Community Teaching projects and experimented with their own idea of parliamentary discussion and gained positive results from it.
They identified a college named ‘Government Post Graduate College’ situated in Chopan block and pitched the idea of “Son Youth Parliament” to the administration of the college. They liked the idea and allowed them to organize the ‘Son Youth Parliament’ at their college.
After collaborating with Principal, professors, and students of ‘Government Post Graduate College, Obra’, on November 8, 2019, Fellows organized an orientation and selection process with the sponsorship of college administration. Where a total of 90 candidates participated in Group Discussion and 55 candidates qualified for the next round i.e. Personal Interview. At the last, 30 candidates selected as the Son Youth Parliamentarian-2019.

What’s next:
There will be two days of three parliamentary sessions that are Mansoon session, Winter Session and budget session. On each day of the parliamentary session, there will a mini session of ‘City Agenda’ presentation to address the problems and respective required solutions of Sonbhadra district. After the completion of each parliamentary session, youth parliamentarians will generate the report of each addressed problem/bill which will be further shared with MLAs, MPs and the district administration to raise the issue at the top level.

We don’t have time to lose:
By 2030, the end date for the Sustainable Development Goals, today’s 18-year-olds will be 29. Our mission is that by that age, a young person is a productive, civically engaged, democratic, tax-paying citizen who can support themselves and their family. We must reach today’s young people the right technical and life skills to unlock opportunities for them and future generations.

Press coverage of the initiative