My Space, My unManifesto Campaign “MEET YOUR LEADERS” With the successful reached out to youth of diverse background and collection of promises in Manipur through workshop, seminar, meeting, one to one contact and online by InSIDE-Northeast, Young Men’s Christian Association and Bosco Mangaal a state event called “Meet your Leaders” is organized as part of My Space, My unManifesto campaign – a nationwide campaign Initiated by ComMutiny – the Youth Collective, New Delhi, organized by at Songel CC Hall, Churachanpur on 22nd March 2014. The event is organize with the objective to create a platform where youth have possible influence on party manifestos by engaging different political party representatives in dialogue and presenting the top 10 young people’s manifestos to them which are collected from different places. The people’s representatives that received the top 12 youth unManifesto are: 1. Mrs. Kim Gangte, MP Candidate from Trinamool Congress 2. Mr. C. Doungel, MP Candidate from National Congress Party 3. Mr. Lien Gangte, MP Candidate from Janata Dal United. Sadly the sitting MP Mr. Thangso Baite failed to turn up. My Space, My unManifesto is a movement supported by UNFPA-(United Nation Population Fund) that kick started by bringing together 300 young minds to discuss their vision for the world they want to co-create has now spread across 22 states in the country. Starting off an unprecedented change in the political mindsets of the youth of this country. We call it the unManifesto because like Alice’s unbirthdays in Alice in Wonderland, we believe young people want to celebrate and embrace politics each day of the year. Instead of blaming young people can be prepared to claim the democratic spaces for themselves by experiencing it firsthand. This experience will give them a real world opportunity to learn about themselves, about society and about their democracy like no book or speech can offer. As many as 26% in the first Lok Sabha and 32% in the second were youth (aged between 25 and 40 years). But in this Lok Sabha the same figure has drastically dwindled to 6.3%! Though the youth representation in the first two Lok Sabhas looks healthy, the number of cabinet Ministers aged between 26 and 40 in the first cabinet was zero and the average age was 52 years. The average age in the current cabinet has gone up to 64 years! We are the youngest nation (average age 27 years) ruled by the oldest cabinet in the world! The politics of this country is poised at a crossroads. One road will take us towards leadership being concentrated in a single hero figure. The other could take us to leadership being shared and devolved to millions of people in the country. Young people want to look beyond just voting and claim a space that is ruled in their name. Why should young people be content with engaging with the tip of the iceberg – the voting process – rather than participate in all the twists and turns of the political story? UNFPA, Community – The Youth Collective, Pravah, Youth Ki Awaaz, Gandhi Fellows are the core incubating partners of the campaign. The campaign is further owned and run by a rainbow coalition of 45 organizations in 22 states who work with young people on a wide range of issues including, rural development, tribal rights, governance, environment, adolescent and youth development, transgender rights, government school reforms and social inclusion. Till now, through several on-ground discussions and events, online debates and Tweethatons (Twitter chats) have received 65,500 promises from 13 lakhs young people belonging to a wide range of communities across the country. The top 10 promises collated from the crowd-sourced youth unManifesto so far were presented to 60 peoples’ representatives from 9 parties to include in their manifesto. In North East 21 organizations are involved in all the States in the campaign with an objective to create new political tide. In Manipur InSIDE-Northeast, YMCA, and Bosco Mangaal lead the campaign in reaching out to the youth of the State making every effort to wake them up from their deep political slumber and help them for active political participation and hold government accountable and transparent. The campaign is launched with the following objectives: 1. Learning and leadership building among youth to take informed stances and engage in everyday politics rather than just during election time. 2. An understanding among the youth regarding what is politics, how does the system work and where can I as an individual citizen influence the decision making process. Greater awareness among the general public especially the youth regarding what is a manifesto, how is it made, what are the promises made for the youth. 3. Possible influence on party manifestos by engaging different political party representatives in dialogue and presenting the young people’s manifestos to them. TOP 13 DEMANDS FROM YOUTH OF MANIPUR 1. Repeal Armed Forces Special Power Act 2. Pass and enforce strong Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill to contain corruption. 3. Introduce youth friendly policies for their all round development – education, sports, and employment. 4. Ensure the safety and protection of women and child and set up fast track court in every district. 5. Give more power to the Hills Autonomous District Council for better development of tribal 6. Make 40 % seat reservation for youth in the State Assemblies. 7. Set up library centre and sport academy in every block headquarter. 8. Improved transportation facilities like road, bridges etc. in rural areas for better connectivity and development. 9. Provide full education scholarship for the economically poor students for higher/professional studies. 10. Provide Job Oriented Vocational Training Centre at block level. 11. Make the power supply regular both in urban and rural. 12. Make the health centres functional and ensure regular attendance of doctors and nurses with ambulance services and free medicines supply. The North East region top 10 demands will be taken to the National Coalition Event on 28th March in New Delhi and presented to all the national political parties. Written by: Misao Hejang Hangmi Coordinator unManifesto campaign CYC Hubs, North East Region
Posted on: Sat, 22 Mar 2014 16:20:54 +0000
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