Pravah Jaipur Initiative Blog

Pravah’s engagement with youth and civil society organizations in Rajasthan can be traced back to its own inception. The initial support for setting up Pravah came from organizations like SWRC, Tilonia, Urmul and Sankalp and subsequently we had the privilege of relating with many other grassroots organizations in the region. We have been hugely inspired by these social change endeavours and exchanges. This inspiration led us to the desire to look for ways to deepen these engagements in order to strengthen the field of youth development.

Our exchange with young people and organizations across the city of Jaipur led us to discover that while Rajasthan is known for its social activism across the world, the young people in Jaipur tend to be very disconnected from this legacy. The city is undergoing a number of changes which is resulting in a lot of turmoil. In terms of aspirations, the city is looking towards Delhi- malls, multi- storied buildings and call centers. Personality development, English speaking classes and tuitions for civil services among others are on the rise. Dealing with this fast paced urbanisation while being rooted in the cultural tradition has created a tough situation for young people.

In this fast-paced, competitive world, the focus has somewhere shifted from education for development of character and growing up to become an effective human being, to education that merely equips young adults to do well for themselves alone. This has led to a preoccupation of the student with his/her own development in exclusion of the rest of society.

It is not that young people wishing to create social change and becoming active citizens are non existent in Jaipur. They do exist, but what appears to be absent is a platform where the young people could discover and enhance their potential as change makers.

Having successfully nurtured a number of initiatives within Pravah as well as within other organizations, we are currently in the process of incubating Pravah Jaipur Initiative- a youth development organization. This organization aims to create precisely this platform in the form of a Youth Resource Centre.

Building leadership for social change and justice among young people in Jaipur by building with and in youth:

• Respect and understanding of citizenship
• Attitude of ownership for common spaces
• Skill of leadership for social change
• Behaviours to develop strong relationship as the foundation

About the Pravah Jaipur Initiative

The Youth Resource Centre will create a knowledge bank of various programmes, and opportunities for young people. From fellowships and awards to recognise those who have already undertaken citizenship action to those who would like to explore the arena. The centre will seek to connect young people to the relevant opportunities by helping the latter access them.The centre will do this by offering the following:

1. Creative Media fellowships for youth development: to encourage the use of creative media such as theatre, art, comics, writing, photography, music and sculpting in this field. These will be offered in both urban as well as rural spaces and both in monetary and non- monetary forms.
2. National and international learning opportunities in the form of workshops, seminars, fellowships, awards, internships, exposures, and volunteering placements.
3. Capacity building workshops with adolescents and youth and organizations engaging youth in different ways, including schools, colleges and NGOs.
4. Creating public platforms in partnership with other organizations for youth engagement through Youth Festivals, youth clubs, volunteering placements, skill and issue meetings, and exposure and internship opportunities.

This initiative is supported by Sir Ratan Tata Trust.