Chennai, November 18: Today, Granddaughter of Mahatma Gandhi Smt. Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee and the Gandhian Legend Sh. PV Rajagopal, founding member and President of Ekta Parishad inaugurated a 1 INDIA-National Youth Peace Camp Thakkar Baba Vidyalaya campus. This initiative of promoting youth leadership and transformative change with a slogan of ‘1India’ is being organized by Harijan Sevak Sangh, National Foundation for Communal Harmony, Global Peace Foundation and Yuvsatta (youth for peace) and Global Peace Bridge.
In his welcome address Mr. P. Maruthi, President of Harijan Sevak Sangh shared that this three-day camp with lots of interactive deliberations, inspiring meet with legendary gandhians, sharamdaan and action programmes will conclude on November 20, 2022. Over 100 young College, University students from southern states of India are participating in this unique endeavor.
In his key-note address Sh. PV Rajagopal motivated the participating youth to take up leadership roles and work to ameliorate poverty from India and world, especially by working in rural areas to stem the tide of growing urbanization. Young people should work for and frame issues that make the government accountable for a sustainable solution to poverty that promotes greater self-reliance.
In her inaugural speech Smt. Tara Gandhi Bhattacharjee, quoting Mahatma Gandhi shared that Gandhi understood the feeling and sympathy of youth and called them as instruments of social change. He believed that only spiritual and ethical values can bring in changes to the social order. He wanted modern youth and students to become the means to form idealistic thoughts. He encouraged young minds about self-reliance as a crucial necessity to success. He was open-minded and wanted all the young people to be the same. He insisted on being tolerant of all religions, which is an important message to today’s generation. And the organizers of this National Youth Peace Camp have very aptly chosen the theme of ‘1 INDIA’ as a message of the camp to the masses at large.
Smt. Tara Gandhi emphasized that young people should follow the happiness mantra of simplicity, kindness, truth, and non-violence. She ended her speech with this thought that ‘Gandhiji and his messages of ‘Love all & Hate None’ are a timeless contribution to humanity, irrespective of time and space.
In his concluding remarks Dr. Markandey Rai, former adviser with UN-Habitat and Trustee of Global Peace Foundation said that their whole focus through organization of such camps in all four corners of India is on promoting the age-old Indian ethos of ‘Vasudhev Kutumbkam-the whole work is one family’.
Today’s programme ended with a mediation session under the able guidance of thought leaders and entrepreneur Mrs. Sandhya Prakash, who won laurels around the world for her work on promotion of vegetarianism in UAE.
