You can speak!

In view of the upcoming general elections in 2014, Vineeth Samdaria writes of the significance of You Speak India, an organisation he co-founded with five friends.

September 04, 2013 02:38 pm | Updated June 02, 2016 09:11 am IST - chennai

Be an aware voter. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

Be an aware voter. Photo: Shiv Kumar Pushpakar

You Speak India, a non-profit, youth-run organisation aims at promoting civic and political engagement and awareness among the urban youth of India. The purpose of this organisation is to promote civic engagement and political awareness among young people in India. Prior to the formation of You Speak India, the present Founder wrote about his intentions on a blog-post.

Understanding elections

Six college goers started this foundation and they form the core team — Anirudh Belle (Founder and Editor-in-Chief), Vineeth (Co-Founder and Business Development Associate), Younus (Tech Head), Jinal Dadiya (Legal and Editorial Associate), Siddharth GV (Editorial and Research Associate) and Praveen Sekar (Editorial and Research Associate) are the youngsters who run the show.

We took it upon us to present researched articles on present public policy issues in government and legislature (local and national) in a readable, relatable and fun format for young people to understand like the National Food Security Bill (2011), proposed amendments to the Land Acquisition Act of 1894, Electoral Reforms and Article 377.

Our target for the upcoming elections is to ensure urban youth participate by casting informed vote.

We should ensure their proactive participation and this is possible by bringing public policy to their doorstep in a relatable and fun format, thereby incentivising their participation in public policy discussions and elections.

In coming months, we also plan to have physical events in colleges across the city like debates on public policies, quiz competitions on election and politics, thus ensuring participating and spreading awareness among the youth!

We will also be engaging youngsters to ask for their rights be it rights to know or manifesto of local contestants.

Once the manifestos for the 2014 elections are released, we will analyse and present our research on the website. Our website would also have a question and answer forum where anyone can post queries/doubts regarding the upcoming elections and our team would answer them.

To read the articles, look up: >youspeakindia.org/policy/index.html

Connect with them on Facebook: > facebook.com/youspeakindia

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