As part of World Food Day celebrations, the Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Foundation in association with the Food and Agriculture Organisation launched the first issue of its bi-monthly children's newspaper, The Peace Gong, in the Capital on Friday.
United Nations Information Centre Director Kiran Mehra-Kerpelman along with other dignitaries launched the newspaper that seeks to develop a critical understanding of issues related to food security among children.
Dr. Gopi Ghosh, Assistant FAO Representative, said children have chosen price rise as the theme for The Peace Gong elocution and creative poster competitions because prices of food and essential commodities were making life difficult for the common man.
“Food Prices from crisis to stability” was chosen as this year's theme on World Food Day to shed light on the trend of price volatility and what can be done to mitigate its impact on the most vulnerable.”
Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore Foundation Chairman Prof. T. K. Thomas said The Peace Gong will make students better informed. “Communication education is important for children living in urban and rural areas because they will now be able to use information in an effective way.”
The Peace Gong Editor Spandana Bhattacharya said the children's newspaper would build bridges of friendship between children belonging to different States. “Through this newspaper we want to convey to adults that we too can contribute for a just and peaceful world,” she added.
Vitasta George, a Class IX student of Father Agnel's School, Indirapuram, shared her experience of interviewing underprivileged children to find out how price rise was affecting them and their families. Price rise was making life miserable for children, especially those living in slum areas, she said.
In the first issue of the bi-monthly newspaper, children from Delhi, West Bengal, Assam, Karnataka and other States have written extensively on diverse issues related to food security and price rise. The newspaper is part of the Foundation's media and information literacy initiative.
To highlight children's views on price rise, an inter-school elocution competition involving schools of Delhi and National Capital Region was held.
The theme of the elocution competition was “Volatility of Price Rise” in which Ishmeet Kaur of Birla Vidya Niketan School won the first prize; the second position went to Anna Savina Devasia of Notre Dam School, while Mallika Malik of Loretto Convent School won the third prize.
