Adopt villages, fight graft, Anna Hazare tells youth

‘You prosper and take your community towards prosperity of thought, action and livelihood’

Social activist Anna Hazare and Telangana Jagruthi president and MP K. Kavitha offering floral tributes to Mahatma Gandhi at Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference in the city on Saturday.

Social activist Anna Hazare asked youth to come out of the shell that they live in and think for society, their neighbours, villages and the country to bring about transformation in every aspect of life.

Speaking as chief guest at the three-day Telangana Jagruthi International Youth Leadership Conference on ‘Gandhian Path to Sustainability and Innovation’ here on Saturday, he suggested them to adopt villages and fight against corruption as there was nothing beyond their reach. “With the right ideas, they can prosper and take the communities along towards prosperity of thought, action and livelihood,” he noted.

Giving his life as an example, the Gandhian, who led several movements for sustainable rural development, transparency in governance and for rooting out corruption in public life, said he once had gone to the brink of committing suicide, but realised the purpose of his life then. He went back to his drought-prone and poverty-stricken village Ralegaon Siddhi and started working on rainwater harvesting as part of making it drought-resistant. “The village has been transformed completely. Earlier, not even one crop could be grown in a year in 300 acres of land. But now, two crops are grown in 1,200 acres and our village supplies 100 to 150 trucks of vegetables to urban areas every month. Besides, for the last 20 years, the sale and consumption of liquor and tobacco products have been banned,” Mr. Hazare explained. Telangana Jagruthi president K. Kavitha said they organised the conference to help youth come together to fight problems dogging people across the world as working in isolation would not help find solutions to issues such as violence, drug abuse, exploitation, HIV prevalence, trafficking and others.

Later, at a panel discussion on youth development moderated by Editor-in-Chief of

The Print Shekhar Gupta, four MPs – Gaurav Gogoi, Asaduddin Owaisi, K. Kavitha and Seema Malhotra (U.K.) – expressed their views on youth empowerment, dynasty politics and other issues. However, they all felt there was not enough space for youth in politics. They opined that political-family background would only help upcoming politicians in entering politics, but they have to make room for themselves and stand on their own with their performance.

Asked by a delegate from Maharashtra, Nikhil G., as to why he would resort to hate speeches often, Mr. Owaisi said he does not indulge in hate speeches, but he speaks harshly so that people are forced to think on what he says and his point of view.