Activists meet online to brush up on Constitution

Several prominent personalities attend sessions held for two hours every day

Floral tributes being paid to the Constitution of India on Constitution Day, November 26 last year.

While the lockdown has brought everything from economic activity in the country to intellectual discourse to a standstill, a group of social activists have decided to use this period to brush up on their knowledge of the Constitution by discussing every aspect of it in detail and chalking out a strategy to spread awareness of it in a post-coronavirus world.

Rajvaibhav Shobha Ramchandra from Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, who works as a samvidhan samvadak (communicator of the Constitution) in collaboration with a number of progressive and rationalist organisations in the State, came up with the idea to extend his offline work online.

“I go to schools and colleges to interact with students and educate them about the salient features of the Constitution. We explain to them the important articles in the Constitution through songs, plays, PowerPoint presentations and other interactive methods. Since I am part of a social reform movement, I felt that we can conduct the sessions online as well for two hours every day,” Mr. Ramchandra said.

On March 24, Mr. Ramchandra along with around 14 other workers who are part of various social movements joined an online meeting using a mobile application and discussed their first topic, ‘How do we view Constitution in today’s time?’ He said, “We struggled at first, but the session turned out to be a success. We decided to plan all the topics in advance and we started with the Preamble to the Constitution.” He said, it was decided that we would discuss every word of the Preamble, starting from ‘We, the people of India’.

“The meeting is not limited to social activists or intellectuals. We invite even common citizens to join us. It is a virtual lecture with deep discussions,” said Krishnat Swati, an activist with the Maharashtra Andhashraddha Nirmulan Samiti. The online meetings discuss the meaning of every word used in the Preamble, the rationale behind them, the necessity and various aspects of them.

Several notable activists such as theatre personality Atul Pethe, social reformer Ganesh Devi, Mukta Dabholkar, Dr. Hamid Dabholkar, Megha Pansare, poet Sachin Mali, and Sheetal Sathe have joined these sessions over the course of the last 23 days.

“These sessions aren’t only for discussing but we also plan on how to take these aspects to the people through grassroots workers to create a social reform movement in a post-coronavirus world,” said Mahendra Naik from Panvel.

Mr. Ramchandra said a total of 88 people had joined their online session on April 14. “We plan to continue these sessions till the lockdown is in place. This is an opportunity for all of us to know our Constitution better and deeper,” he said.