There is lush greenery along the winding roads of the Eastern Ghats, with meadows and saplings swaying to the wind. Naga Sravan Kilaru often enjoys this view as he pedals from one village to another to meet young people. The 25-year-old nurtures a dream of making the youth politically aware and active and on this mission he plans to meet over one lakh students from the various districts of Andhra Pradesh.
Under the banner, ‘Yuva Galam- A march for millions of dreams’, Sravan and his team plan to draft a ‘State Youth Policy’ into a manifesto and present it to the politicians before the elections in 2019. “Youth is not the future of the country. They are the present and their opinion needs to be taken seriously,” declares Sravan. “Their voice and power has to be taken seriously and they have to have a say in political parties. Their role needs to be much bigger than what the youth wings of political parties allot to them. The country needs more young parliamentarians.”
According to the data collected by the agency PRS Legislative Research, the youngest Member of Parliament in the 16th Lok Sabha is 29 years old while the oldest is 90 years. There are approximately 38 MPs below the age of 40. MPs aged 56–70 years have the highest share of seats (44 per cent) in the current house. Sravan wants this to change and encourage more youngsters to look up to politics through Yuva Galam.
The team is cycling through the 13 districts of the State and visiting over 120 colleges. They hold one-on-one interactions with students. They did that in various colleges when they were in Visakhapatnam. The team also gathered together young people for a walk on the Beach Road on September 4. “The manifesto that we plan to present to the politicians will be a compilation of views and demands of the young people from various parts of the State. We will present it to various political parties and make them adopt it as a part of their election manifesto, ” says this resident of Vijayawada.
Road ahead
Yuva Galam has two goals. Firstly, to consolidate the youth of the State and present them as one strong presence. And two, to get political parties to look beyond skill development and unemployment while addressing the youth.“Every time the issue of youth comes up, politicians speak only about skill development and employment. Of course, these are plaguing the young lives but these are not the only issues. Through this initiative we plan to present the myriad other problems the youth is facing,” he says.
Visakhapatnam.Andhra Pradesh:04/09/2018: Naga Sravan Kiralu is on a mission to travel across 13 districts of Andhra Pradesh to meet the youth and draft a State Youth Policy under the banner of 'Yuva Galam' in Visakhapatnam on Tuesday--- Photo: C.V. Subrahmanyam
The journey of Yuva Galam began on August 12 to coincide with International Youth Day. The team began with the northernmost district of the State, Ichchapuram. Over a one month, they have travelled across Srikakulam and Vizianagaram, visiting 22 colleges and meeting over 11,000 students.
Need for change
Recalling one of his conversations with a student from Srikakulam, Sravan said, “He told me that he and several other students have been walking eight kilometres every day to reach their college. It is not that their village is not connected by roads or has no public transport. But the frequency of the buses is so bad that they cannot reach college on time.”
The team will present its manifesto drawn from the issues that the youth want to be looked into on January 12, which is celebrated as National Youth Day.
Apart from this, Sravan has also hosted a number of mock parliaments to educate youngsters about how the parliament works. His stint with public awareness began after moving from Vijayawada to Bengaluru for his graduation. He volunteered at a non-profit organisation called Revolutionising India through Social Empowerment (RISE) which raises awareness about civic issues and promotes participation in public life.
