A cause awakening

Updated on: Monday, April 11, 2011

Difficult times bring out the latent strength in a person. For Ishita Chaudhry, CEO and founder of YP organisation — a youth-led and youthrun organisation that supports and enables young people to create programmes and influence policies in the areas of gender, sexuality , health, education and the arts and governance, the Godhra riots of February 2002 was the turning point. "I was dumbstruck by the disconnect of youth from the issues of human rights violation and social justice," she recounts.

Chaudhry is on Unesco's Global Advisory Group for sexuality education , for the period of 2010 - 2012 and has facilitated trainings for UNAIDS (a joint United Nations programme on HIV/AIDS), Unesco, WHO and Unicef. "I've had the opportunity to advocate for young people's health and rights, specifically focusing on developing leadership skills among them and enabling their access to information on sexuality education," said Chaudhry.

Working with 5,000 young people over the last eight years, initiating more than 200 projects in India and working with youth activists at regional and international forums has been quiet a task for her. "It is a lot of hard work with inadequate sleep, but the people I meet through the workshops are fantastic and they make the effort worthwhile ," said Chaudhry.

Recalling her journey, Chaudhry reminisces , "In 2002 I had spoken about social and ethical breakdowns in India in a forum and it occurred to me that unless there is an emergency in one's own home ground, people in general don't take any action. The media with the intense coverage ensured that the Godhra Riots were brought to every doorstep. However, I saw that young people were clueless in terms of their role beyond a certain point," said Chaudhry.

Today, as a 26-year-old , heading the YP foundation for four years, she feels happy about what she has done for the country. Talking about the YP foundation , Chaudhry said, "We all share the same set of values and we have young people on the team. The best thing about this organisation is that youngsters do everything."

Talking about her future plans, she summed up, "We want to build and strengthen skills, knowledge and relationships among the youth along the length and breadth of the country and strengthen the movement. I realise that all of us have different realities but we can support each other."

Times of India

A cause awakening

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