‘Out beyond the ideas of wrongdoing and right doing, There is a field, I’ll meet you there.‘ This powerful couplet by the famous poet Rumi imagines a free-spirited world devoid of judgments. Now imagine a youth platform and a dedicatedly effective initiative that brings these ideas together through its initiatives.
Now imagine a youth platform and a dedicatedly effective initiative that brings these ideas together through its initiatives.
Launched by ComMutiny-The Youth Collective under the VartaLeap Coalition, a cross-sectoral coalition of 90 (and growing) youth-engaging organisations spanning over 18 states across India engage together to represent a bold vision of unlocking the potential of India’s most transformative force, the youth. Beyond Right and Wrong is that platform and a free-spirited space.
What is the VartaLeap coalition?
Under this initiative that aims to engage youth beyond the binaries of right or wrong or any judgments passed, VartaLeap is a coalition of various stakeholders, including the development sector, government, media, educational institutions, and UN agencies who seek to provide and facilitate support to the youth—embarking the spirit of a ‘jagrik’, a self-awakened and self-aware citizen or ‘nagrik’ who acts to awaken his community, the ‘jag’.
‘Every Youth A Jagrik and Every Space Nurturing Jagriks‘. A part of this VartaLeap coalition, the Beyond Right and Wrong – Climate Action Championship for intrapreneurs.
A platform for young intrapreneurs from Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) to inspire and influence their organisations and communities to prioritise Climate Action Championship was an ambitious journey for youth leaders across 13 different cities all over India. This ambitious journey involved the youth leadership engaging in a series of events in their regions-Bhubaneswar, Guwahati, Bhopal, Ahmedabad, Jamshedpur, Indore, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mumbai, Udaipur, and Ranchi.
Onboarded in November and December 2024, the initiative envisioned nurturing a space free of any binaries of judgment for young people or in the Collective’s words, ‘it was a call to reimagine.’
Onboarded in November and December 2024, the initiative envisioned nurturing a space free of any binaries of judgment for young people or in the Collective’s words, ‘it was a call to reimagine.’
But what are we reimagining? We are reimagining our world, spaces and discourses, all in which they mainstream a developmental path with the youth leadership of the country in the forefront, inclusive of intergenerational dialogue and ideas encouraging youth leadership to not just think but act upon their bold ideas.
Mainstreaming youth-centric development by solving regional challenges
At the heart of this initiative- Beyond Right and Wrong, lies this collective effort to address the problem of solving “wicked challenges” that prevent youth-centric development from reaching its peak and becoming mainstream. For instance, as mentioned in FII’s previous article with ComMutiny, youth leadership in rural India faces the viles of pressing issues amongst their communities be it child marriage in Jharkhand or overpopulation in Uttar Pradesh.
With various intersections intact to understand how the youth sees these issues in their respective regions, the Climate Action Championship under Beyond Right and Wrong Initiative of ComMutiny looked at addressing the population’s climate challenges.
‘I believe in Uttar Pradesh the problem was lack of awareness and sensitisation towards the climate cause. We usually limit climate issues by just associating them with agriculture. Climate is much more than that. In Uttar Pradesh, the youth saw how sensitisation and awareness towards climate issues is a necessity‘, mentioned Zeeshan, from YES Foundation, a member organisation of the VartaLeap Coalition based in Uttar Pradesh.
The youth understood all these challenges through comprehensively effective strategies for these pressing issues of their respective regions.
The youth understood all these challenges through comprehensively effective strategies for these pressing issues of their respective regions. This sense of solving “wicked challenges” beyond the boundaries of right and wrong is an inspired action with a sense of duty within the youth, the real game changer. With effective collaboration and a supportive space to build a network with various influential stakeholders like educators, policymakers, media, and civil society organisations, and with the youth leaders after six intense weeks of training, four rigorous rounds, conducting various roundtable dialogues to discuss the wicked challenges and come up with pledges as support and countless inspiring climate pitches, the championship came to an end.
Winners and finalists of the championship
Meet Madhur Bhardwaj and Archana Sangulle from SHEDO Sansthan, from Madhya Pradesh. Madhur and Archana were the winners of the Championship. They came up with a climate action pitch of creating a collective awareness of climate change with 100 women farmers and 20 young farmers. They envision a technological innovation to support this initiative of theirs’.
The issue that Zeeshan mentioned regarding the lack of climate change issues and related awareness and sensitisation as mentioned previously in the article, is exactly what the finalists from Uttar Pradesh had incorporated in their call and plan to action. Poonam Yadav, an intrapreneur from Uttar Pradesh, and Sneh Lata, a community representative both from the Kalam Foundation, a grassroots organisation in Lucknow aim to empower and mobilise over 5000 young people by advocating about the climate change issues amongst their communities and how they can plan for sustainable and cleaner futures for their generations and the posterity.
From Ahmedabad, Gujarat, Kajal Kanaujia, an Intrapreneur and Pankaj Ghute, a Community Representative from We the Yuva presented a pitch on the usage of Simple and Innovate Permaculture technology for agriculture to mitigate the climate change crisis. Indeed an innovative way to champion natural farming and permaculture to minimise carbon footprinting to minimise pollution from our environment. They aim to encourage and make this technology accessible for young farmers by initiating to provide both technical know-how and other skills.
By combining indigenous practices with modern technological solutions, they aim to enhance resilience against climate challenges and empower the Lapung block community by ensuring sustainable access to such natural resources.
The Karra Society for Rural Action Lapung block from Ranchi, Jharkhand representatives intrapreneur, Md Sadique Jahan and Alomani Tigga, Community Representative, also presented their ideas to tackle water scarcity and soil erosion in their region. By combining indigenous practices with modern technological solutions, they aim to enhance resilience against climate challenges and empower the Lapung block community by ensuring sustainable access to such natural resources.
All these intrapreneurs aim to create an impactful climate action in their communities for 8-12 months. This milestone reflects the spirit of ‘Nourishing Now’ as all these grassroots organisations begin and continue to incorporate the prioritisation of climate action through network and alliance with the influence and support of the concerned stakeholders.
Youth-led climate action leadership
But for whom is the network or alliance being created? It’s the young changemakers. And who are these young changemakers being mentored? They are grassroots youth leaders and intrapreneurs from grassroots organisations across India (13 cities mentioned above). The initiative was born to action through a process called the Climate Action Championship.
The Climate Action Championship provided young intrapreneurs a platform to pitch their climate-positive plans to various cross-sectorally influential stakeholders mentioned earlier. From sustainable agriculture practices to community-driven renewable energy solutions, these pitches reflect the creativity and boldness of India’s young grassroots leadership.
After this, they received critical feedback on their climate action plans. These ideas with the collaboration of grassroots leaders’ own lived realities and the allies’ expertise re-shaped their ideas to tackle climate challenges in their communities. This step was completed in the quarter and semi-finals of the championship.
Twelve young intrapreneur teams advanced to the finals of the championship. They had the opportunity to secure funding of up to ₹5 lakh to bring their young and fresh ideas to life—the blueprints for building climate-positive communities across India.
The youth allies or influential stakeholders sat with the grassroots youth leaders at roundtables and coached them sharing their expertise and mentorship to young initiatives.
The youth allies or influential stakeholders sat with the grassroots youth leaders at roundtables and coached them sharing their expertise and mentorship to young initiatives. Nothing is more demanded than the resources to be invested in a great young idea, It was concluded that one must invest in an idea for it to become a possibility.
Hence, the stakeholders also committed to investing in the youth leader. The country needs more such initiatives and programmes that address such challenges and incorporate the vision that the young minds hold and aim to bring into implementation.
