Rise of the Young Indians
While school students are gearing up to tackle corruption, future engineers are taking the social responsibility a step further……….Jyoti Shelar
While school students are gearing up to tackle corruption, future engineers are taking the social responsibility a step further……….Jyoti Shelar
Heer Khant could not understand why a postman had to be paid for delivering letters.
“It’s his job. Why should we give him any extra money?” she asked her grandfather when he told her that a postman had to be bribed to get important documents or letters delivered.
And this revelation made the 15-year-old resolve to weed out corruption. Though the idea might seem far-fetched for a person of an impressionable age like hers, Khant soon formed a band of like-minded friends. They started sending letters to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, seeking guidance in fighting corruption.
And this revelation made the 15-year-old resolve to weed out corruption. Though the idea might seem far-fetched for a person of an impressionable age like hers, Khant soon formed a band of like-minded friends. They started sending letters to the Anti-Corruption Bureau, seeking guidance in fighting corruption.
The amazed ACB officials asked them to visit their office. “It was overwhelming to see the teenagers walking into our office,” said Sanjay Parande, additional superintendent of police, ACB. “They were open to take up any task to fight corruption. Since they are all school students, we asked them to start of with their school.”
“After our school reopens this week, we will start spreading the thought among other students,” said Heer, a student of Kapol Vidyanidhi International School. “We have decided to call our group Young Indians.”
Her friend Rohit Shirsat, 15, always wondered what the brown envelopes were filled with. “My mother is a government servant. Whenever I visited her office I saw people exchanging these packets. Now I know it was bribe.”
While the group is working out several possibilities with ACB officers, they have already chalked out an awareness rally and a novel on corruption. “The ACB officers have offered to help us in our entire campaign,” said Abhishek Pathre, 16. The ex-student of Kapol Vidyanidhi now with Podar College is another Young Indian who wants to do away with corruption because “it is a germ eating away our country”.
“We will organise seminars by ACB officers and invite students from other schools,” said Shweta Patel, 16. “Our group consists of students from Kapol Vidyanidhi International School and few pass-outs who are now in college. We want to have young people as members from across the city.”
ASP Parande said, “This will be a unique experience because it is for the first time that students have approached us.”