Mera Gaon Meri Dunia

How often you have been asked to not embrace your youth-hood because you were inexperienced? “There is a fundamental thought about which I am thinking since the last few years. The ones who stop me to experiment and learn are not who knows what I need and what I feel. They assume all the things I need and I feel and do not even take a consensus from me to confirm at least.” How often have you felt even proximity of this feeling? As per the census of 2011, India has more than 50% population below the age of 25 years and more than 65% below the age of 35. It is expected that by this year-end the average age of India would be 29 years. They all have a dream and they want to embrace the youth-hood within them at least innately. But, what is happening to them? You know the answer quite well whether you agree or disagree with me. They are getting influenced by merely two-three ideologies which are prevalent in this country. They are systematically getting trapped into a narrow school of tho...

Value-based educational changes are a very complex area of work, that too when your context is a government school. Imagine the processes that have long been around achieving (or mostly appearing to achieve) the pre-decided learning outcomes and one fine day you are asked to focus on how many and what kind of questions your students ask you! The challenge is too layered to navigate through. At one level, the teachers (or the system) have been struggling to devote appropriate hours of teaching time in the classroom, and at the other level, the idea of integrating values in pedagogy seems alien.  I have been knocking the doors of a government school in Uttar Pradesh for a few months (this is before lockdown) every day. Though it took some time to welcome my presence, it was finally accepted. All I wanted to do was create an enabling space where every child felt valued, heard, and accepted.  I initiated with an experiment of creating a label-free classroom, where people don't cal...

We co-created a working culture with our first batch of Summer Interns who come from diverse backgrounds. Apart from welcoming them through a warm circle to know them better through reflective spaces, we could initiate work in the areas of Human Resource, Marketing and Research through recurring online meetings to co-create the way forward.   Apart from the project related work, we are keen to create spaces that fosters personal growth of new members . We created a space for our interns to reflect about the perspective and the process of labelling self at various stages of life. Who am I ? -  was a workshop led by Members of MGMD team for the Interns to enhance the power of lenses with which we look at ourselves and build a path for us. We are looking forward to working with them !

Kumkum is a 10-year-old child who studies in 4th grade in a nearby school in her village in Madhya Pradesh, namely, Jhutawad. The village is at a distance of 80 km from Ujjain district where the majority of the population used to rely on agricultural activities for its sustenance until the struggle to make the ends meet called many families to migrate to nearby towns for better opportunities. Kumkum's family is among a few left in the agriculture business and all the members spend their major part of the day in the fields. Her family wants to see her getting a quality education. Kumkum, since, her early childhood has lived at her Nani's home (maternal grandmother's home) to be able to attend comparatively better schools as compared to her native village. Due to the COVID outbreak, the most immediate change that she witnessed was her annual exams getting cancelled for which she had prepared a lot. Earlier, she was supported by her family members, then and now, ...

"आज की दुनिया के सुरक्षित भविष्य के लिए हर शख्स के हाथ एक अच्छी किताब होना बहुत आवश्यक है!" एक तरफ जब दुनिया तकनीक के सहारे अनगिनत उपक्रम बना रही है, कुछ लोग किताबों और पुस्तकालयों की परम्परा में नये कल की उम्मीद तलाश रहे हैं. गाँव के परिवेश में बच्चों और युवाओं के लिए ऐसा माहौल जहाँ वे स्वाध्ययन और विचार-विमर्श कर सकें. प्रशांत, नवादा जिले के रजौली में एक सार्वजनिक पुस्तकालय - "अब्दुल कलाम लाइब्रेरी" के सञ्चालन का कार्य कर रहे हैं। उनका विचार है कि ऐसे माहौल में कोई भी शख्स कभी भी आकर‌ पठन-पाठन कर सकता है। वे इसे एक सामुदायिक तौर पर संभाला जाने वाला और संचालित किया जाने वाला पुस्तकालय होते हुए देखना चाहते हैं जिसमें सत्ता का केन्द्रीकरण न हो. वे इस पुस्तकालय में बच्चों के लिए पुस्तकें, युवाओं के लिए अलग अलग Study materials, आदि सामग्री का भण्डारण चाहते हैं और पूरानी हो चुकी किताबों को भी कैसे उपयोग में लाया जा सके इस पर भी काम कर रहे हैं. प्रशांत, मेरा गाँव मेरी दुनिया के आईना देखो 2.0 प्रोग्राम का हिस्सा रह चुके हैं और समाज में युवाओं के योगदान को कै...

A man from Delhi seemed to know nobody in the big city of Mumbai. A time came when he took a courageous decision of pursuing his dreams of understanding filmmaking and writing scripts. What went into making him cross his threshold of finally moving to action guided by his heart is a separate story.  However, through a circle, he met another guy who offered his rented apartment to accommodate him (in Mumbai) for a month. These people had never met before.   What is it that creates such trust among the unknown, to give and to receive? What do these platforms for connecting look like? What value do they hold in the world of unending human desire? Mera Gaon Meri Dunia is a dream envisioned by many youths who immensely believe in the magic of collaborative trust and sharing. It, bi-yearly, organize a journey called Aaina Dekho which welcomes youth from diverse background to live, work, talk, and travel together. The participant could be anybody who is looking for...

Komal is a young woman from Pune who is a freelance writer. She has been a part of the second cohort of Aaina Dekho. Even after her remarkable performance at UPSC, she has taken a brave decision of choosing writing as a career. However, her parents believe that she can do better things with her life.  Komal has often shared at the platform that she has never enjoyed listening to others much. The importance of listening has always been a question until she practised this at Aaina Dekho platform. Komal, with her dreamy eyes and in a stance of intense reflection says, “After coming to AD I could realize how important it is to listen to others at a personal level.” Post-program, going back to home, she could sense that she is not avoiding lengthy conversations with her mother. Earlier, she used to think it to be not much useful but now she could experience more acceptance and patience in the reception of feelings and thoughts of her own mother. She also documents that earlier...