Today, the world hungers for peace. Clashes between communities, religious, ethnic groups and other sectarian forces have resulted in unimaginable trauma for large populations across South Asia. Unfortunately, the youth have become enmeshed in these conflicts and in this violence. Against the backdrop of impoverishment and unemployment, a large number of youth have no choice but to take up violence as a means of survival. Increasingly, they are becoming recruits for terror outfits and groups promoting violence.
The need of the hour is to work towards evolving a culture of non-violence, tolerance, mutual understanding, solidarity and the ability to solve disputes and conflicts peacefully. For evolving such a culture of peace and non-violence, young people have a major role to play. Nazya Yusuf, a student of Aligarh Muslim University and coordinator of South Asian Youth Forum for Peace and Reconciliation feels, “Youth energies that have been going into war and violence need to be channelised towards constructive work and peace-building. What we need is a large movement spanning entire South Asia or a large platform to mouth the larger voice, concerns, vision and opinion of young people.”
According to Bhuvan Silwal of Nepal, the major problems in South Asian countries include the ‘hidden political interest’, which is resulting in different long-standing problems. “The Bhutanese refugees in Nepal, the Maoist problem, the Kashmir issue, the insurgency in Sri Lanka are few cases. Unfortunately, instead of ensuring that youth are in the forefront, solving these issues, they are pushed into becoming perpetrators of violence,” Silwal says.
Silwal, who has been doing extensive work to promote volunteering in Nepal as the National Coordinator of Volunteerism Promotion, UN Volunteers, believes that encouraging contacts among the youth of South Asia, especially among those who are working on peace-building at the grassroots level, is important for any youth platform to have an impact.
Meanwhile, according to Shantum Seth, advisor, Volunteer Promotion, UNDP (India) ``We have to make the youth of the region realise the interdependent nature of South Asia. The youth should understand that the well-being of others in the region will in turn ensure their well-being too.” Emphasising that the basis of peace is understanding of each other’s views and ideas, Seth suggests that since religion plays an important role in most of the South Asian countries, an inter-faith youth exchange programme was important.
A recent initiative to promote interaction between young people in the region has been the ‘Cricket for Peace’ programme. The initiative involves organising cricket matches among children from the underprivileged sections of society, the thrust being promotion of peace. The first exchange visit was organised in April-May when underprivileged children, along with six child reporters from India, visited Pakistan to play a series of cricket matches. The ‘Cricket for Peace’ programme was supported by Action Aid India and organised in Pakistan by Action Aid Pakistan in association with several groups there. The matches that were played were not India vs. Pakistan, but mixed matches.
“Cricket for Peace is aimed at providing a platform for young people, primarily children, to be ambassadors of peace,” says Jerry Almeida of Action Aid India. He informs that work has already started for the return trip of Pakistani children. “We hope to follow it up by visits to other South Asian countries and finally have a Cricket for Peace festival, wherein children from all the countries come together to play matches and further the message of peace and non-violence in the region.”
According to Nishit Sood, student of Delhi Public School and part of the Children’s Media Unit who went to Pakistan to cover the events there, “Before embarking upon the tour, we thought the people there were hostile to Indians. But after the tour, our entire perspective has changed. We never felt that we were in a different country during the tour; the people were very hospitable.”
Mohan, a rehabilitated child labour, who was part of the cricket team says, “Initiatives such as Cricket for Peace should be promoted so that children can understand each other. Also, the programme helped us to develop a close relationship with children who are not underprivileged, we now know each other more than ever before.” About 25 underprivileged children and six children comprising the Children’s Media Unit went to Pakistan. One immediate impact of the tour is formation of a youth group initiated by Mohan, Nishit and Akshat Jain (another student of Delhi Public School) to educate street children.
“Children are the best ambassadors of peace, and if the initiative is taken to other South Asian countries, there is definitely going to be an impact,” says Akshat Jain of class XII, who also went to Pakistan as a child reporter.
Meanwhile, Shantum Seth is busy with another campaign, “Peace City-Chandigarh”, which aims to promote peace volunteers to work on peace-building and conflict resolution. Seth believes that ‘peace city campaigns’ need to be taken to a large number of cities of the region which would ensure more and more people taking to non-violence as a way of life. Seth has been guiding the campaign since its launch.
The Peace City-Chandigarh campaign, which is a creative response to growing violence, is mobilising students, teachers and families to volunteer to work for peace and non-violence. Initiated by Yuvsatta, a youth organisation in Chandigarh in association with Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, the Peace City-Chandigarh campaign aims to mobilise about 100,000 peace volunteers by 30 January 2005, the death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. The campaign was launched on 17 May 2004, as a follow-up of a Global Convention on Peace and Non-violence organised by Gandhi Smriti in January-February that year.
“Already Peace Clubs have been formed in 50 schools and 20 colleges,” says Pramod Sharma, coordinator of Yuvsatta, “We have involved the National Service Scheme of Punjab and colleges like the Dev Samaj College. The aim is also to impart peace education among the youth. We are using a manual of UNESCO on peace education.
“However, the focus of the peace education as part of the Peace City-Chandigarh campaign is not to make it academic but practical,” points out Shantum Seth. “Peace should be understood in totality and our aim is that all our volunteers imbibe peace in their own life.” According to Seth, peace is not just the absence of violence but also the presence of positives like brotherhood and justice. “These are being emphasised in our campaign,” he adds.
“By taking the ‘peace city campaign’ to other countries of the region, we also hope to develop ‘peace indices’ by which cities could be measured by the extent of ‘peacefulness’,” Seth states.
Meanwhile, the South Asian Youth Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, which was launched on 10 February 2004, consists mainly of students from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Underlining the objectives of the Network, Angelina Hermon of Sri Lanka says, “The network aims to promote interfaith dialogue among students and identify the need for student leadership in interfaith dialogue.” Angelina works with a group, Ahimsa, in Sri Lanka and is involved in using peer mediation as an approach in resolving conflict in schools and in communities (children's clubs). Raju Pandit Chetri of Nepal, another member of the South Asian Youth Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, also believes that “it is essential to promote youth advocacy for peace and non-violence in the region.”
“Though now there are several independent youth groups in South Asia working for peace and non-violence, they are all working in isolation and have no interaction with each other,” laments Nazya Yousuf, “Unless we network and work in tandem, the impact will always be minimal and eventually individual energies will die out.”
In conclusion, it would perhaps be apt to quote Farooq Sattar, a member of parliament of the National Assembly, Pakistan, who, while speaking at the Global Convention on Peace and Non-Violence organised by Gandhi Smriti and Darshan Samiti, stated, “If South Asia has to become a tree which will bear flower and fruit and provide shade, it has to have a home for the birds of this South Asian nest….”

'Developmental work does not get the publicity violence gets’

An interview with Nazya Yousuf, coordinator of South Asian Youth Forum for Peace and Reconciliation. Nazya is pursuing a final year law degree at Aligarh Muslim University.
How can the youth of South Asian countries get together to promote peace building, non-violence and reconciliation?
Security has turned out to be an issue of global concern and by adhering to the global agenda, SAARC countries are also emphasising the need for stronger security measures in their respective countries. Instead of integrating and working on harmony, international news and national politics is constantly creating a cultural rift among people of these nations. From several experiences, I have felt and seen that these influence young people. It is easier to counter stereotypes and build new relations among the younger generation than people who do not even step beyond prejudices.
The past events in Pakistan, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, etc. show that the best way to build bridges, create dialogue and to promote a culture of reconciliation is to let young people of these nations interact. Eventually, these interactions form the base of what they conceive as a relationship between other nations. Even during the war, a lot of Indians and Pakistanis showed solidarity and friendship. And this culture is building up because more and more young people are now able to interact with people of the other nation, overcome prejudices and think of a true and total cultural exchange and understanding.
The youth have played a major role in this peace process. From the results, I feel more optimistic about youth and their role. I think that this process can be strengthened and can reach out to more people by the massive inclusion of youth in cultural exchange projects. We are somewhere cutting a link that could have otherwise been a perpetrator of violence between these nations. Instead, youth transform themselves into bridges over cultures.
How can we enhance youth contact and strengthen youth networks in the region for promotion of peace and non-violence?
I feel that though there are enough groups working on solidarity and inter-country peace projects, young people are not aware of their peer groups and counterparts engaged in this work. A website which would list all these groups, give contacts and profiles of these groups and the people involved, a directory of events happening in different places with which young people in these areas could associate would be a good idea. I have wanted to work on this for some time, but due to lack of support money is always a problem.
It is sad that developmental work usually does not receive the publicity that violence receives. I feel that to strengthen youth activism in South Asia, there is a serious need for publicising, publishing and sharing our stories, activities, views, opinions and ideas with our contemporaries in a way that it will receive large coverage. There is a space for this in the mass media. But I feel that a website will also help in this to a very large extent.
Could you tell us about various youth initiatives in South Asia to promote peace in the region/south Asia? How do these youth initiatives network for effective peace promotions?
I feel that individual peace groups have not been trying enough to network and gain solidarity in their campaigns and activities. Surely, the identity of organisations is important and I am not talking about giving these individual identities up. However, for peace activities to gather momentum and to let the message be felt larger and louder, it is important these organisations move a step forward and harmonise efforts so that the impact of such an action be widely felt. This is one of the reasons that made me launch the South Asian Youth Forum for Peace and Reconciliation, a student’s and youth network, and not an organisation. The idea is to let individuals, organisations and groups carry out their own activities, but stay in the loop of larger activities, expressing solidarity and support to fellow campaigners and give individual voices more force by larger support and solidarity.
However, networking is still an unexplored area in this sector and as someone who is attempting it, I feel and know that the scope is immense and the need is even more crucial.
Could you do a SWOT analysis of various youth initiatives working for peace in the region – t he challenges of bringing them together and sustaining the contacts?
A large number of groups don’t realise the positives of networking or the need for a more involving action than an isolated and monopolising nature of work. With youth groups, I feel that eventually individual energies die out and there is no one to carry organisational work ahead. It is important to give the work a direction and force, which is bigger than an organisation. With a lot of young guys I have seen, they are scared to join organisations but want to do voluntary work. I feel that this space needs to be utilised fully in our scenario and it is also the best way to strengthen grassroots action into a movement of national concern. The idea of a network also rests in that non-conformist background which youth generally have. We support youth initiatives, help them set these up, help them run these, but we do not demand organisational commitments. The idea is to let the work carry on and not build a structure.
When groups get restricted to selective individuals, this is also one reason that organisations die out faster. Once the group is gone, then the organisation also dissolves away. It is important to keep the loose ends and maybe have an inclusive attitude. Because the more inclusive it is, the better it is for sustaining a movement. Yet another thing is to promote leadership and individual initiatives enthusiastically than drowning it in the organisational dominance. A lot of young people don’t want to volunteer because they think and feel that organisations don’t give them the space to carry out ideas and also do not use their energy to the maximum.
I feel that youth initiatives must house a spirit for capturing the true and full potential of young people. It shouldn’t be a space for endorsing ideas or a means to let your ideas be taken forward by a work force. Youth should stop being identified as a work force. Their ideas and will to implement those ideas are of more importance and relevance than ad hoc youth activism.