Over 4 Lakh Young Indians Lead Change on Sanitation, Education and Gender

Global Citizen India announced that over 4 lakh young Indians have signed up and taken action as part of the Global Citizen movement, making it the largest youth movement in India today. The social action platform aims to amplify the voice of youth to push leaders to commit to positive change on Sanitation, Education and Gender issues so India can eradicate extreme poverty by 2030.

Bhavya Bishnoi, Global Citizen India spokesperson, said, “The movement aims to galvanise our 800 million young people on the issues that matter to us and will affect future generations. As voices amplify, governments, corporates, and NGOs are enthusiastically and generously committing resources to this movement. Several leaders from different spheres of influence will meet our Global Citizens, respond to their call, and commit their support and resources to our movement along this unique 15-year journey to eradicate extreme poverty.”

By taking these actions, 23,000 global citizens have won tickets to a festival where pop culture icons from Coldplay to Kareena Kapoor will join hands with public policy makers including the most senior levels of state and central government to commit to change and pledge their support to the issues that matter the most to the youth of India.

VK Madhavan, Chief Executive, WaterAid India said “The lack of adequate urban sanitation is a key challenge for India in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals’ target of universal access to water and sanitation for everyone, everywhere by 2030. The impetus provided by the Swachh Bharat Mission in achieving an open defecation free India by 2019 is timely and welcome especially for towns and cities with burgeoning populations in slums without access to reliable basic services. It would be prudent to remember though that mere construction of toilets alone will not help our cities become truly open defecation free. We need to collectively work towards ensuring that the toilets that are constructed are used, maintained and most importantly all waste is safely collected, treated and disposed. For enduring success of this massive effort, we need to keep sight of the entire sanitation value chain.”

More than 1.5 million actions have been taken by the committed global citizens who are engaged in the world, knowledgeable about its diversity and passionate about change and who hail from around India since the movement launched in India on 12 September. This is the first time that the Global Citizen movement has moved outside of North America and Indians have embraced the movement as a powerful way to amplify their voice as well as to catalyse change.

Trisha Shetty, Founder & CEO of SheSays, an NGO championing for women’s rights and gender equality in India, said: “It is our responsibility to create a world where women have guaranteed access to sanitary products without discrimination. We’re partnering with Global Citizen India to petition for Sanitary Napkins to be available tax free across India. By taxing sanitary napkins, and listing it in a “luxury” category, we are invariably discouraging an improved standard of life and encouraging discrimination based on sex. We believe in the change young people can drive and aim to amplify awareness on this issue and drives scope for mass impact of our message that biology should not be a barrier to equality.”

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The CSR Journal Team