Newsletter

August – December, 2015

International Youth Day

• Globally, the International Youth Day on 12th of August saw activities taking place in more than 100 countries

• Across all countries, #youthpower and #youthday along with a power pose was promoted in order to gain additional momentum and spread awareness on youth activism

• In India NACDOR/SETF organized a summit with Dalit youth from various states. This summit was attended by the Union Minister of Tribal Affairs and we saw hundreds of youth asking for their right for inclusion in Delhi

• Pravah organised a few workshops with the youth in order to spread awareness about the SDGs, the youth were then encouraged to communicate the same among their friends and families.

Light The Way- (Offline)

• 3,00,000 people from 15 states of India demanded PM Modi to commit to and deliver the Global Goals

• NACDOR raised awareness on SDGs among 1,08,200 Dalit and Muslim youth in 4 states of the country

• In Mumbai, YUVA raised awareness on SDGs among 2,223 college students and youth living in slums in 9 urban districts of Maharashtra

• Through Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, over 25 Catholic schools from across India raised awareness on SDGs among 10,000 students

• Jamia Millia University’s Department of Communications helped mobilize 1,000 students from Sophia College, Mumbai and Jamia Millia Islamia University, New Delhi in solidarity of Global Goals

LightTheWay (Online)

• MASH, an online youth group, reached out to 19,000 internet users on Twitter and Facebook and their youth ambassadors raised awareness across the country with 1,350 slum dwellers

• Youth Ki Awaaz, a social media platform for young people, launched an email to PM platform in September on action2015.in demanding the PM to commit to and deliver the sustainable agenda for 2030, which 1,155 internet users visited. In addition, they reached out to 24,50,000 internet users through their Facebook and Twitter page

• In September, using the #LightTheWay, action/2015 India campaign reached out to 10,700,000 Indians on Twitter and 3,500,000 Indians on Facebook through global campaign page

#LightUp Issues

• Various issues of education, health, child protection, shelter for homeless and playground for children were raised from Delhi

• Slum Dwellers united in a candle light march against slum eviction in Bangalore, Karnataka

• Discrimination based on caste in a community for basic services like accessing a barber shop from Karnataka

• Shortage of marine resources for villagers, lack of quality education, lack of toilet facilities, broken roads and no waste management, lack of clean drinking water facilities, poor Anganwadi services and lack of employment opportunities from Karnataka

• NACDOR, a core coalition member, united Dalit and Muslim youth to demand end of poverty and hunger, improving nutrition, health and education.

#LightTheWay India

The national flagship #LightTheWay event organized was a music concert that was jointly organized by Save The Children, action/2015 campaign, United Nations India and Seher.

Through this concert, awareness on the Global Goals was raised with 6, 000 people in Delhi through a unique Laser Light Show.

The Light the Way in India (Delhi), was one of 6 flagshipsevents across the globe (Australia, Brazil, South Africa, UK and New York). Globally, the #LightTheWay in Delhi was considered the brightest and largest among all

Climate Walks across India

Action/2015 conducted Climate Walks in over 10 states & reached out to

over 80,000 people, in order to spread awareness on the commitments

being made at the COP 21 Summit at a grassroot level.

The participants signed a ‘Citizen Letter’ addressed to Mr. Prakash

Javadekar, Minister of Environment, Forest and Climate Change,

congratulating the Indian government for its ambitious INDCs &

encouraging them to focus on early implementation.

Through Raahgiri, a sustainable initiative to ensure active citizen

participation in car-free activity and encouraging cycling, walking and

public transport, action/2015 raised awareness on Climate Change and

COP 21 with 20,000 citizens

• The Walk for #ClimateAction was organized atDwarka, Shahdara,

Rohini, Gurgaon, and Hyderabad

• The Flagship Global Climate Walk was organized at Connaught Place,

New Delhi.

NEWSLETTER FOR ECSN-BRICSAM

Update for September-October 2015

The months of September and October saw Wada Na Todo Abhiyan’s (WNTA) participation in major global

advocacy moments including the C20 and the adoption of the SDGs. The participation is an outcome of

WNTA’s engagement with the ECSN-BRICSAM project (Empowering Civil Society Networks in an Unequal

Multipolar Polar World) in the context of Brazil, Russia, India, Indonesia, China, South Africa and Mexico.

WNTA at C20

WNTA participated in the C20 in Istanbul on September 15-16. The C20is the civil society formation,

whose inputs feed into the G20. The G20is an informal group of 19 countries and the European Union,

with representatives of the IMF and the World Bank. WNTA participated in events on tax governance,

inequality and made suggestions on inequality and gender which were incorporated in the C20 communique. WNTA circulated a statement on the Indian civil society perspective on C20.

Participation in the civil society mobilisations on the SDGs

Wada Na Todo Abhiyan, supported by Oxfam India and the European Union, organized a wellattended

panel discussion on 'Social exclusion, inequality and the SDGs: Global South perspectives' on September

23 in New York. This was held in the context of the UN summit for adoption of SDGs. Read the SDGs

goals and targets. WNTA participated in side events of ECSN-BRICSAM networks and in a public rally

organized for Dalit rights. We published a piece on the exclusion of castefrom the SDGs.

Further, WNTA

- Was part of a consultation with Government of India- RIS (Research and Information System for

Developing countries) on September 21.

- Joined hands with ECSN network member INFID (International NGO Forum on Indonesian

Development) for INFID’s side event on inequality on September 24 which was held at the Permanent Mission of the Republic of Indonesia to the United Nations.

- Co-organized an event with Save the Children on 'Realizing SDGs in India – Need for multi stakeholder collaboration' on 22nd September at Japan Society, New York.

- Held consultations with groups on indicators for each SDG

- Met with Parliamentarians prior to the UNGA

- Contributed to a booklet prepared by CAIDMEX on the SDGs. WNTA’s contribution was an article

titled ‘Reviewing the SDG document: hits and misses' from an Indian civil society perspective.

Inputs on inequality study

WNTA gave its inputs on a study facilitated by Oxfam on inequality in the BRICSAMIT countries ‘For

Richer or Poorer? The Capture of Growth and Politics in Emerging Economies’. Read the summaryreport

FURTHER READING

1. SDGs: Goals and Targets Left Behind. https://www.globalpolicywatch.org/blog/2015/06/02/sdgs-goals-and-

targets-left-behind/

2. A Flawed Agenda for Development https://www.globalpolicywatch.org/blog/2015/06/02/sdgs-goals-and-

targets-left-behind/