Justice Surya Kant, Amrican Gandhi & others at Human Chain.
Chandigarh, October 1, 2014: Today on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti, to promote ‘Rights & Dignity of Girls & Women’ around the world, hundreds of NSS Volunteers of Chandigarh along with international delegates of 9th International Youth Peace Fest came or main roads of the city and made a 7kms. long 'Human Chain & Candle Light Vigil', from main gate of PGI to Press Chowk, Sector 18 and on all four sides of Sector 17. Over 5,000 local School/College students and international youth from 32 countries led by Pramod Sharma, Coordinator, Yuvsatta, Bikram Sing Rana, State Liaison Officer, State Cell-NSS, Chandigarh & Anthony Carlisle, International Affairs Supervisor of Garden of Hope Foundation, Taiwan-an organization promoting rights of girls in Asia became part of an historic effort in Chandigarh.
Justice Surya Kant, Judge, Punjab & Haryana High Court, also joined and inspired the participants at entrance of Rose Garden towards Sector 17. To express their demand for an end to violence against women & promote their rights & dignity some of the placards which participants were carrying included slogans like ‘Empower Women & Empower World, ‘No more silence’, ‘We demand a rape-free society’ and ‘May every place be safe for women’, Educate Women & Educate World etc. American Gandhi Bernie Meyer also marked his presence on the occasion.
NSS Volunteers of almost all Colleges of the city participated in the initiative from PGI Nursing College, NSS Unit of PU,PGGC-11, PGGCG-11, Govt. Polytechnic College, Home Science College, DAV 10, SGGS College, GGS College for Women, GGS College of Pharmacy-26, MCM DAV College, DAV Sr. Sec. School, Lahore, Sector 8, PGGC for Women-42, PEC, College of Education, Sector 20, PGGC 46 & Dev Samaj College of Education, Chandigarh.
Expressing his view Justice Surya Kant shared that the participants should vow to never be violent against any woman or girl, to raise their voices against all domestic and sexual violence, to report and seek help and support for all acts of violence against women and to treat all acts of violence against women as a violation of human rights.
‘The reason for choosing eve of Gandhi Jayanti was because there that Mahatma Gandhi was a strong votary of equal rights for women and there is an ever increasing need to bring about a change in the commercialized nature of the day and establish it to be about loving and respecting women.’. added Pramod Sharma, Coordinator of Yuvsatta-an NGO which in association with State Cell-NSS organized the initiative.
In the morning around 30 international participants from over 8 countries participated in a ‘Peace Club Programme of Carmel Convent School, Chandigarh. And later over 400 students of 30 Schools & Colleges joined at ‘Green Art Fest’ & ‘Go Solar Mobile Phone Film Contest’, to promote the 3 R’s of Recycle, Reduce & Refuse, at Botanical Garden, Sarangpur, Chandigarh. Organized by Yuvsatta & Sponsored by Department of Forests & Wildlife, Department of Environment & CREST, Chandigarh Administration, this involved three types of contests in which participants were asked to prepare creative art work using waste material, face painting on the theme of Forests & Wildlife, a logo for Forests Department and using their mobiles young creative minds also made small videos on ‘Go Solar Chandigarh’, promoting solar energy in the city.
The results of the ‘Green Art Fest’ were ‘Best out of waste contest’ are: 1st Prize: St. Stephen's School, 2nd Prize: Tribune Model Sr. Sec. School, 3rd Prize: Bhawan Vidyalaya, Chandigarh. Face painting: 1st Prize- Mount Carmel School, 2nd Prize-Kundan International School, 3rd Prize- Gurukul Global School. Logo Designing: 1st prize went to Yashee Agrawal of Government College of Art. Go Solar Mobile Film Festival: 1st prize or Rs. 10,000 went to Vatsala Vasudeva, MCM College, 2nd Prize to Manvir of St. John’s School & 3rd prize to Varunesh Sharma of Saupin’s School. Santosh Kumar, Director, Department of Environment, CREST & Conservator of Forests & Wildlife, Chandigarh Administration along with Dr. Markandey Rai, Youth Advisor, UN Habitat and Senorita Issac, Chairperson of Human Achievers Foundation gave prizes to the winners of the contest.
Important events of last day of IYPF 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014: Gandhi Jayanti & International Day of Nonviolence
06.30 a.m.-7.15 a.m.: Cleanliness Drive-all IYPF international delegates along with American Gandhi Mr. Bernie Meyer will clean the ISBT (Inter-state Bus Terminus/Bus Stand of Sector 17)
At GGD SD College, Sector 32C, Chandigarh
10.00 a.m.: PEACE SYMBOL: All 300 international, national & local delegates of IYPF 2014 to form a big 100 feet ‘Peace Symbol’, carrying posters with “PEACE’ written on them in their own language.
11.00 a.m.-01.00 p.m.: Valedictory function and launching of logo of 10th Global Youth Peace Fest (GYPF 2015)
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