More than 500 female students from Lovely Professional University (LPU) in Jalandhar have joined the National Agenda Forum (NAF) to set ‘Women Empowerment’ as the main agenda for the upcoming General Election in 2019. In the presence of a field team from Indian Political Action Committee (I-PAC), these girls organised a 3 km ‘Run For Women Empowerment’ facilitated by University’s oratory club and I-PAC. After the 3 km run, students discussed Mahatma Gandhi’s 18-point Constructive Programme and voted on the NAF online platform. And in what was no surprise, Women Empowerment was the most voted for agenda point.I-PAC launched the NAF as a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary year, on 29th June 2018. NAF is a pan-India initiative to resurrect the conversation around Gandhiji’s 18-point Constructive Programme and use it to re-imagine and co-create India’s priorities to formulate an actionable agenda for contemporary India.More than 60,000 youth associates from over 4,000 colleges, 225 distinguished personalities from 6 countries and 20 states, and 283 civil society organizations spread across 346 districts have joined the ever-growing NAF ecosystem.
The National Agenda Forum has garnered support from a diverse group of people and organizations, which includes:
UNESCO
Arun Manilal Gandhi, Gandhians
Prof. Ramjee Singh (Freedom fighter and a pioneer in study of Gandhian thought in India)
Dr. Ravindra Kumar (Padma Shri Awardee, Sardar Patel National Awardee)
Natwar Thakkar (Padma Shri awardee , Jamnalal Bajaj awardee)
Dr. D Chelladurai (Dean, Gandhi Research Foundation)
Baji Mohammad (Freedom fighter)
Prakash Amte (Baba Amte’s son).
Other than this, recipients of civilian honors, such as
Shrimati Teejan Bai (Artist, Padma Bhushan awardee)
Rajan Mishra (Indian classical singer, Padma Bhushan awardee)
Dr. Brahm Dutt (Padma Shri Awardee for working for lepers)
Dr. Usha Kiran Khan (Padma Shri awardee and Sahitya Academy Award winner), etc. also supported NAF. Over the next couple of weeks, I-PAC plans to reach out to students in 750 colleges and 320 civil society organizations across 21 states, during our field visits.
The voting is still open; citizens can continue to become a part of NAF by logging on to http://www.indianpac.com/naf/ and voting on the agenda and the leader.