By Arshveer Kaur
The Youth for Sustainability Dialogues is a platform operated by Connecting Dreams Foundation in collaboration with Master Peace, Global Network for Sustainable Development and Helping Hand International, that puts youth in the ‘driver’s seat’, engaging them in important discussions, brainstorming, exchanging ideas and showcasing their work in local communities to achieve SDGs.
The theme of the session held at June 15, 2021 was ‘Through the Lens of Inclusion’. The session was graced by Mr. Purvash Jha, CSR & Sustainability Agitator, Social Impact Storyteller at Pernod Ricard India Foundation; Mr. Ankit Bhuptani, LGBTQI+ Rights Activist, D&I leader and Founder at Queer Hindu Alliance; Megha Rao, Goodwill Ambassador, Helping Hand International and Fernando Perez, Social LGBT Activist and Co-founder at Espacio Joven, El Salvador. The session was moderated by Vidushi Manoraj, Program Manager, Pride Circle.
Mr. Purvash Jha
Mr. Purvash Jha is the CSR and Sustainability Agitator and Social Impact Story-Teller at Pernod Ricard India Foundation. Mr. Jha presented a small video which shed light on their collaboration with Aravani Art project with an aim to connect with local communities around PRIF plants by depicting their everyday lives with paintings and murals on the walls of community institutions built by Pernod Ricard India Foundation. He further stated that allyship is of utmost importance. From the allyship standpoint in the corporate ecosystem, Mr. Jha stated that it is the time when we must talk about inclusion and creating such spaces. Pernod Ricard India Foundation has been working with the range of communities in 19 states and has impacted more than nine lakh lives. Mr. Jha shared that the PRIF team ponders upon the importance of recognizing intersectionality, especially the role of women outside the household, in the Pernod Ricard’s Social Incubation program. With the understanding that marginalities and intersectionality are not limited to just two genders, the focus has been on initiating the conversation internally, to begin with, but it is not limited to this, as it can be seen in hiring processes and other aspects now too.
Many brands have come up in support of the community. This is how it is meant to be! Mr. Jha also highlighted the Transformation Program wherein Pernod Ricard India Foundation and Connecting Dreams Foundation has collaborated to empower individuals from the Trans-community in Delhi-NCR region.
Mr. Ankit Bhuptani
Mr. Ankit Bhuptani is a LGBTQI+ Rights Activist, D&I leader and Founder at Queer Hindu Alliance. He shared his views on Indic perspective about trans-community. Mr. Ankit shared that Religion and religious interpretations has always been used as a tool against LGBTQIA+ community. His interest in connecting religious texts and queerness aroused due to the fact that in his initial years, while discovering himself as queer, faith played a very important role and he has always been very curious about what his faith has to say about queerness. He started his journey in search of questions like Is queerness a sin? Mr. Ankit shared that initially, he did not find any answers, especially within Hinduism but he continued to analyze the religion, he found that Religion per say have core values as such love, compassion, acceptance, humanity, connectivity, respect for nature, and for whole existence. Above all, inclusion is something very spiritual that an individual can practice. On realizing this, Mr. Ankit started using the religion as a tool to spread the message of inclusivity, love and support and convey that nature is very diverse and it needs to respected in the every form as created by almighty.
Mr. Fernando Perez
Mr. Fernando Perez is a Social LGBT Activist and Co-founder at Espacio Joven. Espacio Joven is an organization working towards a more inclusive alternative education for youth in El Salvador. Fernando believes that gender is not binary but a spectrum. He also adds the point that even research is under its way that may prove that biological sex is also not binary but a spectrum. Fernando is working for the LGBTQIA+ rights in El Salvador by facilitating and participating in various online events and also through the platform of Espacio Javen. Fernando aims to break paradigms that are opposed to reality and educate people about the diversity of sexes and genders that have always existed.
Megha Rao
Megha Rao is a Goodwill Ambassador at Helping Hand International and a performance poet. She presented a poem ‘I am in love with this world’ explaining that love is not just a word but it is a feeling that can be nurtured and cultivated with as well as by anyone. But, given the current scenario, Megha emphasized that pandemic has taken serious toll on the trans-community. She explained through her poem that we got our eyes but we don’t see the beauty and the beauty is recognizing the differences, respecting the choices and celebrating the diversity that nature has provided us. She shared that the community do not have access to food and the individuals are unable to pay rent due to poverty and discrimination along with the fact that they do not have credible documents and identification papers. Megha shared that Helping Hand International is planning to provide Ration kits to 200 people from the trans-community in Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar this month to support the community during the pandemic.
Overall, the event ended with a quite-interesting audience engagement, wherein, the speakers shared their real-life experiences and struggles to bring home the idea that Inclusion matters!
