Two tribal students of Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS, Shanti Murmu (age 18) and Dharamananda Bhoi (age 19) are among the 17 young social innovators selected by ‘Ashoka Innovators for the Public, India, Youth Venture’ programme as role models.
Ashoka India has identified these teen changemakers as young leaders who have been selected on the basis of their demonstrated passion and commitment towards social change, leadership potential and their aspiration to become change representatives for their society. These youngsters are working on diverse projects addressing some key social problemsfrom across the country”, Yashveer Singh, Director, Youth Venture of Ashoka South Asia and founder of KIIT Group, Dr. Achyuta Samanta told media persons on Sunday.
The Youth Venture aims at transforming the youth culture across the country by enabling teenagers to lead change. The program aims to address the gap that majority of children while growing up lackcritical and indispensable skills of empathy, creativity, distributed leadership and team-building skills, which not only has direct implications on the young people entering job markets but also achieving the sustainable developments goals outlined by United Nations.
Teenagers represent both the future of the country and the group that is most receivable to being empowered with a changemaker mind-set and cognitive empathy. Ashoka Youth Venture program therefore believes that great entrepreneurs start in their teens.
The selection process took place in 2 steps with the final round held in Bangalore on 5th& 6thAugust in the presence of an eminent jury comprising of an Ashoka Fellow, Youth Venturers and industry leaders. In coming few months, Ashoka will host workshops and co-creation sessions with veteran social entrepreneurs, thought leaders and experts from business to help the youngsters learn from these experts and each other through regular interactions and knowledge sharing. Through these sessions the youth venturers will learn about micro & macro aspects of running and scaling their social venture in a collaborative environment.
Speaking on the occasion, Yashveer Singh, Director, Youth Venture, Ashoka South Asia said, “The success of society depends on what proportion of teenagers become, practice and know that they are changemakers and what percentages of the stakeholders know that they have a successful or failing community depending on whether or not they are building a culture where every young person is a changemaker. Through the Youth Venture program, Ashoka aims to build a collaborative entrepreneurship society by working with like-minded partners such as Kalinga Institute of Social Science to have larger impact amongst tribal and rural children of Odisha.”