One of the creative ways to engage young students in becoming active citizens is through finding solutions for real-world problems. As we move through turbulent times, it’s important that we not only work towards building a peaceful world for the future generations, but also create it with them.
With this objective in mind, Facebook and Youth Ki Awaaz organized the second edition of the Digital Masala Challenge at IIT Kanpur. As a part of the 2-day hackathon, six teams with 25 young students from nine colleges had to come up with tech or non-tech solutions to counter violent extremism on the internet. The winning team would get $5000 to build their solution – ready to be implemented in the real world.
The competing teams had students from colleges like IIT BHU, KNIT Sultanpur, Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Satyawati College, Shyam Lal College, IIT Kanpur, and Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam University.
Team Vikings, with students from the Vivekananda Institute of Professional Studies, Satyawati College, Shyam Lal College won the Digital Masala Challenge, Kanpur! Their solution revolved around creating an online platform, ‘Disha’, that leverages technology to facilitate change in communities with at-risk youth through educational courses, counseling, job opportunity portals, and mentorship delivered in a customisable and personalised manner to meet the needs of each individual in the best possible manner. It aims to focus on building a stable online and offline community that will connect people to work opportunities and role models. It will support an individual with counseling and redefine a sense of purpose in life for the ones in need.
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