Throughout history, young people have been known as the leaders of tomorrow, but these ten changemakers have proven that we do not need to wait until tomorrow to lead.
This National Youth Day, The Tale of Humankind is back with its next edition of The Changemaker Awards. The initiative’s aim is to acknowledge and applaud the efforts of young changemakers who are going above and beyond to sustain a positive change in the community and work to make this world a better place to live for everyone. As part of one of the unique #ByYouthForYouth initiatives, we have selected ten young changemakers from different parts of India for the second edition of The Changemaker Awards.
From Steve Jobs and Malala Yousafzai to Thomas Edison and Martin Luther King Jr., outliers have demonstrated that there are great rewards for those who think differently and challenge the status quo. In an environment that often discourages young people and tells them “you can’t”, it is essential to have inspiring stories and role models that show “you can” and provide a variety of solutions and approaches. By doing so, we can give young people the motivation, courage, and tools to make a positive difference in the world.
So, who are these Indian changemakers driving social change? The ten young changemakers shortlisted from India come from diverse backgrounds and have been working on a range of causes such as environment, gender, health, education, child rights, agriculture, arts & culture, etc.
These young changemakers:
1. Advik Singh (21) | Chhalaang Foundation, Delhi
Advik co-founded Chhalaang Foundation, with the goal of working on women’s empowerment, hunger relief, and education. He and his team of 40+ volunteers currently run vocational training centres across Delhi-NCR where women from marginalised communities are trained in stitching and sewing. Advik spearheaded the overall functioning and financing of these vocational training centres with 150+ women beneficiaries and daycare services with 60+ children. The organisation aims to provide a sustainable source of income for these women while also upcycling cloth and promoting the ban on single-use plastics in the process. In less than two years since the inception of the Chhalaang, he has been able to impact 12,000+ lives through his non-profit organisation and aims to expand his impactful operations to reach more women beneficiaries across the country.
2. Ananya Banerjee (19) | Project Sushiksha, Haryana
Ananya Banerjee is a co-founder of Project Sushiksha, a free mobile school for rural underprivileged kids. She is a fierce advocate of women’s empowerment, education for all, mental health and menstrual health awareness. Through her activism against female foeticide, she has sensitised thousands of people in her city and state. With the environmental campaign, she has travelled across seven states of India, a distance of 4500 kilometres, reaching over 30 villages and 15 schools and colleges. Apart from that, she has organised plantation drives, planting more than 450 trees across North India. Finally, through her mobile school, she has indirectly saved hundreds of children from working as child labourers or getting to criminal acts (which otherwise were possible) by giving them direction. Through her social entrepreneurship model, Ananya has engaged rural women and children in skill development by imparting stitching and computer literacy to make them self-reliant, constructing roads, organised health sessions and empowering over 165 students to think independently.
3. Anuradha Barik (17) | Save the Children India, Orrisa
Anuradha comes from Khaliapali village in Odisha’s Boudh district, which is a drought-prone district. Drought affects agricultural productivity. There is a huge scarcity of water for irrigation. During the rainy season, Boudh also experiences floods which lead to crop damage. In 2020, she got connected with the Save the Children team. She learnt about child rights and began working with other children in her community. She started visiting neighbouring villages and meeting children, engaging with them about child rights. She gives her contact details so that anyone can contact her in case of an emergency. With this effort, she has stopped a few child marriages and made them part of her children’s group. The recurring flood situation in her village motivated her to learn about climate change. She started plantation drives in multiple schools. She has been able to lead the child hearings as part of Save the Children’s global campaign #GenerationHope.
4. Chinnappa Das (23) | Change the Narrative, Karnataka
Chinnappa started CTN to create space for youth to look at the ongoing opportunities, shape the approach and present the challenges, concerns & Innovations to the world as leaders. He has hosted internal conferences – Young leaders beyond borders, to promote experiential learning through life skills. He also hosted Change the Script X for youths in Bangalore, and we have hosted residential camps for tribal young people at Koppal, Karnataka. He has podcasts and regular monthly engagements with young people around Bangalore to create space for them to voice out their challenges and concerns.
5. Gnanendra Sai K (19) | NSS GIET School, Andhra Pradesh
As a part of the NSS, Gnanendra volunteered at the GIET School Of Pharmacy, Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. In the Poshan Abhiyaan campaign, Ganendra and his team spoke to children about the consequences of eating junk food, and the importance of eating healthy, well-balanced, nutritious meals. They even taught the students how to plan their nutritious diets. They also conducted a Dengue Awareness campaign, where the team educated the people of the community on how to keep their surroundings clean, and preventive measures that would help reduce Dengue and other seasonal diseases from spreading. With the help of the Swachhata Hi Seva campaign, they focused on garbage disposal and suggested ways in which people could dispose of it without throwing them in water bodies. The team also supplied free albendazole tablets to tackle deworming problems in students and were informed about worms present in the gut and their harmful effects.
6. K. Lakshmi Lalithya (22) | NSS GIET School, Andhra Pradesh
An outstanding community volunteer, K. Lakshmi is well known for her selfless community service. She offered to bring an accountable and responsible attitude to the public. As a part of the NSS, she undertook wonderful social value events like Swachh Bharath, Jal Shakti Abhiyan, Jal Jagran Abhiyan, Poshan Abhiyan, Free health camps, eye camps, dental camps – with Lenora dental college. She raised awareness around women’s menstrual hygiene, and deadly diseases like AIDS, leprosy, TB, Filaria, Dengue, and Malaria. She also arranged vaccination drives for deworming and pule polio.
7. Sohail Bhati (20) | Vrikshit Foundation, Rajasthan
Sohail started when he was 17, a teenager motivated to do good for society & nature. He joined Vrikshit Foundation and began one of its chapters in Bikaner. He and his team started by cleaning the area around government hospitals, veterinaries, and the main shopping market of Bikaner. They successfully collected 1000+ kg of waste from various areas of Bikaner in just three months. He also organised 4 Major Cycle rides, which were joined by more than 350 cyclists in Bikaner for the message of unity among the people. To make their city clean, colourful and meaningful, they initiated a program to paint walls in their city with colours, planted more than 3500 plants, and built mini forests.
8. Upasana Ravikannan (19) | GoPaadhai, Chennai
Deeply empathising with the problem of inequality in education, Upasana started her initiative GoPaadhai when she was 16, to support underprivileged schools with resources to sustain quality education. As a child with cerebral palsy who is wheelchair-bound, she is conscious of and advocates for the value of inclusivity and accessibility. Upasana has undergone strides of transformation from a teenager with an intrinsic fear of incompetence to a Changemaker who is ready to guide many more in society. Upasana and her team members have been able to create a positive impact on more than 1500 students through GoPaadhai.
9. Vinisha Umashankar (16) | Tamil Nadu
While returning from school, Vinisha saw an ironing vendor throwing away burnt charcoal on the side of the street. It made her think about the amount of charcoal burnt every day and the damage it does to the environment. She started innovating & came up with a mobile ironing cart, which uses solar panels to power a steam iron box. A key benefit of Vinisha’s solar ironing cart is that it eliminates the need for coal for ironing bringing about a welcome shift towards clean energy. End-users can move around and offer services at their doorstep to increase their daily earnings. It is an ingenious solar-powered alternative for the millions of charcoal-burning ironing carts for pressing clothes and can benefit workers and their families.
10. Zain Samdani (22) | ExoHeal, Telangana
Witnessing his uncle suffer a stroke and get paralysed, Zain identified the need for affordable and effective rehabilitation devices and services for such patients. He started researching the topic and developed ExoHeal at the age of 15, a therapeutic glove that mimics muscular motion in one limb and moves the paralysed limb. He built a core team of 4 members and partners with a therapeutic centre to help more than 50 patients regain sensations and recover 30% faster. Zain and his team are taking the initiative to clinical trials and are exploring opportunities to expand the work to more countries through partnerships.