Community Guidelines

Youth Ki Awaaz is a people’s platform. Writers from diverse backgrounds publish their stories here every day. YKA aims to be a safe space for young India to discuss, debate and share their ideas.

As a community, we strive to support, listen, engage and even draw lines, but without dismissals, or put-downs. Here are some points to keep in mind while publishing:

What stays on YKA

You are welcome to submit news reports, articles, op-eds, photo stories, videos, infographics, poems and personal stories on issues of importance. However, we do not publish fiction. As of now, we only publish stories in English and Hindi. If you wish to share a video in another language, then it will need to have subtitles. We currently only cover the following broad categories: society and its issues, culture, human rights, environment, politics, gender, sex and sexuality, human rights, popular culture, education, entrepreneurship and stories of social change. We encourage you to post about intersectional topics, for e.g. topics related to the intersectionality of sports and social change.

No personal attacks:

Anything that violates or infringes upon someone else’ rights and attacks them personally for their beliefs and choices will not be accepted. You can attack the argument but not the individual.

Nothing discriminatory in nature:

We have all kinds of people belonging to different faiths, nationalities and all across the gender and sexuality spectrum contributing to our community. And we love ‘em and are proud of all of them. Which also means, no content that is in any way discriminatory in nature towards any community shall be tolerated on the platform.

Respond, not react:

Some things and some people can really piss one off. And we know that feeling where you just want to vent! But content of this kind seldom leads to meaningful debates. It’s great for personal sharing but here, let’s just stick to substantiated stuff that people can engage with.

No threats of violence:

C’mon, you know this is wrong. We know context means a lot and so we will keep that in mind, but at no point will anything that suggests violence be put on the platform.

No ads or promotional stuff

We do not accept press releases, advertorials, or any content that is promotional of a commercial good/service/organisation or individual. If you’d like to run a campaign on something that you or your organisation is doing, please feel free to write to campaigns@youthkiawaaz.com.

No plagiarism or copyright infringement:

Plagiarism or copying content from others is nothing less than stealing. Any post found to have been plagiarised will be taken down.

What broadly counts as plagiarism:

  1. Submitting someone else’s work, or parts of it as your own.
  2. Copying someone else’s ideas or words without providing a source or giving due credit.
  3. Not using quotation marks while using a direct quote taken from another source.

You can read up more on plagiarism and how to not do it, here.

No incorrect facts or unreliable sources

If you are using facts/stats/data/quotes from external sources, make you sure add a link to the source either at the end of the post, or hyperlink the relevant words. In case your source is not online, mention full name in footnotes.

No pornography

It is a crime to create, display, distribute, import, or publish pornography or obscene materials. You have been warned.

No spam

Do not spam, or use tags or links or misleading information about what you have posted. Don't embed malicious code in your posts or use deceptive ways to generate revenues or traffic. Don’t write posts aimed at affiliate marketing.

Privacy Violations

Don’t post content that violates others’ privacy, including identifying a person or confidential information like credit card numbers, social security numbers, or non-public contact information.

Deceptive Impersonation

Don’t impersonate someone else to deceive people. Parody is fine, but make that clear.

If found in contravention of the above:

Any content that violates the above guidelines will be immediately taken down when it comes to our notice. In some case, we will also take down specific lines, words of phrases in your posts that violate these guidelines.

Fairness and the freedom of speech and expression are core to YKA’s existence. And we do believe that the best way to counter opposing ideas is to battle ‘em out with more ideas. Censorship is not the solution.

However, while trying our best to implement the above, we do reserve the right to remove any comment or post without prior notice, for reasons, especially to protect the rights of other community members and our services. These are guidelines only and do not place any obligation on us to act a certain way.

If you find a post that violates these guidelines and has not been taken down, please "Report" the post immediately to us, using the report option or email us at info@youthkiawaaz.com.

How Content Is Featured

We are growing as a community every day with many new writers joining us every week. Therefore, we have come up with some new and exciting ideas to show the amazing and diverse content we have! All the articles will now fall under three broad categories: Staff Picks, Trending and Latest.

Here’s all you need to know:

What happens when you publish a post?

Once you hit publish, the post goes live immediately on Youth Ki Awaaz. It is then slotted in the Latest section, post review by a YKA Community Editor. Depending on the quality of your writing or the uniqueness of your story, your story could also feature in the Trending or the Staff Picks section of the homepage.

How can you get your post featured on the homepage?

Hundreds of posts are published on YKA every day. These will now get featured and highlighted on the platform through votes and views.

Make your post trend on YKA!

Yes, you can do that yourself! As soon as you hit publish, share your article on your social media accounts and with your friends and family. Once your post starts getting some views, it will gradually make its way up to our algorithm and feature in the trending section of the homepage basis how it’s fairing compared to other posts published in the last seven days.

Another way to make it to the trending section is via votes. Encourage your readers to upvote your articles and YKA’s algorithm will help it rise the ladder and reach more people.

You can also help your fellow writers trend on YKA by sharing their pieces and upvoting them.

What are ‘Staff Picks’ articles?

These are stories hand-picked by the YKA staff. Articles that get featured in this section must meet the following criteria:

  • The article must be well-researched, well written and tell a unique story.
  • It is also analysed for its narrative arc, voice, representation and the issue it covers.
  • Word count, factual accuracy, and overall storytelling matter too.

Can your story make it to the staff picks section?

Absolutely. If your article meets the above criteria it could be featured in staff picks. Write the story the best way you can, hit us up if you need feedback. And do check out the Writers’ Resource Centre for more on this!

What is the 'Latest' section?

Every single article published on YKA deserves its space. You can read and discover all the raw, latest stories straight from the community in this section (after being reviewed, of course). We strongly recommend you to engage with these stories: share, comment and upvote. Show your fellow writers some love!

Wondering what to write about?

Here are some topics to get you started

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An ambassador and trained facilitator under Eco Femme (a social enterprise working towards menstrual health in south India), Sanjina is also an active member of the MHM Collective- India and Menstrual Health Alliance- India. She has conducted Menstrual Health sessions in multiple government schools adopted by Rotary District 3240 as part of their WinS project in rural Bengal. She has also delivered training of trainers on SRHR, gender, sexuality and Menstruation for Tomorrow’s Foundation, Vikramshila Education Resource Society, Nirdhan trust and Micro Finance, Tollygunj Women In Need, Paint It Red in Kolkata.

Now as an MH Fellow with YKA, she’s expanding her impressive scope of work further by launching a campaign to facilitate the process of ensuring better menstrual health and SRH services for women residing in correctional homes in West Bengal. The campaign will entail an independent study to take stalk of the present conditions of MHM in correctional homes across the state and use its findings to build public support and political will to take the necessary action.

Saurabh has been associated with YKA as a user and has consistently been writing on the issue MHM and its intersectionality with other issues in the society. Now as an MHM Fellow with YKA, he’s launched the Right to Period campaign, which aims to ensure proper execution of MHM guidelines in Delhi’s schools.

The long-term aim of the campaign is to develop an open culture where menstruation is not treated as a taboo. The campaign also seeks to hold the schools accountable for their responsibilities as an important component in the implementation of MHM policies by making adequate sanitation infrastructure and knowledge of MHM available in school premises.

Read more about his campaign.

Harshita is a psychologist and works to support people with mental health issues, particularly adolescents who are survivors of violence. Associated with the Azadi Foundation in UP, Harshita became an MHM Fellow with YKA, with the aim of promoting better menstrual health.

Her campaign #MeriMarzi aims to promote menstrual health and wellness, hygiene and facilities for female sex workers in UP. She says, “Knowledge about natural body processes is a very basic human right. And for individuals whose occupation is providing sexual services, it becomes even more important.”

Meri Marzi aims to ensure sensitised, non-discriminatory health workers for the needs of female sex workers in the Suraksha Clinics under the UPSACS (Uttar Pradesh State AIDS Control Society) program by creating more dialogues and garnering public support for the cause of sex workers’ menstrual rights. The campaign will also ensure interventions with sex workers to clear misconceptions around overall hygiene management to ensure that results flow both ways.

Read more about her campaign.

MH Fellow Sabna comes with significant experience working with a range of development issues. A co-founder of Project Sakhi Saheli, which aims to combat period poverty and break menstrual taboos, Sabna has, in the past, worked on the issue of menstruation in urban slums of Delhi with women and adolescent girls. She and her team also released MenstraBook, with menstrastories and organised Menstra Tlk in the Delhi School of Social Work to create more conversations on menstruation.

With YKA MHM Fellow Vineet, Sabna launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society. As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

Read more about her campaign. 

A student from Delhi School of Social work, Vineet is a part of Project Sakhi Saheli, an initiative by the students of Delhi school of Social Work to create awareness on Menstrual Health and combat Period Poverty. Along with MHM Action Fellow Sabna, Vineet launched Menstratalk, a campaign that aims to put an end to period poverty and smash menstrual taboos in society.

As a start, the campaign aims to begin conversations on menstrual health with five hundred adolescents and youth in Delhi through offline platforms, and through this community mobilise support to create Period Friendly Institutions out of educational institutes in the city.

Find out more about the campaign here.

A native of Bhagalpur district – Bihar, Shalini Jha believes in equal rights for all genders and wants to work for a gender-equal and just society. In the past she’s had a year-long association as a community leader with Haiyya: Organise for Action’s Health Over Stigma campaign. She’s pursuing a Master’s in Literature with Ambedkar University, Delhi and as an MHM Fellow with YKA, recently launched ‘Project अल्हड़ (Alharh)’.

She says, “Bihar is ranked the lowest in India’s SDG Index 2019 for India. Hygienic and comfortable menstruation is a basic human right and sustainable development cannot be ensured if menstruators are deprived of their basic rights.” Project अल्हड़ (Alharh) aims to create a robust sensitised community in Bhagalpur to collectively spread awareness, break the taboo, debunk myths and initiate fearless conversations around menstruation. The campaign aims to reach at least 6000 adolescent girls from government and private schools in Baghalpur district in 2020.

Read more about the campaign here.

A psychologist and co-founder of a mental health NGO called Customize Cognition, Ritika forayed into the space of menstrual health and hygiene, sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights and gender equality as an MHM Fellow with YKA. She says, “The experience of working on MHM/SRHR and gender equality has been an enriching and eye-opening experience. I have learned what’s beneath the surface of the issue, be it awareness, lack of resources or disregard for trans men, who also menstruate.”

The Transmen-ses campaign aims to tackle the issue of silence and disregard for trans men’s menstruation needs, by mobilising gender sensitive health professionals and gender neutral restrooms in Lucknow.

Read more about the campaign here.

A Computer Science engineer by education, Nitisha started her career in the corporate sector, before realising she wanted to work in the development and social justice space. Since then, she has worked with Teach For India and Care India and is from the founding batch of Indian School of Development Management (ISDM), a one of its kind organisation creating leaders for the development sector through its experiential learning post graduate program.

As a Youth Ki Awaaz Menstrual Health Fellow, Nitisha has started Let’s Talk Period, a campaign to mobilise young people to switch to sustainable period products. She says, “80 lakh women in Delhi use non-biodegradable sanitary products, generate 3000 tonnes of menstrual waste, that takes 500-800 years to decompose; which in turn contributes to the health issues of all menstruators, increased burden of waste management on the city and harmful living environment for all citizens.

Let’s Talk Period aims to change this by

Find out more about her campaign here.

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A former Assistant Secretary with the Ministry of Women and Child Development in West Bengal for three months, Lakshmi Bhavya has been championing the cause of menstrual hygiene in her district. By associating herself with the Lalana Campaign, a holistic menstrual hygiene awareness campaign which is conducted by the Anahat NGO, Lakshmi has been slowly breaking taboos when it comes to periods and menstrual hygiene.

A Gender Rights Activist working with the tribal and marginalized communities in india, Srilekha is a PhD scholar working on understanding body and sexuality among tribal girls, to fill the gaps in research around indigenous women and their stories. Srilekha has worked extensively at the grassroots level with community based organisations, through several advocacy initiatives around Gender, Mental Health, Menstrual Hygiene and Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR) for the indigenous in Jharkhand, over the last 6 years.

Srilekha has also contributed to sustainable livelihood projects and legal aid programs for survivors of sex trafficking. She has been conducting research based programs on maternal health, mental health, gender based violence, sex and sexuality. Her interest lies in conducting workshops for young people on life skills, feminism, gender and sexuality, trauma, resilience and interpersonal relationships.

A Guwahati-based college student pursuing her Masters in Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Bidisha started the #BleedwithDignity campaign on the technology platform Change.org, demanding that the Government of Assam install
biodegradable sanitary pad vending machines in all government schools across the state. Her petition on Change.org has already gathered support from over 90000 people and continues to grow.

Bidisha was selected in Change.org’s flagship program ‘She Creates Change’ having run successful online advocacy
campaigns, which were widely recognised. Through the #BleedwithDignity campaign; she organised and celebrated World Menstrual Hygiene Day, 2019 in Guwahati, Assam by hosting a wall mural by collaborating with local organisations. The initiative was widely covered by national and local media, and the mural was later inaugurated by the event’s chief guest Commissioner of Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) Debeswar Malakar, IAS.

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