ssary knowledge and education to live in a sustainable manner, it is pertinent to create communal engagement and participation by all citizens. Therefore, the project primarily focuses on testing and establishing an active role of the youth for social change. The overarching goal would be to provide the community members with a new form of social learning – a transformational and transgressive learning — for overall community growth and development. The emphasis of transformational learning is on a comprehensive and all-encompassing education where knowledge on gender equality, human rights, global citizenship, and sustainability is given focus through “co-learning, cognitive justice, and the formation and development of individual and systemic agency” (Lotz-Sisitka, Wals, Kronlid & McGarry, 2015).
This message is further reiterated through the crowd-sourcing data collection methodology wherein young agents of change take an active role (rather than relying on the passivity that comes as part of a survey or interview method) in the study. Since our sample is the youth population comprising of students in higher secondary school and college, the pilot study focuses primarily on education and issues that directly affect the youth.
In July, the team visited schools and colleges and undertook workshop sessions and interactions with the youth and leadership stakeholders of Bhuj and Gandhidham talukas. During the workshops, descriptive sessions were given about the project scope, goals and the application setup and procedure. Further, the study team also conducted activities with the students using participatory tools to gauge their level of understanding and engagement in social issues in their respective regions. In the interactions that ensued, students, as well as community stakeholders, voiced their diverse opinions of their communities.: “I believe there is a water problem in Kutch. Every week there is one day when there is no water available”, answered a student of R. R. Lalan College when asked to reflect on the main issue the community faced. “Girls face a lot of problems here. They are scared of boys and they are afraid to leave their house. Sometimes even parents do not let them leave the house because of boys”, added another. When asked who should solve these issues, the replies were a seemingly undoubted chorus of “We are responsible. We will have to fix these issues. As in, whoever is responsible [for creating] these problems will only have to [change]”.
Underlying these issues was the power dynamics of the community. Building on the reflections of his students, the Principal of R.R Lalan College, Mr Paresh Raval said, ”Our society is underdeveloped and stagnant, and if not directly, there is indirect discrimination based on land ownership and communities under the veil. There is poverty and inequality. Further, whatever growth and development has occurred, there is still a lot of inequality [still prevalent]. Some people have extra power, whether it is financial power or political power. There is also [an issue] of gender bias and caste-related issues…and because of all of this…while it may appear that everything is balanced, some people have a lot of power and some people are dependent on these powerful people [and structures] and they have adapted to it”.
Mr. Yusuf Khan, Principal of Muslim Education and Welfare Trust, thought that the long history of marginalization and Illiteracy is also acting as a barrier for the younger students. “Our school is a Muslim minority school, so 90% of the children here are Muslim, naturally. The problems that they face is that their parents are still not [educationally inclined]. They do not give proper attention to their child’s education; they depend completely on the school and the teachers. Our main issue is that since parents are not literate, the students [do not show] the results or improvement others could have”, he said.
While the team began tentatively, predicting only a moderate level of understanding and participation, the response was overwhelming! Although the yo