Due to the pandemic this year, the constitution literacy exam was substituted by an online talk series entirely led by a youth team. The speakers composed of expert and youth panels who would discuss various relevant social, political and intellectual topics. This was an entirely youth led process, right from conceptualizing, deciding themes, finalizing resource persons, contacting them, technical support, moderating the sessions and mobilizing the audience for the same. For some discussions, the youth leaders from the ground participated as panelists. This online talk series began on Constitution Day with a very important topic of ‘Democracy in Practice’, which was moderated and facilitated by Anubhuti’s youth members. Celebrating the Constitution day on 26th November, the youth expressed their opinion of how the Indian Constitution is relevant in their everyday lives. Ruchita Rai put forward her thoughts on how democracy is practiced daily and suggested ways to keep democracy alive in the country. Her speech was followed by comments and questions from the audience. A quote by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar captured the essence of the theme: “Constitution is not merely a lawyer’s document. It is a vehicle of life and its spirit is always the spirit of Age”.
The second session of the series held on 30th November was socio-politically charged as Dr. Aditi Lele moderated a conversation with Dr. Ram Puniyani. As an undaunted human rights defender and well known advocate of rational thought, Ram sir spoke on forms of Protests holistically, covering both theoretical as well as practical aspects. During the Q&A round, Ram sir patiently answered all questions and suggested effective ways of protesting.
The third session held on 3rd December, was on topic Gender and Constitution. It had a youth panel, where two female youth put forth their opinions on how they viewed the Indian Constitution in relation to gender. They gave their individual comparative analysis of how the concept of gender is viewed by the law of land versus how the concept is narrowly viewed by the Indian society. Both of them give personal examples based on their experiences, and try to connect it with the Constitutional values and provisions.
The final session of the online series was held on 10th december on the occasion of Human Rights Day. Set of two expert panelists were invited to have a discussion on Human Rights and Constitution. Prof. Chadrasheel Tambe, traced how the concept of human rights has evolved through time. He specially mentioned the oppressive history of the tribals and spoke on Human rights violations in relation to their lives. Meera Sanghamitra, a transgender activist shared her experiences to relate how the persons with authority sometimes misuse their power positions to suppress dissenting voices. Tushita Mukherjee, moderated the talk.