It was yet another day for inspiration, when the global youth advocate at the UN, Saket Mani addressed the young people of Khaitan Public School, Sahibabad and made some excellent points about the changing perspectives of gender and youth empowerment. The interactive session that was conducted as a part of the series Walk the Talk, for the senior as well as middle wing learners, raised some deeply relevant questions regarding the role of gender in the shaping of a society and its progress. It was a talk that allowed the young minds to break away from gender stereotypes and more importantly their old habits of reacting towards them as ‘fairly normal’ notions of society.
A committed champion for gender rights, Saket Mani currently serves as the UN Women’s Youth Planet Champion for Gender Equality to support the UN agency’s work on gender equality and women’s empowerment appointed by the UN Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Executive Director for UN Women. Highlighting the power of volunteerism through cycling rallies, musical performances, advocacy & capacity-building workshops, and other creative offline and online tools, Saket has mobilized 200,000+ people to commit and pledge support for ‘HeForShe’, the UN Women’s Solidarity Movement for Gender Equality.
Mani began with a discussion about his role at the UN, discussing its impact with reference to certain eminent personalities ranging from the Deputy Secretary-General Amina J. Mohammed to Malala Yousafzai, the youngest Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Mr. Mani discussed how the ‘He For She’ campaign has been created and the vitality of the notion of ‘a male standing as an equal alongside a female’ instead of acting as a ‘protector for her’. With the growing importance of the #Me Too campaign rising in the country, his words were resonant with the feelings and expressions of our young people as they enthusiastically voiced their opinions and raised questions to understand the prominent methods of creating such an impact.
The concept of gender empowerment as a necessity to not only support women but also men and other gender communities caused a fervent interest among the youngsters as they were able to identify with examples through videos and activities and gain further insight into the issues still persisting in the contemporary society. The talk ended on a happy note and with a solemn resolve by the young people towards their own contribution towards attaining the goal of gender sensitization and promote women empowerment further in their day-today-lives.
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