As a step towards responsible citizenship and equality, Oxfam India, in partnership with Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) launched the Oxfam Equality Clubs for high school students in 2019. The initiative, which is going to impact over 7000 students from 100+ schools, truly believes in inculcating values of equality, critical thinking, solution-driven ideas and ability to break stereotypes among young citizens.
Through a year-long teacher-facilitated curriculum, the Equality Clubs aim to empower the next generation with skills and capacity to re-write societal norms and craft an egalitarian future. Every Equality Club has about 30-40 members who meet roughly every 2 weeks to learn modules about gender equality, economic equality, and diversity and inclusion.
Launched in 7 schools across 4 cities of the country in the year of its inception, the clubs have now reached a milestone of 100 schools spread across 24 different cities. The initiative has partnered with schools across various cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Indore, Mumbai, Pune, Amritsar, Delhi/NCR, Lucknow, Jamshedpur, Ahmedabad and many more! Some of our partner schools include Delhi Public School (Nacharam, South Bangalore, Jorhat), Aga Khan Academy, NITTE International, The Shri Ram Universal School, Rustomjee Cambridge International School among others.
Inequality exists all around the world, yet some bear the weight of it more than others. A recent Oxfam India report titled ‘Inequality Kills’ showcased staggering data on the wealth inequality that plagues the country and highlights the constantly widening gap between the rich and the poor. Gender inequality has been persistent in Indian society for centuries. While change has occurred slowly over the years, there is still a very long way to go for us to unlearn years of biases and become inclusive and accepting of perspectives and identities that don’t fit the norm. Given the pervasiveness of these inequalities, there is a need to cultivate an environment that allows future generations to think critically about their social contexts, reflect on their privileges, and actively work towards building a just and equitable future.
Amitabh Behar, CEO, Oxfam India said, “Youngsters are future of our country and future cannot be equal until we sensitise them. If we want to build India which is free from inequality, discrimination, and gender bias, we must sensitise young citizens and enable them to visualise constitutional values of equality, liberty, and fraternity in action. Oxfam India and YLAC’s Equality Clubs are doing crucial work in this space. We hope that more schools join this initiative resulting in huge network of schools striving for better India.”
Our commitment of Equality Clubs towards empowering the youth is being strengthened through student-led webinars with experts like Shaheen Mistri, Founder and CEO of Teach For India, creative workshops with organizations like Slam Out Loud, and various inter & intra-school events. The latest addition to clubs is the ‘Equality Project Incubator’. Modeled as a national level competition, this initiative will give students the opportunity to pitch ideas to address challenges related to inequality in their schools and/or communities and the top three ideas from around the country will be funded.
“We started the club in 2019 as a pilot collaboration between Oxfam India and Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC) to explore ways to build awareness early on in people's lives. From just 7 schools across 4 cities in 2019, today we have reached 100+ schools (and still counting) in 24 cities around the country; boasting a total of 4,705 club members through the years! This is a passion project for both our teams and we do believe that igniting these important conversations in our schools is critical to addressing the challenge of inequality in our society,” shares Rohit Kumar, co-founder of Young Leaders for Active Citizenship (YLAC).
Our journey is only beginning, and our vision is to establish these clubs across every school in the country and to see every young student being sensitized towards the inequalities and injustices prevalent in our society. “The club has helped me, and all of us, realize that we need to take up the fight against these social challenges and encourage people around us to do the same”, shares Susan Varghese, a club student from Gitanjali Devashray.
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