Franz Gastler, Megha Bhatia address Tata Steel’s youth conclave ‘Dhwani’

Jamshedpur, Jan 13: Tata Steel Foundation (TSF) kicked off National Youth Day celebrations through organising Dhwani, a Youth Conclave, virtually on January 12. ‘Is gender-equal society a dream?’ was the topic of deliberations on first day.

Chief Speakers of the virtual event were youth icons Franz Gastler and Megha Bhatia. About 320 youths participated from various locations in Jharkhand and Odisha.

Gastler has been instrumental in promoting football amongst girls in and around Ranchi. He coached many of them who aspire to become eminent footballers besides pursuing their education. Bhatia, who holds an LLM degree with specialisation in Human Rights from University College, London runs VOIX, a youth led organisation which works to prevent child sexual abuse. 

Sourav Roy, Chief CSR Tata Steel set the context for the virtual meet welcoming the participants. He said, “Dhwani is a platform that facilitates shared perspectives and collective thinking on key issues affecting the youth and highlighting the unheard voices. It is a forum for bridging the gap between youth and young changemakers to motivate and inspire the youth towards bringing a positive change in society.”  

The programme also witnessed skit on gender equality by participants from Joda (Odisha), Santhal traditional dance from West Bokaro

The topics of discussion this year would further include ‘What can be the role of youth in achieving food security?’ (January 19, 2022), ‘Is “children at work” pushing the nation towards a vicious cycle of poverty? (January 26), ‘Will the actions we take today to be enough to forestall the direct impacts of climate change? Or is it too little too late? (February 2, 2022) and ‘Is entrepreneurship a pathway to reduce unemployment?’ (February 9, 2022). 

TSF believes in the idea of community development by strengthening the root of every community- its youth. They run various programmes that look at the holistic development of these individuals by fortifying their health, education and livelihood. Programmes like RISHTA takes care of the health of the adolescents while various skill development programmes are run by the Industrial Training Institutes in Tamar, Jagannathpur and TSTI Burmamines. Dhwani, the youth conclave is observed every year during the National Youth Day where various thinkers, scholars across the nation come together to voice their opinions. Apart from these programmes, TSF also supports students through various scholarship programmes which prove to be beneficial for the higher studies of the youth.