Engaging youth to join politics

Kilaru Naga Shravan is striving for youth to be involved in politics since 2014 through various campaigns and workshops. He recently participated in the United Nations Youth Assembly and discussed the importance of youth in politics. Speaking with The Hans India, Naga Shravan shared how he attracted to take up youth related issues.

The Beginning
“When I am in intermediate, I used to distribute fruits and needy things for orphanage people and later I published about it in Social Media. Many times, I heard that everyone saying, ‘Youth is the future of this country’ but observed that no one giving opportunities for the youth. Later I decided to quit my little work and wanted to do big for the youth of this country and started ‘Revolutionary India to Social Empowerment’,” said Naga Shravan.

Shravan was attracted to Lokpal Bill, the Indian Anti-Correction Movement, 2011 led by social activist Anna Hazare. “I was surprised by the commitment of a 74-year-old Anna Hazare to save the country from corruption. Then I met him and worked with three weeks to know about the Lokpal Bill. Later I started ‘Revolutionary India to Social Empowerment’ to engage youth in active politics. I went to many colleges and explained the importance and uses of the Lokpal Bill. I collected more than 20,000 youth signatures for the support of Lokpal Bill,” he added.

The Impact
After his graduation, he started an NGO ‘Vijayawada Needs You’ in 2014, a youth organisation in Vijayawada which helps to empower youth and provide it with an opportunity to be a key participant in bringing social reforms and to change the notion of representative governance by promoting participatory governance.
“In my opinion, young people don’t like politics because they don’t understand it well. Through this initiative, we collect the progress cards of Member of Parliaments by analysing their work and involvement for development of a constituency. Many MP’s appreciated our work and asked us to send the reports regularly.

Using RTI
Naga Shravan used many times the Right to Information Act (RTI) to save people’s money. “I completed my Engineering in Bengaluru. There was a 20-acre lake beside my college and it was forgotten. I went to that lake and found that the officials were used the funds of the lake to build a shopping complex. Then I filed an RTI application to know whereabouts of the funds. Later, the officials started cleaning the lake,” he shared.
This incident inspired him to file more RTI applications on various issues. Knowing the power of the act, Naga Shravan started workshops and campaigns for the better use of the act. Every year on the RTI day (October 12), he went to many colleges and spreading the importance of it.

Participation in UN’s Assembly
There is an NGO called ‘Friendship Ambassador Foundation’ which select young people for the United Nations Youth Assembly, every year who excels in leadership qualities. He selected for his works and represented India along with 500 other people from all over the world. “Participating in the United Nations Youth Assembly is a great achievement for me. Along with other delegates, I shared the required implementations to develop a country. I met ministers of UAE, Argentina, Canada, Morocco, and shared my thoughts,”

Works
He is conducting ‘Mock Parliaments’ to explain youth about how it runs. He is currently working on a forum called ‘Young Parliamentarian’ to engage more people to take up politics. He said that there is only 2 percent of people aged below 30 were representing parliament. For his efforts, he awarded the ‘Karmaveera Chakra Global Fellowship’ by iCONGO in association with United Nations Volunteers at Delhi recently.