Egging on parties to include youth manifesto: Naga Sravan Kilaru

Political leaders and parties in the country do not encourage youth to enter politics,” says Vijayawada-based Naga Sravan Kilaru, winner of the National Youth Award-2017, who recently started his cycling journey titled ‘Yuva Galam-March for Million Dreams’ on August 12 from Ichchapuram, Srikakulam district to Anantapur to interact with youth and to inspire them to indulge in politics.

Sravan has been striving hard for youth to get involved in politics since 2014 through various campaigns and workshops. For his efforts, he won the ‘National Youth Award-2017’ by Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. He regularly conducts mock parliaments. Speaking with The Hans India, Naga Sravan shared his journey.

“India has the world’s largest youth population with an average age of youth being 28 years. 356 million of us and we have no concrete policies to harness the youth power and empower the youth of our country for their development. Today, we are facing a lot of problems, from quality education to exercising rights of having a decent life. Youth are never considered as a unified vote bank and are seldom given importance in policymaking. In every election, politician promises many things to us and never implement them,” said Naga Sravan.

About ‘Yuva Galam’ campaign, he said, “We at ‘Yuva Galam’ aim to encourage youth to take part in active politics and hope to increase the percentage of people’s representatives under the age of 30 from 2.1% too much more. We meet the youth from diverse backgrounds across the state of Andhra Pradesh and understand their problems, as well as their demands and aspirations. From the suggestions of youth, we want to make the first ever youth manifesto for Andhra Pradesh,”

With the core team of 25 people, Sravan began his 100-day cycling ride from Ichchapuram, Srikakulam on International Youth Day (August 12). Every day, he visits many colleges and interacts with students about politics and lets them share opinions on how to involve youth in politics. Sravan has already started drafting the youth manifesto by his experiences so far and he plans to complete it by December end. He will release the draft on January 12 i.e. on National Youth Day.

“We want youth rights and demands to be taken seriously and to make this happen we need to meet at least 1,00,000 of youth in person and more than a million through online platforms. After drafting the manifesto, I will meet all the political parties and urges to implement the youth manifesto,” shared Naga Sravan.

Shravan was also worked with social activist Anna Hazare in Lokpal Bill, the Indian Anti-Correction Movement, 2011. “I met Anna Hazare sir and worked with him 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,” he added.

“Till date, we covered three districts in Andhra Pradesh and now we are in Rajahmundry. In a few days, will cover Amalapuram and West Godavari. We are getting many calls from Telangana people to do the same. Now, we committed to AP only and if anyone comes forward to take charge in Telangana, will help them. Our ultimate aim is to push each political party to must have a separate youth manifesto in elections. I don’t know whether I would contest in elections in 2014 or 2019, time decides everything,”