Youth creatively registers its knock for gender equality with Dastak 2012
Creatively expressing their views for gender equality, Lucknow youth registered their knock on the issue in 3 day long youth festival ‘Dastak 2012’ held between January 27 to January 29, 2012 at Sangeet Natak Academy, Lucknow. The youth festival was organised by Oxfam India in collaboration with Lokayat.
This year, the festival was inaugurated by Kamal Khan, Bureau Chief, NDTV India, Vandana Raag, famous contemporary Hindi writer and Nand Kishor Singh, Regional Manager, Oxfam India, North India. Addressing the youth on this occasion Kamal Khan said that art is a form through which one can express ones views effectively. What all we need it to retain and maintain the enthusiasm and passion to do something.
Famous contemporary writer Vandana Raag also encouraged youth to choose a medium to express and enhance their views on this subject. Congratulating Oxfam India for this initiative, she said that today youth is lucky to get such platforms where they can participate as well as learn on such a sensitive issue.
Interacting with the audience, Oxfam India Regional Manager, Nand Kishor Singh said that Dastak should not be seen as an event; instead, it should be recognized and must be carried as a continuous process to bring equality in the society. He also mentioned that Oxfam India is committed towards its efforts to bring gender equality in the society.
On this occasion, Deepak Kabir from Lokayat briefed the audience about the history of Dastak. He said, Dastak was started in 2009 with an intention to provide city youth with a platform where they can freely express their views on gender equality by participating in any of the alternative art form of their choice. Since then, Dastak has been organised every year by Oxfam India in partnership with Lokayat.
The festival witnessed the participation of around 300 youth coming from diverse institutes, colleges and fields. Twenty different competitions were organized in the festival ranging from photography to collage making, dance to debate and mime to documentary making. All the competitions were theme based. In order to enhance the knowledge and understanding on the subject, a seminar, ‘Loktantra ke safar me auratein’ (Women in the journey of democracy) was organized on the second day of the fest where a panel of specialists including senior journalist and writer Pratibha Katiyar and renowned theatre artist Mridula Bharadwaj added to the knowledge of the youth.
Closing ceremony of the festival was held with cultural events that ensured to convey the message and relevance of equality to the audience in an effective manner. On one hand where play Brahma ka Swang based on Munshi Premchand’s story entertained, informed and raised awareness of the youth on the sensitive issues of cast and religion based discrimination there on the other side listening to meaningful and socially relevant poetry by renowned poet of Hindi poetry, Mr. Naresh Saxena was a treat to the youth. The youth later enjoyed the progressive songs sung by popular vocal artist Kuldeep Singh.
Story Credit: Rashmi Kala
Photo Credit: Sukriti Kesarwani (A participant of Dastak. The picture was an entry for the photography competition)