AMAN YUVA Youth Volunteers and Interns for Justice and Peace: AGENDA FOR VOLUNTEERS Darkness can

never drive out darkness. Only light can do that. Martin Luther King Jr.

As we witness the values of equality, justice, peace and secular democracy in siege and collapse all around us, young people above all need to join hands to defend and reclaim the dream of a more just and human world. But young people are growing up in difficult and troubled times. There is a crumbling of political certainties, a climate vitiated by the poisonous politics of manufactured hatred, and the synthetic gloss of globalised consumerist dreams. In the bewildering cynicism of these times, there are young people everywhere searching often alone for alternate ways to relate with the world around them, to understand, combat and hopefully reverse its injustice, inequality, inhumanity, despair and hatred. It is for young people like these that Aman Yuva, a programme of youth volunteers for peace and justice, has been constructed. It seeks to draw in young people from schools and colleges, but also those excluded from educational institutions because of economic or social barriers. It includes working young people, and those in search of work. It has dispossessed and impoverished young people working shoulder to shoulder with their more privileged brothers and sisters. It aims at the widest diversity of religions, faiths, gender, class, caste, language and region. It strives to help bind them closer by an active commitment to the universal values of humanism, justice, peace and truth (insaniyat, insaaf, aman, sachai).

Aman Yuva is part of a larger Aman Biradari or community of peace, bound by shared belief in the idea of a pluralist, humane, secular India and world and linked mainly by active opposition to communalism, dalit, gender and class inequities. Agenda for Aman Yuvas The volunteers will select not only their specific areas of interest and time commitment, but also the preferred nature of their involvement, whether it is direct grassroots work, research, analysis or advocacy. Each unit of Aman Yuva will develop its own agenda. However, in its pilot phase, it is proposed to invite the youth volunteers to consider joining the fight against homelessness, hunger and hate: Nyayagrah: A campaign for legal justice and reconciliation for the survivors of the carnage in Gujarat 2002, and in phases in the future survivors of communal pogroms and riots in Delhi (1984), Nellie (1983), Hashimpura (1987) and Bhagalpur (1989) and those affected by the cycles of violence in Kashmir. Dil Se: A campaign for responsible caring citizenship, focussed on the rights and protection of urban homeless children and women (initially in Delhi, and Hyderabad). Legal justice for destitute people and an intervention in the beggars court, juvenile courts, beggars homes, juvenile homes, leprosy homes, etc. Participatory research and caring citizen support for the right to food and people living with hunger There can be many levels and modes of engagement of aman yuvas in these diverse issues of hate, hunger and homelessness:

Vacation volunteer programmes Part time but long term volunteering along with studies and work Internships Long term whole time engagement

The specific alternatives offered at present by Aman Biradari to the youth volunteers are the following: Nyayagrah: A campaign for legal justice and reconciliation for the survivors of communal pogroms and riots and State violence: In Gujarat (2002), Nellie (1983), Delhi (1984) and Hashimpura (1987). 1. staying with survivors, assessing the challenges that remain for them to rebuild their lives and social relations 2. working with or helping establish and supporting local units for legal justice and reconciliation 3. internships for legal justice, research, documentation and peace building work 4. long term work with these units for legal justice or reconciliation

Dil Se: A campaign for rights and protection of urban homeless children and women
Initially in Delhi and Hyderabad 1. volunteering time on regular structured basis for homeless children, for teaching, games, counselling, music, theatre, art, health care, managing of community hostels 2. becoming a friend of one homeless child or youth over a long period 3. mobilising volunteers and resources in cash or kind

4. internships for working with homeless children and women, on streets, and in hostels and schools, research and documentation 5. long term work with homeless children and women, on streets, and in hostels and schools Legal justice for destitute people and interventions in beggars and juvenile courts, beggars homes, leprosy patients homes, juvenile homes, etc. Initially in Delhi 1. regular legal support to destitute people in beggars courts 2. regular legal support to homeless children in juvenile justice courts 3. internships to law graduates for destitute people in beggars courts and homeless children in juvenile justice courts Right to food Initially in Delhi, Jaipur, Bhubaneshwar and Hyderabad 1. participatory research into various aspects of right to food, farmers suicides and hunger 2. mobilising sustained caring citizen support for family members who survive starvation and farmers suicides 3. internships for participatory research and caring citizen support for the right to food and combating hunger

Aman Yuva Declaration I believe in a country and a world in which all human beings can live with their heads held high, with peace, dignity, mutual understanding and respect, and without fear. I am convinced that every human being should enjoy equal

rights in every way, regardless of whether they are women or men, which god they worship, their colour, caste, class, ability, language or region. I am deeply disturbed by ideologies of hatred that seek to divide our people. I am anguished that amidst the abundance of wealth and weapons in our country and the world, hunger, homelessness, unemployment, disease, war, strife, discrimination and despair abound. We will counter these ideologies of hatred by understanding and celebrating, variety, difference and our plural lives, and regarding injustice to anyone as injustice to me. I wish to join hands with people of peace everywhere in an ever-growing Aman Biradari or community of peace, and to join millions in the centuries old journey to create a more just and humane society. My active solidarity is with all democratic, non-violent struggles for justice and peace, and my active commitment is to the universal values of humanism, justice and truth (insaniyat, insaaf aur sachai). For any further information, please contact: Aman Yuva- A youth volunteer programme of Aman Biradari 25/1, Adhchini, New Delhi-17; 26535961/62;fax-011-46560460 Email: volunteerdilse@gmail.com