GUWAHATI: A student in Upper Assam’s Dibrugarh district took over Assam chief minister’s Twitter handle for two hours to mark World Children’s Day on Friday morning.
Eighteen-year-old Vandana Urang, who hails from Namrup Tea Estate and is a BA first semester student of Namrup College, shared her thoughts on education, underlining the need for a healthy academic environment in a post-pandemic world.
Chief minister Sonowal had on Thursday informed about handing over his Twitter account from 9am to 11am to Vandana in a unique gesture to support children’s empowerment and participation.
“On World Children’s Day, I am taking over the CM Office Twitter account to talk about my journey and share my opinions on how we can re-imagine education in a post-pandemic world,” Vandana posted, while thanking the chief minister for allowing her to avail the opportunity.
She also prepared two short video clips to include along with the posts, describing how innovative methods of teaching in a healthy environment can motivate students to complete their education.
“I did my schooling from Namrup Lower Primary School, and now I am studying at the Namrup College. However, I feel, many children are not as lucky as me to get the chance to continue their education,” she said.
“I feel that the environment in schools plays an important role – a good environment and innovative teaching methods, along with awareness on things like the ill-effects of use of addictive substances – will encourage children to continue and complete their education,” Vandana said.
“Now that schools and colleges have reopened in Assam, I hope that we focus on these issues so that no child gets left behind,” she added.
Vandana is also a member of the Muskan Adolescent Girls Group where she and other members discuss gender equality, importance of menstrual hygiene besides opportunities concerning their future.
“These discussions are ways in which we support each other, inform each other and help us spread the information to others in the community,” she posted on the CM’s Twitter handle.
Children’s Manifesto
Besides, to mark World Children’s Day in the state, over 4,000 children from 17 districts prepared a 10-point children’s manifesto mentioning their issues and recommendations for political parties to include in their manifestos.
The manifesto will be presented to the political leadership including the chief minister of Assam and Speaker of the Assam Legislative Assembly. Over the next few weeks it will also be given to the leaders of the Opposition as well as all major political parties of Assam to include them in their manifestos.
Among the demands in the manifesto are protection from violence, access to affordable healthcare and nutritious food, equality, affordable education, adequate resources for improving infrastructure and human resources of educational institutions, safe drinking water and proper sanitation; safe spaces for children and respect for rights of differently-abled children.