The Youth Parliament of Jammu and Kashmir today organized a one day International Youth Summit (IYS) at Government Degree College (boys), Baramulla which was focussed on the theme “change amongst the youth”.
International Youth Summit, 2011 was supported by J&K BANK under the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to recognize obligations towards society and aims to integrate the CSR ideals into its mission for optimizing both business and social performance.
CSR stresses on promoting work life balance, give attention to social and environmental concerns and host of factors that facilitate business pursuits and accomplishment of economic goals.
The summit was supported by Rahim Greens, www.thekashmirwalla.com, Associated Media, ESQUEBE, Youth for Human Rights International (YHRI), Human Rights Law Network (HRLN, www.jobsjk.com, ICS Group, Centre for Environmental Law (CEL), Kashmir Revolutionary Group (KRG) and Techno Park.
A large hall, packed with audience and participants, was greeted with a welcome address by Founder and President of the Youth Parliament Jammu and Kashmir and organizer of IYS, Advocate Nadeem Qadri. He has been widely working on different issues related to society like environment, human rights, youth empowerment at local, national and international level. He briefed the gathering about the aim of the event.
The event had a variety of speakers which included famous Kashmiri poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef, Bashir Ahmad, Management Consultant and Director Peace Museum Ohio, USA, Abdul Hameed, Chairman Rahim Group, Professor Hameeda Nayeem from Kashmir University and Abdul Majeed, Manager State Sports Council, Sopore.It was the first such an international summit where youth remained in main frame of focus. People who attended the summit were students from five colleges of valley including Media Department of Women’s College, Srinagar, Women’s college, Baramulla, Government Degree College, Sopore, KCF Law College, Pulwama and Vitasta Law College, Srinagar.
From the desk of guests, Abdul Hameed kicked off the summit with his speech. He urged youth to take interest in entrepreneurships so that they can set a kind of security for their future. “I request youth to make their future secure by developing taste for entrepreneurship,” Hameed said in his speech.
He also said that youth should create awareness among people regarding the conservation of environmental assets.
As the time moved on, Professor Hameeda Nayeem, a well-known activist and the senior professor in Kashmir University spoke about the human rights violations and the impact of cable channels on youth. She said that no power approves the snatching away of deserved rights of a person.“Human rights are inalienable. Every human has to observe his/her rights. These are morally guaranteed to everyone,” Hameeda said.
Criticising cable networks for being the cause of cultural destruction, Hameeda said, “Cable networks have destructed the Kashmiri culture. They have fissured the culture which once used to be symbol of rectitude.”
Nayeem also said that peaceful demonstrations can have an effective appeal. Speaking about the freedom, she said that freedom should not be just emblematic, instead it should be substantial.
“Just a symbol of freedom doesn’t mean actual freedom. What really matters is the practical value of freedom. It should be substantial not symbolic,” said the professor.
Bashir Ahmad Kakroo, a Kashmir-born-American also spoke on the occasion. He talked about the issue of youth development. He stressed on youth to set goals at the just beginning of their lives. He said that a single individual’s effort can carve out an immense change in any system.
Kakroo censured the practice of stone throwing. Calling it an act to disrupt the peace and harmony he said, “There is the need for a long lasting peace. Stone throwing can’t bring any peace instead it will act as a source of peace disruption”.
Replying to the question, posed by a young media student, Ather Mohi-u-Din, “Is America preparing any peace map?”, Kakroo replied, “United states is not on any peace initiative. It has an imperial policy. It wants the control over the entire world resources.”Kakroo castigated the former United States President, George Bush’s policy in severe terms. He said that Bush was the worst President America ever had. He concluded his speech by expressing his love and affection to the land, he hails from, Kashmir. He said Kashmir doesn’t go a moment away from his heart. Breaking away from his speech with this one-liner he said, “Kashmir is my nicotine I am always hooked on it”.
Bashrat Ali, Chief Coordinator, Youth Parliament Jammu and Kashmir, addressed the gathering about the responsibilities which people in general and youth in particular have towards their society. He said that the current youth can take over any kind of challenge. He emphasised upon youth to go for any service, like Doctor, engineer, politician or any other service but work with commitment, dedication and perseverance.In the concluding lines of his speech Bashrat said, “We can’t always build a future for youth but we can build the youth for future. This is our attempt to train our ears and listen to these august maxims. They are our inspiration today let us be an inspiration to the generations to come”.
The audience relished every word and burst into laughter when an old Kashmiri humourist and poet Zareef Ahmad Zareef took upon the podium. In a satirical temperament, he scathed the present youth severely for making Urdu language as the language of their taste. He mocked at the youth, particularly the young females for making illogical use of Urdu language.
“The youth have made Urdu language as the language of their choice. Using Urdu language at the time of its requirement is no offence. But divorcing our Kashmiri language from ourselves is a big offence. The youth particularly the feminine section have been making fun of Urdu language by using it in illogical sense,” said the Kashmiri poet, Zareef Ahmad Zareef.
Zareef stressed the current youth to not go astray by setting a stranger‘s tie with their mother language. He said that our Kashmiri language is well equipped with vocabulary and Kashmiris are familiar with it. It is not like any other language which shames us when we fall short of its words.In between the sessions of the summit, different documentaries were screened and later discussed. The heads of some sponsors also spoke on the occasion. The editor of this magazine, Fahad Shah, also spoke in the afternoon and briefed about the magazine history and its future plans. He talked how The Kashmir Walla | a monthly online magazine was started and is being run. “Contemporary media is not presenting the ture picture of Kashmir. The role of journalists should be vital and constructive. Media should propagate positive criticism,” he said in his brief address.
The summit concluded in late afternoon with a discussion between students on various issues.
Mudasir Majeed Peer is staff writer with The Kashmir Walla.
Courtesy: www.thekashmirwalla.com
