E-friendship Campaign, An Effort to Bridge Gap Between Indian Youths

By Aamarpita Banerjee

With the aim of building a virtual bridge between youth from the city and those from far-flung areas that are otherwise disconnected from the rest of the country, a group of young volunteers from the city are starting an e-friendship campaign. These youths are a part of Aseem Foundation and are mostly students and young working professionals.

The foundation works for the cause of students from far-flung areas, and believes that there is an urgent need for the youth of these areas to interact with their counterparts from other parts of the country to help them get their voice heard.

The campaign is the brain child of Sarang Gosavi who has been working in areas like Jammu and Kashmir and north east states for almost 10 years now. It was when he visited these states that he realised that the youth from these places had several reservations and insecurities.

“The youth from these areas are disconnected from the rest of the country. They do not feel that they are a part of the country. They feel the rest of the country also considers them outsiders, which is wrong,” said Gosavi. Keeping this problem in mind, Gosavi started visiting these places and interacting with young boys and girls.

“Most of the students are so insecure because they hardly get a chance to interact with people outside their state and thus do not know the views and opinions of people from the other corners of the country,” said Gosavi. Over the years, Gosavi has collected more than 2000 email addresses of students from areas like Jammu and Kashmir, Meghalaya, Nagaland and Manipur.

“I have over 1000 email IDs of Kashimiri students, 250 from the north east. Volunteers from my organisation will interact with these students through weekly emails. Through these interactions, we will try to understand what are the issues in the minds of these young people and try to solve them by giving them guidance,” added Gosavi.

As many as 58 volunteers have already signed up for the campaign and it will kickstart in a week’s time. Even the volunteers are very excited about the campaign and are expecting a positive outcome.

“Because of the violence in the valley, we hardly know people from those areas. Those areas are also far from development and they do not know what are the avenues available for them outside their home. So, apart from being an interesting activity where we will be able to make friends with them and guide them, we will also get to know so much about their cultures,” said Sanskruti Bapat, a volunteer who recently completed her masters degree in History.

Echoing Sanskruti, Sai Barve, another volunteer, said, “What we know about these states is different from the reality. You get to know this that only when you visit these states. But since it is not always possible for all of us to visit these places, the internet is the best medium to stay in constant touch. And I know we will be able to make a difference,” said Barve.