Children

Sukkriti Nath is a regular teenager but she turned a school project into a book about the harms of smoking and donated the proceeds to an NGO. She has been an inspiration to many.

A lot of chronic mental disorders have their roots in childhood experiences. These may be reduced if we instill self-regulation in our children from a very young age.

Two companies in India, Avani EarthCraft in the Kumaon hills, and Azafran in Ahmedabad have taken up the initiative to make crayons from natural, plant-based ingredients.

Although the primary focus of this initiative is mothers, the government has also extended it to single fathers whose wives have passed away.

"When she finally got pregnant again, we were so happy—but because it was a twin pregnancy her condition became high risk and complicated."

Shaishav and its work through Balsena, demonstrate that children are capable of asking questions and taking charge of their own lives, if they are equipped with the right set of knowledge, values, direction and mentorship to do so.

One challenge we face today is to ensure that we lead sustainable lives. It is imperative to bring kids into that space and teach them about making eco-friendly choices.

Smriti an electrical engineer, who worked for the Wikimedia Foundation in Europe, returned to India in 2014. She quit her full-time job last year to dedicate her life to the cause of adoption.

"Right from my school days, I wanted to do something for the betterment of girls in our society. The inequality faced by us was very disturbing to me.”

In 2007, an activist with the NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan, Govinda Prasad Khanal, rescued him from these mines. That was the turning point for him.