Young Achiever: 17-year-old yuvraj mehra volunteers to promote farmers’ cause using best means
It's only when one interacts with Yuvraj Mehra that realisation dawns he is not an average 17-year old. Mehra has been volunteering in promoting sustainable farming activities through Farmer Groups for the past few years and has a refreshing world view with a holistic understanding of sustainability today.
The transformation began in 2016 when Mehra first learnt about Fair Trade on his maiden visit to one of the Fair Trade-certified projects in Gujarat. With that, he soon discovered that rural India was his inspiration. "What many people don't realize is that 70 per cent of India's population lives in villages," he says, "with sub-par resources that make it difficult for individuals to live day-to-day life, which the rest of us take for granted". He then sought out ways in which he could help individuals living in villages and small communities. Since then, he has also travelled to Kerala, Maharashtra and abroad to countries like Uganda.
Yuvraj's interest in farming comes from his exposure to agriculture, as his family has been involved in the agriculture business for decades. He always maintained and campaigned for the belief that Indian farmers need to be armed with the best resources possible. This vision came to fruition after learning about Fair Trade. The Fair Trade organisation connects disadvantaged farmers and workers with consumers, promote fairer trading conditions and empower farmers and workers to combat poverty, strengthen their position and take more control over their lives.
Now, Yuvraj actively works towards identifying different aspects of the farmers lives and their families, and sees this as an opportunity to learn from them. "Our farmers are some of the most resourceful people I have ever met," he says. "They make the best out of what they have, and don't take anything for granted," he adds. He understands that the country builds from the ground up, and not the other way around. "The more empowered our farmers are, the better our country will develop", he says.
Yuvraj often makes efforts to be part of the farmer groups which conduct need-assessments at village levels to understand requirements of the farmers. However, his commitment isn't limited to the farmers and he has attempted to be actively involved in community and family affairs of farmers groups as well. He describes his experience of Gujarat where he noticed that one scholarship programme is run by a farmers group and is only for girls. "'Why only girls?' I asked the group members, and their explanation was 'the female student drop-out rate'. The expense of sending girls students to secondary schools far away from villages by spending money on their transportation was considered unnecessary and so the scholarship made it possible for them to get education.
—krishijagran.com
What’s Fair Trade?
The Fair Trade organisation connects disadvantaged farmers and workers with consumers, promote fairer trading conditions and empower farmers and workers
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