Poll matters | African nation voted for a new president on Thursday | Pravin Nikam from Pimpri was part of a Commonwealth group
Zambians voted on Thursday in the presidential elections, but a Puneiite is among a few persons who hold the key to the outcome.
Meet Pravin Nikam. He is the only youth activist from Asia designated as an election observer for the Zambian elections. The 24-year-old will observe the vote counts and results as a member of the Commonwealth Observer Group, led by former Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete.
"On election day, I visited over 15 polling stations and met 500-plus voters. The voting went peaceful. We will be observing the counting now," said Nikam. Election officials of Zambia expect violence on the day of results on Friday (today).
Nikam is no stranger in international ciricles. He has rubbed shoulders with many global leaders, including United Nations (UN) secretay-general Ban Ki-Moon.
His association with the UN and its feeder organisations began when he was selected as a Global Youth Ambassador for A World at School. This is a programme started by the UN in 2013 to solely concentrate on education for children. It has 500 Global Youth Ambassadors campaigning in 85 countries.
He travelled to the United Kingdom and Malta for meetings with Ban Ki-Moon, Gordon Brown and other global ambassadors.
"At the meetings with Moon, we focussed on recognising youth as partners for peace rather than solely viewing them as perpetrators of violence. Today's generation of youth, at 1.8 billion, is the largest the world has seen.
Many of them are living in countries plagued by conflicts and extremism," said Nikam.
Since being selected as a Global Youth Ambassador, Nikam has been actively involved in researching factors that create and sustain conflicts in countries. It was while on this job that he was selected as a representative from Asia to the Election Observer Mission of Commonwealth.
The group has been sent to oversee the elections. Though Zambia is one of the most stable democracies in Africa, violence was suspected during elections.
"The elections were over peacefully. We would be waiting for the rest of the process to get over now," added Nikam.
He would also play a role in making a report of the election process to be submitted to the Commonwealth, which has been observing elections in newly formed democratic countries since 1980.
Speaking about the similarities between the Zambian and the Indian elections, Nikam said: "We have been here for a couple of days and have been closely studying the election proceedings and factors affecting the same.
The country is a developing one like India and has a rich culture and tradition. Also, like the youth population at home, the youngsters of Zambia are also coming forward to participate in the changing dynamics of the nation," added Nikam.
After this international exposure, Nikam wants to voice the issues faced by countries facing conflicts using the global platform. "I want to be the advocate of youth, peace and security for all countries affected by armed conflicts.
I also want to work on involving Indian youth in making peace policies. I have started an initiative called Nitikushal, which aims at finding solutions to conflicts and keeping the youth away from violence," he concludes.
Nikam's initiatives in India
An engineering college droup-out, Nikam has always had an inclination for working towards the betterment of society. At the age of 18, he left his studies to start an NGO named Roshni. Just at the age of 18 he started working on menstruation health and sanitation in India. In the last 4 years, he has trained 5,000 women in Pune and neighbouring areas and inspired many youngsters to join his mission. The women he trained were usually slum-dwellers, labourers and the homeless living in temporary sheds. This initiative led to his nomination for the National Youth Award, along with 23 others. He received the award in January. He is now working on issues related to youth, peace and security.
Zambia is witnessing its presidential elections after 18 months of the last bi-elections held in January 2015 following the demise of then president Michael Sata. The periodical elections in 2016 had 9 presidential candidates. The ruling Patriotic Front (PF)'s president Edgar Lungu and United Party for National Development (UNDP)'s Hakainde Hichilema were the main candidates.
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 "Pravin Nikam with a government official of Zambia")
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