Navya Naveli Nanda says she accepted her privilege early in life, decided to use it to do some good | Exclusive

Navya Naveli Nanda has ties with three illustrious families – the Nandas, the Bachchans, and the Kapoors. But while her seniors are stalwarts in business and cinema, the 25-year-old has chosen to carve out a niche in the world of social activism. The young entrepreneur was recently in Delhi as part of her ongoing roadshow You Grow Girl, done in collaboration with Yuvaa. On the sidelines of an interaction with students at Jamia Millia Islamia, Navya spoke exclusively to DNA about the movement, her learnings from the roadshow, and recognising her privilege.

Talking about the genesis of the idea behind the roadshow, Navya tells us, “I’ve been working with Nikhil (Taneja, co-founder of Yuvaa) and We Are Yuvaa for a long time, since I started working in the non-profit space. Once Covid got over and I heard about a road show Nikhil did for Covid, we discussed what could we do on ground where we could interact with people. He suggested a road show and I was all for it. But I wanted to do something beyond that too and create a community that lasted longer than the 2-3 hours we interacted with these kids. So, the roadshow is, of course, moving to 30 colleges across 25 cities but we also have a fellowship programme, where we are asking people to sign up with any idea they have. We are pooling our resources to bring that idea to life and creating a community at the same time.”

Navya began this journey with the aim of sharing her experiences with the youngsters of the country but says she ended up learning some new things along the way as well. “I knew that we would have to talk on the road show but I was really surprised that people are really keen to talk to us as well. They wanted to share their stories, to talk about things that are very personal to them – their mental health, personal life and so on. I was surprised to see that people were so quick to open up to people they don’t know very well,” she says.

At 25, she is not too older than some of the students she interacts with. Surely, there is some commonality there. Does she see a younger version of herself in some of them, we ask. Navya laughs and responds, “I think they are far ahead of where I was 5-6 years ago. I had no idea what I wanted to do when I was in college. I surely didn’t have the courage and confidence to speak the way they speak and have the kind of confidence they have. I don’t think I knew enough or had exposed myself enough. I totally think they are far ahead of where I was when I was 20-21.”

Nikhil Taneja, co-founder of Yuvaa, says what he likes about this movement and Navya is how she chooses to utilise her privilege. “Navya is an inspiration for thousands of young people because of the way she uses her privilege to make a difference. We are so proud to be able to bring our resources, community and teams together to help young women succeed in their careers, with the You Grow Girl Roadshow and Fellowship,” he says.

Ask her about her privilege and Navya says, almost philosophically, “Privilege comes in different forms. Privilege, today, could be just sitting with a roof over our head. Some of us are privileged to be coming from the kind of families we come from, or coming from the means we have.”

But she maintains that she recognised her own privilege early on and decided to use that as a weapon in her arsenal. “I recognised that at a very early age. I think the first step to that is acceptance: accepting that you do have advantages and access to certain opportunities that a lot of people would not get. That’s why you get to do the things you do. Then the second step was realising that I am on this mission to change the world and do things. But keeping all of these things to myself is not going to help me achieve that goal.”