Letter to the President of India

The experience of practicing ‘responsibility’ in their schools and neighborhoods and drafting Indian Children’s Charter of Social and Environmental Responsibilities has motivated these children to write a pleasing letter to the President of India in May 07.

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Respected Sir,

We, Sudhir Selvaraj (age 18) from Bangalore studying in class12, Clarence High.school, Anupama Kumar (age 16) from Cochin, Kislay Kishan (age 12) from Patna, studying in Delhi Public School and Deepika Easwaran (age 11) from Chennai, studying in Chettinad Vidyasram would like to share with you our experience in preparing " The Indian Children Charter of Social and Environment Responsibilities", inspired by an universal proposal for a charter called, " The Charter of Human Responsibilities".

The four of us are the winners of the national finals of the Horlicks WizTeam Competition conducted by ’The Activity’, a well known Edutainment company from Bangalore. This competition, which tests our overall personality, involved over 200,000 students from 25 cities all over the country. Two participants from each city were selected to attend the national finals at Bangalore over a period of four days.

The finals involved, among other activities, presentation of projects- Children’s’ responsible action and reflection on various social and environmental issues in our respected cities, based on the ten principles of "The Charter of Human Responsibilities" by all the semifinalists. The fifty of us from 25 cities also framed" The Indian Children’s Charter of Social and Environmental Responsibilities", a copy of which we have attached here.

A brief background of The Charter of Human Responsibilities:

The present version of The Charter of Human Responsibilities was launched in 2003 at the world Assembly of Citizens, organized by The Foundation Charles Leopold Mayer, Paris, with a view to encourage an international effort of renewed reflection on the relevance of individual and collective responsibility for the future of human kind and the planet. Subsequently a Citizen’s Alliance for the promotion of this charter was created. The ten principles of the Charter are the outcome of a process of intercultural and interdisciplinary dialogue over 10 years. Since then teams all over the world have been working on a revised universal Charter.

The Charter, which seeks to enable us to face the challenges of the 21st century better, provides a general framework of principles as opposed to strict dogmas. It seeks to provide a set of general principles to work within and make our growth as people and as nations more meaningful.

For detailed information about the Charter of Human Responsibilities you may kindly refer to the Website: http://www.charter-human-responsibi...

Sir, We, the children of India, assume the responsibility to build the bridges between the diversity of human beings for unity and human dignity. We also commit ourselves to protect our Earth mother for the wellbeing of all beings who are all her children.

Our dream is to bring a final document of "Indian Children Charter of Human Responsibilities" by the participation of a large cross section of the children from across the country. We would be very grateful to your invaluable guidance and comments on realizing our dream.

Kindly give us an opportunity to present our Children Charter of Social and environmental Responsibilities to you in person.

Thank you sir, in anticipation of meeting you soon.

Sincerely,

Anupama Kumar
Sudhir Selvaraj
Deepika Easwaran
Kislay Kishan