Day 1 – May 30th

After 1.5 years into the project, the research team finally gathered together in person for the first time at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil! Attendees included project partners and adult facilitators, all the young people on the project from Volta Redonda, 4 of the young researchers from Mumbai, as well as academic experts from Argentina, Mexico, Brazil and Canada. The 2-day knowledge exchange event was held at the beautiful CIESPI campus building. Not everyone spoke or understood English, and so with much respect and gratitude to Marianna and Alicia, there were live translations happening from Portuguese, Spanish and Hindi to English (and vice versa).

The first day began with introductions and presentations of the young people’s projects. The young people in Brazil presented on the challenges of youth entry into work and social participation in Brazil. Public officials do not incorporate views of young people, and the system tends to be adult-centric. Violence and prejudice are also part of young people’s lives in Brazil. There is also a lack of policies to assist young people, let alone spaces for them to participate. Furthermore, young people are not prepared for demands of IT and technical skills in the job market due to lack of training. In this sociopolitical climate, young people organize new spaces for participation, and engage in debates in society about voicing their rights and the things that matter to them.

As an output of their collective project, the young people developed a manifesto listing their recommendations on a) how to make cities more inclusive in addressing young people’s livelihoods, and b) facilitate active participation of young people. They organized a livestream through Facebook to present their findings, and mentioned that because of this project, Volta Redonda will start a research about young people to rethink public policies about employment.

Meanwhile, the India team did a panel where the four young people (2 YEGs, 2 City Caravan researchers) explained the trainings, workshops and data collection they did over the past year. Following from that, the young people, along with Vaibhav (from Fields of View) and Alicia (from YUVA) performed a very interesting skit to present the findings of the young people’s individual research projects. Each of them pretended to be someone in society (food delivery person, accountant, someone visually impaired, a transperson, and an office worker waiting for the bus), and they each acted out a scene to shed light on the challenges which each of these individuals face in their livelihoods. Those visually impaired for example, have no scholarships for foreign education and the sciences study track is not available for them. As a result, they can only be allocated to the arts and humanities stream, which limits their access to job opportunities. Transgenders face everyday violence, where they are often touched inappropriately, and are not accept by society, as well as their family. People do not treat them with dignity, and they cannot access education, let alone jobs. Covering different identities, the skit really opened our eyes on the various intersectional experiences and inequalities which young people in India faced in their access to livelihoods.   

With such richness in content from the presentations, naturally sparks were flying during the Q&A sessions, and minds were buzzing with the curiosity to learn more. People were curious to know more about how the caste system worked, as well as what participation of young people in society was like in India. The participants also wanted to know more about how the election process of the Youth Forum in Volta Redonda worked, and also whether schooling is easy to access for young people.

Apart from presentations, both the India and Brazil team also shared a bit about their respective cities and cultures. The Brazil team made a short video about Volta Redonda and the steel industry, which is the main industry and therefore has a significant impact on the development and range of job opportunities in the city.  Meanwhile, Pranaya and Pratiksha from the India team performed two beautiful solo Indian dances. Following from that, the India team invited everyone to join in and learn the Koli dance, which is native to the fishermen community in Mumbai.

Needless to say with the presentations and culture sharing sessions, Day 1 was a rich and invigorating day!