STORY OF GLOBAL CHANGEMAKERS MENTEE 2021, A YOUNG FEARLESS SOCIAL ACTIVIST FROM INDIA

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We Are Global Changemakers

5 min readNov 26, 2021

STORY OF GLOBAL CHANGEMAKERS MENTEE 2021, A YOUNG FEARLESS SOCIAL ACTIVIST FROM INDIA

Ananya V Banerjee, 18, is one of the youngest social activists of India. Recently, she graduated High School and is a prospective student at the Australian National University, Australia, and the Vice Chancellor’s International Scholarship holder for Bachelors of Psychology (Hons). She aspires to be a Psychologist in the future while working for the community.

Being a curious person, she seeks enriching experiences to work in challenging environments to learn and grow. She is passionate about social activism, volunteering, and community service. She is an advocate of women’s rights, mental health, environmental preservation, and education for all. She is led by a strong purpose of life to live beyond self and contribute towards society. Interestingly, She loves to break stereotypes whether those are about women or youth, related to mental health or education. Spirituality and poetry complete her. Finally, she strongly believes in the power of change whether it’s self-transformation or for society.

In 2003, when Ananya’s mother conceived her, her parents were pressured by society to find out the gender. When they found a girl in the womb, they wanted an abortion. Surviving all pressures and orthodox ideologies of people around, her fearless mother stood against all forces to bring her to the world. Just after the birth, her parents started creating awareness about female foeticide among the masses. Ananya’s father, Mr. Mihir happened to initiate the ‘Save Daughters’ or ‘Beti Bachao’ campaign in 2004 with the celebration of Lohri Beti Ke Naam, otherwise celebrated to rejoice the birth of a son. In her childhood, instead of playing with toys like other children, she would rather accompany her parents in campaigning against female foeticide.

She has been in the field of activism since childhood when her mother would raise slogans and hold her in her arms. Having grown up in such an environment, she has been campaigning for more than 12 years now. Ananya along with her elder sister, Sanjoli, and parents have directed a documentary on Climate Change by the name, ‘Earth In Flames’ and went on a 4500 km road expedition (2009) across 7 states of India with the message, ‘Save Daughters, Save Earth’. In 2015, the sisters wrote a letter to PM Modi outlining 14 pragmatic solutions to curb female foeticide.

Even more, in 2018, the sisters adopted the village, Darar, for its overall development and thus, focused on the 4th SDG, Quality Education. For that, they founded an open-air free mobile school, SUSHIKSHA, in December 2019 in the same village. There, they along with a large team of young volunteers teach the students various subjects and also make them aware about political rights, menstrual hygiene, mental health and the environment. The aim is to promote holistic education for all, especially for those who come from marginalised groups of society like Dalits (lower caste) or the poor. Most interestingly, the two have been teaching the students during the pandemic to make sure that none quits education to earn. Ananya’s aim is to see their students as educated, responsible, and constructive citizens who become assets for the world instead of liability.

During the pandemic, Ananya went beyond the requisites of academics and explored Psychology and the mental health field deeply. She launched an online week-long mental health awareness, ‘REvolve 2021’ to talk about the issue and help people cope up with Covid stress. As a part of this event, she interviewed and got in conversation with mental health experts all over India and talked about topics like relationship issues, Myths around Mental health, women and mental health, Social media anxiety and so on. The overwhelming response further pushed her to launch March for Mental Health awareness on World’s Mental Health day 2021. It was organized by her organisation, NGO Sarthi in collaboration with different local organisations and held across 3 states of India. The event was with aim to destigmatize mental health, end the stigma and promote seeking professional help. Interestingly, it was a youth-led event joined by more than 300 people altogether. To gain practical exposure, she has interned with various organisations and hospitals, made a documentary on Mental Health and loves to read books related to Psychology, mental health and spirituality. She loves to hear out people and thus is often found at local cafes, listening to people’s stories, connecting with them, and being a non-judgmental listener for them. Currently, she is a student of the Leadership and Entrepreneurship course at The Dexterity Global.

She is a proud Global Changemakers 2021 mentee. “The 12 weeks have been extraordinarily transformative for me. Not only have I gained knowledge, exposure, new networks but most importantly, the program has helped me bring a change within to bring about one at a global level. I have evolved and grown as a person and a leader because of the ultimate guidance of my mentor, Kiran Kaur and support from Kathia and Yasmin. I was fortunate to have an emotionally understanding and empathetic mentor. It has been a safe space for me to be myself, experiment with new ideas, be reflective, and curate projects. To add on, at a young age, I found my true calling and purpose of life in giving back to society and aiming to transform lives and make an impact on the world… I see it as a humble beginning.