Kolkata’s Arushi Pant receives this year’s prestigious Diana Award
She has been working for child protection rights in the rural areas of Bengal since the age of 10. No wonder Arushi Pant, a 17-year-old girl from Kolkata, has been honoured with this year’s prestigious Diana Award. Established in memory of Diana, Princess of Wales, the award is given out by the charity of the same name and has the support of both her sons, the Duke of Cambridge and the Duke of Sussex.
Today, Arushi who leads a team of over 50 children at Pathways World School Aravalli organizes school visits for the underprivileged, educating them on child protection through self-defense classes, plays, songs and other activities. The group also talks to parents and teachers about child mental health and awareness advocacy issues.
'Since the age of 10, I worked with Association for Social Health and Advancement (ASHA) on a child protection project in the rural districts of West Bengal. I developed tools to create awareness in the communities and amongst target groups on children’s safety', said Pant. What was born from the passion and hard work of a 10-year-old was ‘Children’s Armour,’ a student-led organization, to sensitize the community against child abuse and violation of children’s rights.
Today, Arushi who leads a team of over 50 children at Pathways World School Aravalli organizes school visits for the underprivileged, educating them on child protection through self-defense classes, plays, songs and other activities. The group also talks to parents and teachers about child mental health and awareness advocacy issues. From conducting field visits to holding fundraisers during the upheaval of the Covid-19 pandemic, they do it all to make this world a better place for the poor children.
In an email message to her, Tessy Ojo, CEO of The Diana Award, wrote: ‘We congratulate our new Diana Award recipients from the UK and all over the globe who are changemakers for their generation. We know by receiving this honour, they will inspire more young people to get involved in their communities and begin their own journey as active citizens. For over 20 years the Diana Award has valued and invested in young people encouraging them to continue to make positive change in their communities and lives of others.’
'Since the age of 10, I worked with Association for Social Health and Advancement (ASHA) on a child protection project in the rural districts of West Bengal. I developed tools to create awareness in the communities and amongst target groups on children’s safety', said Pant.
The nomination was tough. Through a rigorous nomination process, nominators had to demonstrate the nominee’s impact in five key areas -- vision, social impact, inspiring others, youth leadership and service journey. There are 12 Diana Award judging panels representing each UK region or nation and another three panels representing countries outside of the UK. Each panel consist of three judges. The panels determine which nominations from each UK region/nation/country will receive the Diana Award. Nominations are judged using the criteria guide and scoring guide which have been created to measure quality of youth social action.
The Diana Award inspires positive change in the lives of young people through three key programmes which include, a mentoring programme for young people at risk, a youth-led anti-bullying ambassadors campaign and a prestigious award which publicly recognizes the youth who led the change. In this case it was the girl from Kolkata who could make a mark.
