Workshop for teachers in charge of Peace Clubs held at New Public School, Chandigarh

On the theme of ‘Unity+Diversity=India’, an orientation workshop for teacher in charges of Peace Clubs from over 50 prominent schools and colleges of the Tricity of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali was organised at the school by Yuvsatta (youth for peace), Novel Bunch and Peace Club of the school. Inaugurating the initiative, Prof Devi Sirohi, former Chairperson of CCPRC-Chandigarh Commission for Protection of Child Rights, said Mahatma Gandhi dedicated his life to the wider purpose of discovering truth, or ‘satya’. He tried to achieve this by learning from his own mistakes and conducting experiments on himself and thus called his autobiography ‘The Story of My Experiments with Truth’. And to lead a happy and peaceful life, there is no other alternative than to lead a truthful life with positive attitude and simplicity. Quoting Gandhi, she also advocated children to be the change they want to see in the world. A Gandhi Corner in all libraries of the school was also recommended. Giving information about the initiative Pramod Sharma, Coordinator of Yuvsatta, shared that in 2004, 20years back, they started the concept of Peace Clubs in schools of Chandigarh city, which was later adopted by the NCERT in 2006. The workshop was designed to train teachers to have positive aspect of nonviolence through constructive activities, discussions, interactions and constructive dialogues. The focus of activities remained around United Nations Sustainable Development Goal-SDG 16, which is Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and SDG5, which is gender equality. Hardeep Chandpuri, founder of Novel Bunch, said a soldier will be the last person to talk of war, as he know well the pains of

losing loved ones. Prominent amongst those who interacted with students today includes Prof Sukhmani Kaur, Director, and Manish Hablani, Principal of New Public School, and senior journalist Shayda Bano. On the occasion besides the manual of activities for Peace Clubs, books by Mahatma Gandhi, Peace Badges for Peace Clubs member students and teachers and specially designed Peace Flags for schools were also unveiled by the prominent dignitaries.