Inayat Kapoor, a 20-year-old graduate, is leading Project Qaabil to empower India’s youth by fostering “Changemaking literacy,” shifting school education from learning-based to skill-building. Through her mentorship program, students are becoming future leaders focused on sustainability and social impact. Discover more about her inspiring work in this writeup penned by Sharmishta Das!
As per the UNFPA projections, India is experiencing a demographic window of opportunity, a “youth bulge” that will last till 2025. This demographic cohort of the youth is often perceived to be very vulnerable, erratic, and distant from ground realities. However, if they are channeled well, they can build a resilient and better India. In the same course, Inayat Kapoor, a 20-year-old recent graduate from Lady Shri Ram College of Women is spearheading the ecosystem of responsible youth and a sustainable future through her initiative called Project Qaabil with a focus on the transition of school education from a learning-based approach to a skill-building one via “Changemaking literacy”, a keyword Inayat placed as the heart of the project.
Inayat Kapoor, founder of Project Qaabil
In October 2022, Inayat attended a session in the UN House aligning with her coursework and interest towards peace and conflict resolution. In the same event, she interacted with a strong community of individuals who transcended the boundary of self and worked on various social impact projects focussing on community empowerment, sustainability and zero waste lifestyle. This event led to a profound realization of how youth of the country is budding with ideas but are ill equipped due to lack of awareness and access to mentorship. This gap gave rise to Project Qaabil’s vision of empowering students of 13-18 years to start various social impact projects with greater environmental consciousness.
WHY SCHOOL GOING STUDENTS?
Inayat with teachers and students of DC Model Sr Secondary School, Panchkula
This project aims to tap the potential of youth in practical leadership and advocacy.
“The plan was to implant and implement something at the unit level of school education when the child is at the developing age and at a conjecture of carving a unique identity for themselves. As they develop their perception of the world and various problems, the schools should also do more to complement their curious bent of mind to think bigger and better.” Said Inayat on being asked why she chose school students as the goodwill ambassadors of the Project.
Through this project, she aims to inculcate the ideas of sustainability and social responsibility right at the inception which she believes will get polished in their respective paths of interest and growing endeavours.
FROM ONE TO MANY: HOW THE PROJECT WORKS?
The on-ground implementation of the change-making mentorship programme started in June 2023 in Inayat’s Alma mater Bhavan Vidhyalaya, Panchkula with an orientation for the students of classes 11 and 12th which then permeated into junior classes. Additionally, Inayat optimized her digital presence via the platform of Instagram and LinkedIn and thereafter other schools in the nearby region contacted her to implement the same model in their campus as well. With the growing number of students and projects, she recruited a pool of individuals from diverse backgrounds for the portfolio of financial advisors, researchers, content ideators, social media managers, and selection teams. Currently, Inayat shares the vision with a robust team of 17 equally driven individuals and young changemakers from 8 campuses around Panchkula, Chandigarh, and Delhi which includes schools like DC Model Sr Secondary School, Panchkula, DC Montessori Sr Secondary School, Sector 13 Chandigarh and National Victor Public School, Delhi among others.
The Project provides stepwise support and handholding initiatives which include:
- Collaboration with the school administration
- Rolling out Google forms and interview with the interested students
- Providing them with one-on-one mentorship so that they can carve their plan of action to start up something impacting their school
- Maintaining an open and safe channel of communication among all the stakeholders
- In case the changemakers face any roadblock in the implementation or want to scale up their initiative, through Project Qaabil, they can seek guidance from the Advisory Board comprising dignitaries who are already running the social impact projects, NGOs, and other projects and have hands-on experience of the same.
WHAT HAS IT ACHIEVED SO FAR?
The mentored changemakers are resolved to contribute their bit through active initiatives ranging from designing eco brick by compressing plastic wastes inside empty plastic bottles, eradication of aluminum foil and plastic in the school premises through sensitization and tapping its potential in craft, waste wise symphony focussing on sustainable waste segregation with colour coded dustbins and proper disposal of the same, to building a student library with active book exchanges focussing on the “cycle of knowledge” and safe spaces to talk about hush-hush topics of menstruation and mental health.
“As the project expanded, we introduced the change-making programme in schools which catered till class 10th and I was apprehensive of working with the junior classes of 8th, 9th and 10th on a presumption that they would not be able to grasp the complexity of change making but they dismantled it by their energy, enthusiasm and innovative ideas” shared Inayat.
THE WAY FORWARD
Through this project, Inayat now looks forward to a global collaboration for “change-making literacy” and practical leadership connecting youth and mentorship across borders to advise the budding change makers and add value to their vision which goes beyond a mere club activity with the potential of engaging more and more minds.
The project with positive reception is driving the wheel of change and advocacy where the youth is at the forefront envisioning an inclusive and sustainable future where every voice is heard and acknowledged.
The echoes of the same spirit could also be sensed in Inayat’s voice wherein she reaffirmed “We now positively look forward to the full course encouragement of the changemakers and we look forward to building a force of change-makers in the emerging Bharat”.