PUKAR’s mandate, through the Youth Fellowship Programme, is to create young active citizens who are critical and political and have a commitment towards change. In lieu with this mandate, the team conducted an Advocacy Workshop, to introduce the youth fellows to the concept of advocacy and also to explore the different advocacy tools.

On November 25th, 2012, RajendraJadhav, Director, YFP and KapilChavan, Coordinator, YFP, facilitated the Advocacy Workshop for 25 youth fellows. The workshop began with a consensus among participants that one of the main purposes of research should be social change. Advocacy, in all its various forms were explored. Participants were also explained the appropriate use of the tools in different situations.

While the workshop on advocacy was comprehensive, dealing with all kinds of advocacy tools including media advocacy, lobbying with parliamentarians/members of legislative assembly etc, Youth Fellows felt that the 4-hour workshop was not enough to understand the breadth and depth of advocacy efforts.