Anshul Tewari and his Youth ki Awaaz are giving the Indian youth what it never had; a podium to raise their voices

In 2008, when Tewari had just finished his board exams and was wondering what career path to tread, he was also writing letters to editors of national dailies, expressing his views on the country’s relevant issues. Letters, which no one published—no one was listening. The attitude of the Fourth Estate frustrated the younger Tewari and so, he began putting his thoughts on a blog. “Whenever I expressed my views and opinions on political issues, my elders would always ask me to worry about my career instead of wasting my time in these things. Moreover, I noticed that most of the things being talked about in the mainstream media were things I could not relate to. Frustrated with the situation, I decided to write about the issues which mattered to me and started a blog called Youth Ki Awaz.” Initially, he says, he was not sure if he wanted to give the blog an organisational turn. “I was blogging and making a few friends of mine read the posts. Then in few months time, I realised that some people were regularly reading my blogs. I started to receive messages from people from different parts of the country, who said that they could relate to what was being written. One day, I got an e-mail from a reader who said he wished to write something on the blog.” It was then that Tewari realised that he ought to open his blog to other writers as well. And the podium was given shape. When they started the website, most people did not think it was for the long haul. When Tewari approached prospective clients with an investment proposal, they refused to pay him attention. Again, his age was his Achilles heel—he was too young. As the portal caught momentum, perspectives began to change. The same people who avoided Youth Ki Awaaz at the beginning, now showed interest to be a part of it and advertise. As attention increased, it began to be a smoother sail. For the first few years, Youth Ki Awaaz was forced to accept a lot of advertisements to stay afloat. But that is a thing of the past. The website today is squeaky clean—devoid of the clutter of meaningless adverts. What the portal does instead is orgnanise sponsored events to help engage with readers at various levels. That also brings in the moolah. Today, Youth Ki Awaaz is one of the most read opinion portals in India—not without a reason. They have done what the bigger media corporations were supposed to be doing. They have given citizens of our country a voice. During the Libyan Civil War, in which several Indians were left stranded in the war-torn nation with the country’s administrators paying no attention to the crisis of its citizens, a reader whose father was also stuck in the crossfire, wrote to media organisations with a plea—to bring the issue to the forefront. None heard him out. After writing to almost every media company, he got in touch with Tewari, who encouraged him to write an open letter to the Ministry of External Affairs. The letter, the moment it got published, went viral on Twitter. This made other organisations take notice. “Rajdeep Sardesai, contacted me on Twitter asking about the article. That day, CNN IBN carried a huge story as well and that put tremendous pressure on the Indian Government. It was then that they decided to send ships to Libya to bring Indians home,” he tells us. There are many who still don’t take citizen journalism seriously. But look closely at Youth Ki Awaaz’s stories—perhaps, we are not as helpless as we are led to believe. Tewari, with his ‘mouthpiece for the youth’ is empowering millions, exercising his power as a citizen and asking you to do just the same—after all no one is too young to care about his or her country.