Youth, Democracy, and Change in South Asia – A Symposium

On 18th September 2026, WISCOMP, in collaboration with the Centre for Child and Youth Transitions (CCYT), BML Munjal University, organized a one-day symposium titled “Youth, Democracy, and Change in South Asia.” The symposium brought together an interdisciplinary group of scholars, journalists, policymakers, and young activists from India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Nepal to reflect critically on the recent surge of youth-led political movements across the region, situating them within the longer arc of democratic change, digital transformation, and generational aspiration.

The day unfolded across three thematic panels. “Youth as Changemakers” examined how young people have converted moments of public protest into sustained movements for democratic accountability, while “Digital Tools for Democracy” explored the role of digital platforms in reshaping political participation, civic engagement, and the very grammar of protest itself. The closing panel, “Witnessing the Change,” centred the voices of young activists who had directly participated in these movements, offering the room a rare, first-hand window into what it means to live through a moment of political transition.

The symposium closed with reflections from Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath, Director, WISCOMP, who spoke to the complexity, hope, and unresolved questions that these movements leave us with. As WISCOMP marks 26 years of its peacebuilding work, this symposium reaffirmed its long-standing commitment to engaging young people not merely as beneficiaries of peacebuilding, but as equal partners and architects of the region’s democratic future.

Rajiv Mehrotra has been a student of His Holiness for forty years. He travelled with His Holiness for the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony and helped establish the Foundation with the prize money. He serves as its Secretary & Trustee.

He was educated at St Stephen’s College and the Universities of Oxford and Columbia. He has authored nine books that have been published in more than 50 editions and languages. These include Mind of The Guru, Thakur-a Biography of Sri Ramakrishna and The Essential Dalai Lama. As an independent documentary filmmaker, commissioning editor and producer, Rajiv Mehrotra has won 32 National Awards in 34 years from the President of India. He serves as the Managing Trustee of The Public Service Broadcasting Trust, winning more than 300 awards worldwide from over 1,700 film festival selections.

For decades, he was a familiar face as an anchor on public television in India. He was nominated a Global Leader for Tomorrow by The World Economic Forum at Davos where he twice addressed plenary sessions. He is frequently invited to talk about His Holiness, on Buddhism, inter-faith harmony and issues related to the media. Rajiv Mehrotra has served on numerous Committees and Boards. He was a Judge for the Templeton Prize for Religion.

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Dr. Meenakshi Gopinath is currently Founder and Director of WISCOMP (Women in Security, Conflict Management and Peace), an initiative that seeks to promote the leadership of South Asian women in the areas of peace, security and regional cooperation. She is also Chair, Board of Governors, Centre for Policy Research (CPR), Life Trustee- India International Centre (IIC), and Principal Emerita of Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, where she served as Principal for 26 years from 1988-2014. She has been a member of the University Grants Commission (UGC), India.

Dr. Gopinath was the first woman to be nominated to the National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) of India. She is a member of multi-track peace initiatives and people-to-people dialogues in South Asia. She has authored among others Pakistan in Transition, and co-authored Conflict Resolution – Trends and Prospects, Transcending Conflict: A Resource book on Conflict Transformation and Dialogic Engagement and has contributed chapters and articles in several books and journals on Gandhi, the politics of Pakistan, Conflict Resolution, Gender and Peace Building et al. Her interests include issues of human rights and gender, conflict transformation and Buddhist and Gandhian philosophy and the performing Arts. She also headed the Task Force of the SAKSHAM Report of the University Grants Commission that initiated several policy reforms on Gender Equity on Higher Education Institutes in India

In recognition of her contribution to the field of women’s education and empowerment, she has received several awards including the Padma Shri Award, Indira Priyadarshini Gandhi Award, the Rajiv Gandhi Award for Excellence in Education and the Mahila Shiromani Award and the Delhi Citizen Forum Award and Qimpro Platinum Standard Award for Education and Celebrating Womanhood South Asian Recognition Award for Social Harmony and International Lifetime Achievement Award – 2009 for outstanding work in the field of justice, Equity, Peace and Progress and the L.M. Singhvi fellowship Award at the David Davies Memorial Institute of International Studies (DDMI), University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Award of the Honorary Doctorate Degree of Letters (Honoris Causa) for significant contribution to the education of women and the commitment to fostering global peace through Conflict Resolution, La Trobe University, Australia, Distinguished Alumna Award, by Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi for meritorious contribution in the field of Education and Nirbhaya Puraskar 2017, by OYSS Women for exemplary courage and accomplishment in the field of Education. She was Distinguished Visiting Scholar, School of Social Sciences, Monash University (2015)

Dr. Gopinath serves on the Governing Boards of research institutes, NGOs, educational institutions and corporate bodies. Life Trustee- India International Centre (IIC), New Delhi. She is also a Board of Trustees of the Asian University for Women, Bangladesh, on the Council of UPEACE– a UN Mandated University, Shri Ram Foundation, Track Two initiatives in the South Asian region, Editor in Chief, Peace Prints- A South Asian Journal of Peacebuilding, New Delhi, and others. She has been a Fulbright scholar and has received several fellowships including the Australian International Education Foundation Fellowship (1996-97) and the University Grants Commission Indo-Israel Exchange Fellowship (1994-1996) among others.

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Seema Kakran is Deputy Director at WISCOMP with over two decades of experience of designing gender trainings and conducting research on issues of inclusion and diversity. A specialist in public policy analysis, political theory and evaluation methodologies, she holds a Graduate Certificate in Public Policy Analysis from University of Nebraska – Lincoln. She has also attended courses in Evaluation Methodology at INCORE, University of Ulster, Northern Ireland, and Gender Evaluation Methodology and Participatory Evaluation Training of Community of Evaluators (A South Asia Network). Seema has previously taught Political Science at the University of Delhi and the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, USA. She has completed pre-doctoral work at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and holds M.Phil and Masters’ degrees from Jawaharlal Nehru University and University of Delhi. Her research focuses on gender equality and socio-political conflicts in India.

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Manjri Sewak is Assistant Director of WISCOMP, currently on sabbatical pursuing a PhD in Education for Peace at the Nelson Mandela Center for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has been associated with WISCOMP since its inception in 1999. A writer and trainer in the field of peacebuilding, Manjri holds expertise in conflict transformation and curriculum development. In 2004–5, she was part of a team that designed a Diploma Program in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding at Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi, where she later served as a Visiting Faculty. Manjri has conducted peacebuilding workshops for university and school students across the country. She is the author of Multi-Track Diplomacy between India and Pakistan: A Conceptual Framework for Sustainable Security (2005), Bridging the Divide: Peacebuilding for a New Generation (2014), and co-author of Transcending Conflict: A Resource Book on Conflict Transformation (2003).

Manjri is a recipient of the RCSS-NTI Research Award and the Fulbright Conflict Resolution Scholarship. She holds a Masters’ degree in Conflict Transformation from the Center for Justice and Peacebuilding, Eastern Mennonite University, USA, and a Bachelors’ degree in Journalism from Lady Shri Ram College for Women.

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Sumona DasGupta is a Political Scientist, independent Researcher and a Senior Visiting Fellow with Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA). She is a Member of Calcutta Research Group, Kolkata, and the Chair of International Advisory Group at International Conflict Research Institute, University of Ulster in Northern Ireland. She has written extensively on conflict transformation, critical security studies, governance and politics in South Asia, particularly on Jammu and Kashmir and gender issues as a cross-cutting theme.

Dr. DasGupta was a Visiting Fellow at the Rajaratnam School of International Studies and Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2014 and Lead Researcher for PRIA on the European Union Research Project on Cultures of Governance and Conflict Resolution in Europe and India. Previously, she served as Assistant Director at WISCOMP.

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Dr. Mallika Joseph is a Senior Fellow at WISCOMP. She serves as Adjunct Professor at the National Institute of Advanced Sciences (NIAS), Bangalore and Visiting Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research (CPR), New Delhi. Until recently, she served as Policy Adviser and Regional Coordinator for the Asia Pacific at The Hague-based Global Partnership for the Prevention of Armed Conflict (GPPAC). Before that, she was a Professor and Head at the Department of National Security Studies, Central University of Jammu. Earlier, she was the Executive Director of the Regional Centre for Strategic Studies (RCSS), Sri Lanka, and the Director of the New Delhi-based Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies (IPCS).

She is part of many global and regional networks working on sustainable development goals, gender, security sector, human security, conflict prevention, regional architectures, and global governance. She has a Ph.D. in international relations and has worked on various issues relating to South Asian security. Some of her recent books/edited volumes include – Rise of China and India: Implications for the Asia Pacific; India’s Economic growth: Opportunities and Challenges for the Region; Demography in South Asia: Implications for the Regional and Global Political Narratives; and Reintroducing Human Security in South Asia. Her latest book is South Asian Perspectives on Sustainable Development and Gender Equality (2021). She is currently working on an edited volume on “Framing Democracy: Civil Society Perspectives from South Asia.”

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Nilova Roy Chaudhury is a senior journalist with over three decades of experience working as a Reporter, Writer, Analyst and Editor with some of the world’s leading print news publications, including The Washington Post, The International Herald Tribune, the Yomiuri Shimbun, the Hindustan Times, the Statesman and the Associated Press, among others. She founded The Indian Review of Global Affairs, an online foreign policy news magazine, and was its Chief Editor for five years. Part of that tenure was with the Symbiosis International University’s School of International Studies, to whom the web magazine was co-opted, as a special resource for its students. She helped set up the SSIS, and has taught and mentored students in some aspects of foreign policy. She is a Senior Visiting Fellow at WISCOMP and has actively engaged in initiatives on Journalism and Peace-Building.

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Shilpi Shabdita is Assistant Director at WISCOMP. She brings 14 years of rich peacebuilding experience leading programs on conflict transformation, cross-cultural dialogue, peace education and gender justice in diverse contexts across India, Uganda, Afghanistan and the USA. Her educational journey spans a Master's degree in International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame, USA, where she was mentored by Prof. John Paul Lederach. She also holds a Post Graduate Diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from Lady Shri Ram College, Delhi University, and has trained in Mindfulness-Based Listening. Shilpi serves on the Board of the US-based Afghanistan Peacebuilding Initiative, and is a member of PeaceWomen Across the Globe.

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Sree Kumari is Executive Assistant at WISCOMP for the last 16 years. Previously, she worked as a Primary School Teacher and Head Librarian at the Kerala Education Society, Delhi. She is a poet and a short story writer in Malayalam. Sree holds a Bachelors’ degree in Chemistry and Library Sciences.

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Akashleena Chakrabarti is Senior Program Manager at WISCOMP, where she coordinates and supports programs on Youth and Dialogue, Mediation, Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding. She has also curated a virtual Book Cafe series facilitating interactive spaces of dialogue for young scholars, academicians and grassroots practitioners. She holds a Bachelors’ degree in Political Science and a Diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peace Building from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, and a Masters’ degree in Political Science from the University of Delhi. Her research interests lie at the intersection of Conflict transformation, digital peacebuilding and performance studies.

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Aditi Kumar is Programme Associate at WISCOMP. She graduated with a bachelor's degree in Law from the University of Cambridge in 2023. Before that, she studied the Conflict Transformation and Peace Building Diploma at Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi. Aditi’s current research interests revolve around humanitarian aid, public international law, global north-south relations, gender and experience of justice by the most vulnerable communities.

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Shriya Raina is Program Officer at WISCOMP. Her work at WISCOMP has spanned gender, climate and community-centred approaches to human security, and she now looks forward to deepening her engagement with conflict-driven displacement. She holds a Master's degree in Gender Studies from Ambedkar University Delhi and a Bachelor's degree in English from the University of Delhi. Prior to joining WISCOMP, she worked with The Times of India in the editorial and publishing division. Her research interests include migration, memory, and displacement, with a focus on inclusive knowledge creation.

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Amb. Shyam Saran is former Foreign Secretary of India and President of the India International Centre. Ambassador Saran has previously served as Prime Minister’s Special Envoy on Indo-US Civil Nuclear Issues and Special Envoy and Chief Negotiator on Climate Change. Prior to his appointment as the Foreign Secretary, he served as Indias ambassador to Myanmar, Indonesia and Nepal and as its High Commissioner to Mauritius. After leaving government service in 2010, he headed the Research and Information System for Developing Countries, a prestigious think tank focusing on economic issues (2011- 2017) and was Chairman of the National Security Advisory Board under the National Security Council (2013-15). Ambassador Saran serves on numerous boards including the Institute of Chinese Studies, Centre for Policy Research, World Wildlife Fund (India) and the Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI). His recent publications include, How China sees India and the World (2022) and How India Sees the World: Kautilya to the 21st Century (2020). He regularly comments and speaks on politics and foreign policy issues and contributes to multiple magazines and newspapers. In recognition of his contribution to civil services, Ambassador Saran was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 2011. In May 2019, he was conferred the Spring Order Gold and Silver Star by the Emperor of Japan for promoting India-Japan relations.

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Dr. Syeda Hameed is a distinguished Indian educationist, writer and public policy practitioner. She has served as a Member of the National Commission for Women (1997–2000) and subsequently as a Member of the Planning Commission of India (2004–2014), where she was responsible for portfolios including health, women and children, and minorities. A noted feminist and public intellectual, Dr. Hameed is the founder of the Muslim Women’s Forum and a founding trustee of the Women’s Initiative for Peace in South Asia and the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation. Her landmark reports, Voice of the Voiceless: Status of Muslim Women in India (2000) and My Voice Shall Be Heard (2003), documented the lived realities of Muslim women through extensive public hearings. She served as Chancellor of Maulana Azad National Urdu University, Hyderabad, until 2015. Her memoir, A Drop in the Ocean: The Story of My Life, was published in 2024. In recognition of her contributions to education, women’s rights, and social justice, Dr. Hameed was awarded the Padma Shri in 2007.

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Prof. Krishna Menon is Professor and former Dean, School of Human Studies, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University Delhi. Previously, she taught in the Department of Political Science at Lady Shri Ram College, University of Delhi, for over two decades, where she was also the Director of the Aung San Suu Kyi Centre for Peace. She serves on the editorial boards of prestigious journals, including the International Feminist Journal of Politics. She has extensively published books and papers and presented on debates within political theory, issues in Indian politics, and feminist theory and politics. These include Social Movements in Contemporary India (2024), The Gendered Body in South Asia: Negotiation, Resistance, Struggle (2023), and Doing Feminisms in the Academy (2020), among others. She has worked on International research collaborations as the Principal Investigator of a UGC-UKIERI international research collaboration with the University of Edinburgh and Ambedkar University Delhi (2017–2019). She serves on the boards of several organizations, including The Hunger Project, as well as on university boards of studies and doctoral committees, including IGNOU, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, and Mizoram University. Prof. Menon has received several awards for her exemplary work, including the AURPIS Award for good research from Ambedkar University Delhi in 2025, 2023, and 2022, the WISCOMP Saahas Pragya Award for Contribution to Gender Knowledge and Higher Education in 2020, and the Teacher of Distinction Award from the University of Delhi in 2009.

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Kiran is Program Associate at WISCOMP. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Political Science from Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi, along with a Diploma in Conflict Transformation and Peacebuilding from the same institution. Her research interests span digital peacebuilding, gender, political behaviour, and cultural violence.

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