Silchar youth selected among top 19 young change-makers from India

Feb. 24: Subhadeep Purkayastha, Founder of Eco Alarmist has been selected to join the prestigious ‘Ashoka Young Change-makers’ global network for the team’s efforts to address ecological sustainability in Silchar, Assam.

Subhadeep Purkayastha, a resident of Silchar is among the cohort of top 19 Indians selected this year to join the global network of ‘Ashoka Young Change-makers’ aged between 13 and 20 who have launched their own initiative and created positive change in their communities.

These young leaders were selected through a rigorous 5 rounds of selection from a pool of over 1800 applications received from across India and other countries. Through the ‘Ashoka Young Changemakers’ network, Subhadeep will now play an active role in creating a culture of empathy and entrepreneurship in Silchar and the state and national scale.

Speaking about his selection, Subhadeep shared, “I am excited to be part of the world’s largest network of change-makers and social entrepreneurs. It’s a great opportunity for me to advance our work at Eco Alarmist and also to learn from other young change-makers.”

Eco Alarmist is a youth led organisation that addresses sustainable development by helping small business and startups incorporate ecological sustainability in their operations. Apart from this, they also do workshops on climate crisis with school students, sustainable donation drives, plantation drives etc. Eco Alarmist has partnered up with other local organisations like Wild & Free, Fridays for Future Barak, One Earth Society, etc. to expand their work and create more impact.

“I want to create a world where people will think about the dangerous consequences of environmental destruction and contribute towards the conservation of their home, planet Earth, through their daily life activities. That can be achieved only if we have thousands of young people working on various causes for the society united for inspiring more young people help find problems they are passionate about, learn more about it and do something about it. Our world is very interconnected and interdependent that way. I want to work with the city administration and local institutions to support such budding change-makers.” said Subhadeep while discussing about his future plans.

Shruti Nair, Director of Youth Years at Ashoka Innovators for the Public said, “Subhadeep’s efforts to change mindsets and behavior of society towards positive change is an inspiration to our country’s youth. We need to support young change-makers like Subhadeep and also share their stories widely to help every teenager see this emerging need for change-maker mindset and skill set in order to strive in our exponentially changing world.”