Editorial  Dear LYFians, August 2010 to 2011 has been proclaimed as the International Year of Youth by the United Nations. Each year August 12 is celebrated as the international Youth Day. At Liberal Youth Forum too, we celebrated the year of the youth and pledged for an increased youth participation in governance. This issue features excellent work done on this day by our campuses in Hansraj College (Delhi University) and RGNUL- Patiala. The United Nations has also designated September 15th as the International Day of Democracy. Democracy is a very crucial pillar of liberal values. The word is coined from δῆμος (dêmos) "people" and κράτος (Kratos) "power". Democracy reinforces the right of individuals to choose their representatives and voice their opinion in issues that concern them. People should not be in the position of ruling others or being ruled when there is no consent, and that should be the case with our campuses too. So, think about what your LYF Forum can do in your campus and how you can effectively spread the message of democratic values. Make it fun and relatable and use all possible channels to spread the message. Think Facebook, Twitter, university newsletters, local newspapers and beyond. Here are some ideas: • Most importantly, start discussing about how your LY Forum will implement internal democracy., how you will elect your leaders and split responsibilities and incentives • Educational radio byte: You can get in touch with a popular local/national radio station to request a slot to have a discussion with distinguished individuals and youth. • Organize a meeting with authority figures or debate to discuss young people’s contributions to democratic campus. • Organize a concert/exhibition to promote International Day of Democracy. Invite your local artistes and combine it with a panel discussion or invite a respected politician or policy maker to hold the key note speech. Don’t forget to permission to use a public space for an arts exhibit • Create an “info point” about youth related with democracy-related issues in the center of your town/city, at high schools, or at university centers. • Organize an exhibition. , which showcases the challenges of young people today or how young people are contributing to development.  Try to involve young people in the domains of culture, arts and music, to raise awareness on youth-related issues. • Write to your local political representative to inform him or her about the challenges young people face in their daily lives and to suggest solutions to make democracy more effective. Elections are the thermometer of democracy. LYF will also undergo elections for core, so brace up for the democratic circle of LYF! In liberty Yavnika Khanna National Coordinator, Email: nc@lyfindia.org

Cover story  INTERNATIONAL YOUTH DAY CELEBRATIONS 12th August 2010

Hansraj College, New Delhi The convention marked the first initiative of LYF Hans Raj College. The occasion was agreed upon as the International Youth Day, and the day-long event brought together various college societies, intellectuals and participants from the city. Registration for the event began at 9.30am and saw over 70 names in the next half hour. The event was compered by core team members Bhavya Divvela and Tanvie Vinayak, who introduced LYF and declared the convention open. The programme opened with a Bharatnatyam performance by Kaveri Pathela of Hans Raj College, followed by a western dance performance by the Western Equinox (dance society). Following this, Harsh Narang (founder, PhokatCopy) introduced the idea behind his one-year old company and answered questions from the audience about business initiatives, and his incentives for having started and invested in the company. Read more >>

 Rajiv Gandhi National University of Law, Patiala 
 
The Liberal Youth Forum, RGNUL is glad to have been able to hold yet another milestone in the journey of, to what we say, the flow liberalism and ideas. The LYF RGNUL (Forum, hereinafter) is grateful to the LYF Core Team for all the support and guidance they have been providing with special mentions to Ms. Yavnika Khana, National Coordinator, LYF India, for she has been the guide to the best in all we needed, thus making things happen at maturelevels. Also, the Forum wishes to propose special mentions to Mr. Parth J. Shah, Ms. Manali Shah and Ms. Jasmine, Mr. Shabi Hussian, Mr. Rishi Kochar for being around to guide.
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Compendium on Campus Politics

India is a young country with its youth population growing at the rate of over 2% to 459 million in 2009. India is expected to add about 241 million people to its pool of working population owing to the fact that three-fourths of its youth population is literate. The University Grants Commission (UGC), under which 42 central universities, 259 state universities, 130 deemed universities and 65 private universities have been listed, estimated(in year 2002-03) that there are 92,27, 833 students2 in about 16885 Colleges spread across India. The above statistics point towards the huge emphasis being laid by the government upon education as a driver of growth in a nation in which youth form the majority.
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Strategy Planning Workshop at St. Xavier's, Ranchi 

Liberal Youth Forum, St Xavier’s College has been in the league of our productive campuses. They started with the campaign on syllabus up gradation and by the end of the year showed result in the form of new courses being introduced. Quintessentially the students are passionate and interested.
This year with the new campus coordinator Urvashi, they’ve chosen to campaign for establishing an elected student body/council in their college. Thus at this stage it was very necessary to train them in strategy planning and since lot of members are new they needed to be introduced to LYF values and ideologies.
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How free Are We?

Poem by Keshav from Hansraj College about youth and freedom

How free are you
How free are we
How free am I
Today we shall rejoice our freedom
Texts will be sent, pictures will be uploaded
Flags will be waved, kites will be flown
And this is how we celebrate our independence day!
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