Human Rights Day - What the TISB Community is Doing

Every year on the 10 December, it is Human Rights Day. It is a day that is observed every year to commemorate the day in 1948 that the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Translated into more than 500 languages, the declaration is the most translated document in the world. The UDHR is a milestone in political achievement that manifests the unchallengeable rights which everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.

Unmistakably this year’s Human Rights Day theme is related to the COVID-19 pandemic that has scarred the whole world. Beyond the obvious presence of the virus in everyone's lives, the United Nations have chosen the theme because of how the situation has been worsened by the prevalence and increase of poverty, inequalities, structural and deep-rooted discrimination and other gaps in human rights protection. "Only measures to close these gaps and advance human rights can ensure we fully recover and build back a world that is better, more resilient, just, and sustainable” (UN). 

To recover from the global pandemic, the UN stress the importance to tackle discrimination and inequalities, and to promote and protect economic, social, and cultural rights. This needs to be a collective effort of global solidarity, bringing together everyone, from individuals to governments, civil society and grass-roots communities, all the way to the private sector – ensuring that the voices of the most affected and vulnerable are taken into account in the recovery efforts. The key objectives put forward by the UN for this year’s Human Rights Day are to promote and to educate, showing how to build back better by placing Human Rights at the centre and to highlight success stories from communities.

During the pandemic the TISB community has been very active in doing research, as well as alleviating the negative effects of COVID-19 on people’s welfare and wellbeing. Here are a few examples of what has been going on within the TISB community.

Ayush from Grade 11, has developed a system for making a near to real-time estimate of impacts of sudden economic shocks, such as COVID-19. As part of the YASHK competition hosted by the Hong Kong Young Academy of Sciences, Ayush’s method used satellite imagery of the earth at night and electric usage data from Wuhan, to estimate the impacts of the lockdown in January, 2020. The method has the potential to help researchers to get GDP estimates much before the official reports are released, and in this way help governments make more proactive decisions to mitigate economic shocks.

Taking about six months to complete, TISB Grade 10 student, Shubh, carried out research using census demographics as well as interviews to find out how the pandemic has affected education of less privileged school children. The report published on IIM Bangalore concludes that the pandemic and closure of physical schools has widened the inequalities to access education significantly, as only about 20% of families with children in India have access to internet (and only 15% in rural areas), and only about 11% have access to a computer. Many students across India also relies on schools to provide them with the Mid Day Meal scheme, which is now hampered and may lead to significant negative impact on their growth and development. Moreover, it also means that socially and economically vulnerable households will need to spend more money on food, causing further economic distress. Furthermore, due to the closure of schools and social distancing, many students miss their friends and feel isolated, lonely and depressed. 

To combat depression due to feelings of isolation and loneliness, as well as keeping fit while being limited to one’s home during the lockdown, inspired Grade 11 students, Rohan and Akash, to start up the Covid Fit Club; which is an online fitness centre with classes for students around India. Rohan and Akash’s team has grown from being just the two of them doing exercise classes from their homes, to include 43 team members: 15 instructors as well as 28 members on the business team – many of whom are students at TISB. Over 100 clients in the ages of 5-15 take classes after school and on the weekend. All the proceeds from the Covid Fit Club are donated to charities involved in combating COVID-19 and ease negative impact on people’s lives.

Similarly, TISB Grade 10 student, Vedanth, created a handbook, 'The Fitness Handbook For Children: A Step-by-Step Guide For Fitness At Home', for children to do simple fitness exercises at home without any equipment. The handbook was translated into 3 languages (English, Kannada and Telugu); and was distributed with the support of various NGOs in Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. 

Krish from Grade 9 and his team, have come up with an initiative called ‘Digi-Ed’ that aims at collecting used phones and after this help students adjust to the new online learning environment, as well as providing supplemental classes to underprivileged Government school children as and when needed.

TISB student-led Covid-Relief CodeFest, arranged by Arjun and Raghav from Grade 11, held a fun-filled 2.5 hour hackathon and taking part in other sessions and competitions to show off their coding skills. All the proceeds from registration fees were donated to charities helping people affected by the pandemic and the subsequent negative social and economic outcomes.

‘Ration Square’ is a student-run initiative that aims at supplying ration kits to the most needy during the current pandemic. One of the initiators is TISB Grade 12 student, Medha, who realised how priviledged she and her family are, and took this opportunity and thought this was my way to give back to the community in a way that helps those in need. The initiative have collected Rs 5,12,500 and distributed 10,100 kg in rations to date.

In March, TISB distributed Rs 3 lakhs to the organisation Maha Bodhi Society, who have handed out 575 food relief kits to migrant workers and their families from North-Eastern India; a community who were extra hard hit as they were locked down in Bangalore, often completely without any income and far from their family homes. The TISB staff also had their own drive and collected over Rs 1,5 lakh and delivered 150 food bags that each lasts a family of three for two weeks.

In school this term, TISB’s Primary Years Grade 3 students have been learning about and exploring the Human Rights in their lessons; delving in to what the Human Rights are, what responsibilities come with the rights, and how activists and NGOs are working with the Human Rights. As a result, the students have produced a 10-episode long podcast series as part of the PY Multicultural event that marks the end of term 1 under the banner “Tune in, tune out”. The podcasts can be found on Soundcloud.

Although 2020 has been a year filled with uncertainty and sorrow that most people would like to forget and leave behind them, it has also shown a great community spirit and drive to help our fellow human beings. In line with the 2020’s theme for the Human Rights Day ‘Recover Better – Stand up for Human Rights’, we must see it as an opportunity to reaffirm the importance of the Human Rights in re-building the world as we want it – focusing on our interconnectedness and global solidarity.