During this pandemic, lifestyle for children across the world drastically changed. They are now confined to the four walls of their homes with various restrictions and are compelled to follow the new normal. Several experts dealing with children psychology have raised serious concerns over the expected negative impacts of the new restrictive lifestyle on them.
Being worried about such concerns, Ruhail Choudhury, a corporate lawyer and social activist of the city, who also specialises in Child Rights from Harvard University, and has been involved with various social activities particularly relating to the welfare of children for more than a decade, wanted to create a digital platform for children across the globe to share their talent, creativity, and also engage in constructive communication and various developmental activities.
The digital platform provides news and articles related to education, health and community development exercises involving school students. The website also aims at building friendship among children of various nations and thereby ensures international peace and friendship in future. To facilitate such objectives, it also recognises icons from all over the world, who have not only championed means of attaining global peace but have also contributed to the betterment of society.
The website recently held ‘The Dr Radhakrishnan Award 2020’, which saw the legends in an educational fraternity like L.W Hartnett, Gunmeet Bindra, John Andrew Bagul, Sunita Sen and Joeeta Basu, been recognised for their outstanding contribution to the field of education.
Another illustrious feather added to the young sturdy cap is the event that recognised influencers of global peace. The website, which was born during the pandemic in the month of July 2020, managed to get global icons of peace in the form of Danish ambassador to India Freddy Svane, Tanmoy Chakrabarty — CGO, Tata Sons from Delhi, Senior Supreme Court of India advocate Anoop Bose from Delhi, The Rwanda ambassador, Earnest Rwamucyo from Rwanda, Africa, philanthropist Nayan Patel from London, UK, James Strock, eminent lawyer and writer from California, USA and acclaimed journalist and the former sheriff of Kolkatta, Utpal Chatterjee.
The Voices Online core team includes Deborshi Barat, a scholar and faculty of Legal studies; Kanak Gupta, education entrepreneur; Malay Mukherjee, IT expert; Tathagata Chowdhury, eminent actor and director; Pinaki Addy, senior Supreme Court advocate; Jayeeta Ganguly, renowned writer; Kirti Asopa Choudhury, lawyer; Aamar Zaki, lawyer and social activist; Poulami Chakraborty, well-known journalist; Shinjan Mitra, filmmaker; Adrija Jana, student coordinator, and Karan Asopa, MBA student.
The website gained popularity among children in just a few months and has more than 50,000 readers across the world, for more details visit: www.thevoicesonline.com.
Most of the schools and colleges have their own magazines and many students have their selective group of friends with whom they often share information and chat in different formats. Despite the existence of several contemporary communication channels, social media and mobile applications like WhatsApp, Facebook or Instagram have gained immense popularity all over the world, and that too across ages, primarily due to its free global existence and ease of communication.
There is no doubt about the fact that online communication will continue to significantly dominate our lifestyle in days to come and there will be several new online platforms for communication that will emerge from time to time, mentioned Ruhail Choudhury.
