-By Ekakshra Mahajan & Riddhimma Shrivastava
In order to honour Dr.Mahbub-Ul-Haq the pioneer of human development programmes, the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation and the UNDP organized an Inter school debate every year. This debate has three rounds namely, The Regional Round, the National Round and the SAARC round. The 12th regional round of this debate was held on 6th October 2009 in Carmel Convent School Auditorium, Sector 9, Chandigarh. Topic provided by UNDP as per the Human Development Report this year: "Act Now to Reduce Global Warming- Poor Women have a higher stake?".Over 18 prestigious schools from the region participated.The excitement and anxiety were palpable in the auditorium as each participant took the stage.All the participants were applauded by the judges for their excellent performance The topic “Act now for global warming- poorer women at higher stake” undoubtedly went through a series of parley, discussion and debate. Most prestigious schools from the tricity took part in the debate which included Manav Mangal, DAV15, Sacred heart, Guru Nanak public school, Vivek high school, Mount Carmel, Bhavan Vidhyala, St. kabir, KBDAV, St.johns, St Stephens and Carmel convent were amongst the participants. Arshdeep of Manav Mangal started the discussion with third world countries mentioning how the poor women are extremely affected by Global Warning as they don’t have access to clean drinking water and they have to travel miles everyday. Mount Carmel quoted that we have to be a part of the revolution of resolving global warming and be the change. Sanya ojha of Vivek high school highlighted the irony of the situation where people wearing Armani suits and traveling in chauffeur driven cars complain about global warming but are least affected by global warming. Supporting the motion, she felt that poor women have no means to adapt to this unruly climatic change. Shayar Majumdar of the same school, who spoke like a veteran however felt that global warming and climate change are skateboards which keep on sliding to extreme positions. Aditya Chawla of St. Johns high school felt that the women and their families are barely able to scrape together a meager income to somehow cover expenses. Garima Yadav of Carmel Convent pointed out that women are 14% more likely to die of a disaster as compared to men. ‘It’s time to stop thinking and start acting.’ says Garima.Divir Gupta seemed quite oppressive of President Obama’s quote, ‘No nation however large or small can escape the impact of climate change.’ Chitwan singh of Bhavan Vidyalaya felt that Women must be the heart of relief efforts and rebuilding of shattered communities.
Mrs. Manjeet accompanying Shishu niketan felt that even though the competition level was very high the participants had crammed up their speeches and the "emotional touch was missing". The winners were Dav15' school's Akshay shrredhar who bagged the award for the Best Speaker For the motion category and Dav 15 also won the runners up trophy.
Gurpreet Sodhi of St. Kabir bagged the award for the Best speaker in the against motion category.Sacred Heart school bagged the overall trophy. The participants were elated.
Akshay shreedhar said,"I am very happy that my efforts have paid off." Nonica Singh, Donna Suri and Rene Singh were the judges.Nonica Singh said that content mattered the most and felt that all worked very hard all were good speakers.Ms Donna suri said that this was a great platform for students to work diligently and succeed in life.
