City-based Devyani Pawar, a young, dynamic leader and entrepreneur, will represent rural voices at the coveted ‘Global Shapers Annual Summit, hosted by the prestigious World Economic Forum (WEF) at its headquarters. Pawar, the elected curator of the Baramati Hub of the ‘Global Shapers Community, formed in 2020, has been invited by the WEF to attend the Summit for young leaders under 30, to be held in Geneva in Switzerland from September 2-4. Under Devyani Pawar’s curatorship, the Baramati Hub, the first to have an organizational structure in a rural area, has done formidable work and undertaken over 20 initiatives to transform rural lives. The invite to Pawar’s is a recognition of the work done by her Hub. The area of their work is aligned with five sustainable development goals – good health and well-being, clean water and sanitation, sustainable cities and communities, climate action and life on land.
“I would proudly represent the rural voices in the forum for under 30 youth leaders, which is a huge opportunity for me. I will be narrating my experiences, which I have had while working with rural folks, and hence I am looking forward to participating,” says Pawar. “For me, it is a proud moment to achieve and create an impact for my community by making it inclusive, progressive and development-driven by involving the rural youth, local governance and private entities together. I feel this is how India and its youth will progress and break barriers,” adds Pawar.
Through the Summit, Pawar will be able to collaborate with over 600 global shapers and build relationships for future collaborations. For Pawar, the views shared by WEF founder Klaus Schwab and Natalie Pierce, head of the Global Shapers Community, will also be instrumental in her future journey. Among the notable initiatives taken by the Baramati Hub is the distribution of sanitary pads and a native tree plantation drive, both with the support of the local administration bodies. They first undertook sanitary pads distribution drive in slums, villages and rural areas, wherein they distributed 4000+ pads impacting over 1500 women of 12-40 years, from September 2020 and since have continued it.
Besides planting native trees, they planted 900 seed balls on drought-affected forest land, which led to the generation of more oxygen in the area. The Hub has also worked in areas like mental health, solid waste management, climate change and biodiversity preservation.