Tribal Oriya girl rubs shoulders with high and mighty at G-8

L'Aquila (Italy), Jul 10 (PTI) A 16-year-old tribal girl
from India' eastern state of Orissa, who had to "struggle" to
convince her family to let her go to school, was among 14
youngsters who met top world leaders at the G-8 Summit to
appeal to them to tackle climate change and ensure quality
education for children.

Sanjukta Pangi, from remote Karanjaguda village in
Koraput district joined two other Indians -- Narendra Kumar
(14) from Uttar Pradesh and Samuel Venkatesan (17) from Tamil
Nadu -- at the UNICEF Junior 8 (J8) youth summit, held
parallel to the G8 meet here.

But it was Sanjukta, the class XII student of a
government school, who was selected by her peers -- 54 young
delegates in the age group of 14 to 17 -- to be among the 14
youngsters who met the leaders, including Indian Prime
Minister Manmohan Singh, and presented their recommendations.

They told the top world leaders that they want
high-quality education for all children and coordinated action
to combat climate change.

"If I could ask the world's leaders to prioritise one
thing to help children, it would be education. If I hadn't
convinced my father to let me continue going to school I would
not have been at the J8," Sanjukta said.

Young people from India, Canada, France, Germany, Italy,
Japan, Russia, Britain, the US, Brazil, China, Egypt, Mexico
and South Africa attended the J8 meet.

A UNICEF communique earlier quoted Sanjukta as saying
that "my parents wanted to keep me at home to look after my
brothers and sisters. I had to struggle very much to convince
my father."

When a girl in her village died of an overdose of
medicine because neither she nor her parents could read,
Sanjukta convinced her father of the importance of letting her
continue her education, it said.

"I want to request the G8 leaders to follow the
recommendations that we put before them without hesitation,"
Sanjukta said.

Both Narendra and Venkatesan also identified education as
the most pressing need for India's young people.

"The children in my village are not able to progress as
far as they could because of a lack of quality education,”
Narendra said. "Parents and children must get involved and
make sure that poor kids can access quality schooling." PTI
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