Mallika D Cunha a fifteen-year-old Goan girl’s written creative work will be evaluated by the former French President Nicholas Sarkozy. This honour has been extended to her as her essay on rape was shortlisted by the Youth Political Essay Competition team.
A student at the prestigious Cathedral and John Cannon School, D Cunha was nominated by her school to write an essay. She followed her routine of thinking about her points, writing a rough copy and then preparing a final copy. She said,” I took me two hours to write it and it was a pleasant surprise when I learned that my copy had been shortlisted for the finals.” An aspiring lawyer who intends to practice family law she said even people her generation who were in their teens were very concerned with the spate in rapes. She said “The Nirbhaya rape case shook everyone and I was shocked by the brutality of the incident”.
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The competition is organized by the Youth Politics Club at Ecole Jeanine Manuel, Paris and is dedicated in promoting student involvement in politics and increasing civic awareness and action. The goal of the club is to promote student voices in politics and ensures the voices of all students are heard equally.
In her essay she pointed out the female gender were considered inferior in the country since time immemorial. The eldest male in the family took over as head of the family and women meant to stay at home and tend to the cleaning, look after the children and ensure that everyone was happy, while the men had to go to work and earn a living for his family. Slowly this led to girls not being educated because at the end of the day there was no requirement for women having to pursue a career but instead be ‘Home-makers’.
In a bit of very cogent thinking she pointed out in her essay that women get raped not because men want sexual pleasure but because they want to humiliate women or make fun of them. They consider themselves superior to women and wish to prove that women are inferior to them and they do so by taking away their right to safety and hurt them. In this case, it is not the girl’s fault but merely a family members fault. It could also be jealousy, for example a person in the family gets promoted or gets an advantage
Now that she has been shortlisted D Cunha will now have to find an in-depth solution to the social issue discussed in her first essay. The piece she will send will be evaluated by former President of France, Nicolas Sarkozy, President of the non-profit organisation “Innocence en Danger”, Homayra Sellier, critically acclaimed journalist Christine Ockrent, and Dr David Schulman an economics professor.
She and the other finalists will have to prepare an 8-10 minute presentation elaborating on how to solve the social issue they chose to address. This will be held by a Zoom online meeting and following the students’ detailed presentation, there will be a 12-15 min Q&A session. The oral presentation will be assessed on the precision and clarity of their solutions as well as practicality of the implementation.
The winner will, first and foremost, gain acclaim in all the schools participating. Secondly, they will be able to gain the prestigious title of Youth Social Advocate, that comes in the form of an official certificate. Finally, the three winners of the essay competition will gain access to a fund to efficiently launch their organization or association in order to implement the theoretical solutions they have developed and established in their essays as the goal of this initiative is promoting social innovation amongst students from across the globe. The first-place winner will receive a grant of 1000€, whilst the first runner up will receive a prize of 500€ and the second runner up will be awarded 250€.
The topic chosen by the young Goan is not just important but critical to a country which is still coming to terms with the brutality faced by the Hathras victim.
