Congratulations to This Year’s Winners!

Our hearty congratulations to this year’s winners and thanks to all who entered the 2022 Youth Essay Competition. We appreciate the careful consideration each participant gave to this project as they assessed the most pressing issues facing India today and we applaud their thoughtful compositions on how best to address these issues. Subjects ranged from health care and education to women’s safety, poverty, sanitation, discrimination, and a great deal more. You can access the essays of competition winners, runners-up, and finalists below.

Winners to attend the Philanthropy Summit in New York
For the first time since its inception, winners of the youth essay competition will be presenting their essays, live and in person, to a room full of business leaders, philanthropists, and nonprofit executives. The gathering will be hosted by Indiaspora, a founding member of the Alliance, and GiveIndia, as part of their annual Philanthropy Summit. It will be held on October 28 at the Indian Consulate in New York City, and will be in person for the first time since the COVID outbreak.

“Honestly, it means everything to me that I've won,” says Esha Gadi, winner in the high school category. “It gives me hope that people really do care about this topic [sexual assault]. It makes me realize that we can truly change as a society together for the better.”

Learning about the key issues facing India today, and doing the research to provide a compelling argument for how best to address these issues, has been a key ingredient to student success and satisfaction. The number one reward students report is learning that their voice can and will be heard and they can truly have an impact.

“I entered this competition in 2021 and I didn’t win, but that didn’t stop me,” said Riya Balaji, winner in the middle school category. “I was determined to do it again but this time with more research, facts, and concrete actions.” The extra effort paid off and Riya is especially excited to donate her $1000 award to the Invisible Girl Project.

About the Youth Essay Competition
The competition was launched in February of 2020 as a vehicle to encourage philanthropic thought and action among American youth with ties to or interest in India. Now in its third year, the competition has brought dedicated and talented youth together with leading philanthropic organizations in what we hope will be a lifelong commitment to advancing development and poverty reduction programs in India. The competition has been sponsored by The Sarva Mangal Family Trust since its inception and was joined by the Iowa-based Sehgal Foundation in 2022.

Each essay was written in response to the following prompt: India is the world’s largest democracy and has made significant progress on social and environmental issues over the past 25 years.  But India and its 1.3 billion people still have many urgent and unmet needs. What do you think is the most significant issue facing India and its people today? What role do you think individuals (young and old) and groups here in the U.S. can play in being a part of the solution?

Winning Essays

Middle School

Winner: Riya Balaji, $1000 award granted to Invisible Girl Project

Runner-up: Yashaswini (Yashi) Bhowmick , $500 award granted to UNICEF USA

Finalist: Ramanathan Venkatesh

To view the announcement and guidelines for the 2022 competition, click here.

To read the press release about the 2022 essay competition, click here.

To read the top essays from the 2021 competition, click here.

To read the top essays from the 2020 competition, click here.

To learn about the development of IPA and its role in advancing collaboration among leading NGOs in India, click here.