Never too young to change the world

By SHAMBHAVI UPADHYAY

RAIPUR: When children her age were into make-believe games, seven-year-old Siya Tayal decided to work for change.
“I grew up in a positive environment where there was never this notion of ‘you will make a change and help others when you are older’. It’s our biggest mistake to make people feel there is an age to do good. In my family, everyone just told me to be good here and now, no matter what the age and that’s how my journey began,” she says.
Now 15, she is an active philanthropist and a young leader who has a bunch of non-profit initiatives such as Bee Nifty, an umbrella organization that she formed when she was 8 years old which provides a livelihood to women in rural Haryana by making recyclable bags. “Women constitute about half of the world’s population and there’s a quote by Greta Thunberg ‘Act like our house is on fire, because it is.’ and it's true in this situation too, women all over the world face difficulties and no opportunity must be left to help them out,” Tayal said.
She has recently been working on an initiative called ‘I am Enough’ which aims to normalize bodies of all types and spread awareness about body shaming and eating disorders in a creative, inclusive manner. “I will tell you about how all this started. I was on a call with my best friend and she just told me about how body shaming was a daily part of her life, of how she wanted to look a certain way and I realized I felt that too and that made me feel none of us are content with the way we look, thanks to unrealistic standards that the society sets for us. That was when I decided, you know what, I am enough, we all are, just the way we are. That’s how this initiative came about. I would like to think I have grown with this project, in a way where I have learned to love myself and it’s an amazing feeling.”
Siya with UN professionals. Photo: TOB

Siya has been working with the UN on diverse projects and campaigns. “I don’t just have one side to me, I feel like I am emotional and at the same time, I can be practical too. While body comfort is more of an everyday topic, climate change is slightly more technical, but I feel for both of them equally, and that’s what helps me take varying initiatives. I have had a fulfilling experience with the UN. I have learned so much and talked to and met so many different people,” she said.
“Everyone has a bit of ‘I want to change the world’ in them. Everybody wants to save someone. I would just want to say that saving that someone is important and very possible and it’s okay if that someone is you,” she concluded.

The story first appeared in The Times of Bennett, the lab newspaper produced by the first semester students of The Times School of Media.

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