January Activity-Citizen Engagement

1. To understand one of the ways to address government authorities at national level.
2. To recognize the importance of civic engagement and communication with government authorities.

Communication, Advocacy

Problem solving, Civic engagement

Notebooks and pens

1. Teacher begins - “In today’s activity we write a letter to government authorities at national level like Prime Minister or to minister looking into respective department and share about the issues identified at national level and its possible actions/solutions we can take to solve it.”
2. Students will write the letter individually or in pairs/groups. (Teacher can decide, giving opportunity for individual creative expression will be good)
3. In the letter cover the following -
   • Highlighting the national issues, reasons and challenges.
   • Suggest solutions to solve them, what local actions you will take & how will the solutions help/contribute to solve the issue.
   • Letter format for reference is given in Annexure 1. Tell students to report facts in letter, keep the language simple and specific.
4. Give 20-25 minutes to write the letter.
5. Office Bearers will put the student’s letters on Desh Apnayen Wall on rotation/voluntary basis.

Note – Teacher can post/submit the letter to government authorities at national level along with student representative. Example about addressing letter to PM is given in Annexure 2 for reference. (Optional)

NOTE - If time permits, teacher can give Office Bearer opportunity to do conclude this activity as mentioned below. Incase if time is short, invite the office bearer to ask the students – What did they learn from the activity?

Office Bearer will invite few students to read out their letters to government authorities at national level and share their experience.

Teacher will again summarize the key points for recap

• One of the important key to democracy is citizen-government collaboration
• Letters to any level of government to raise concerns make a difference, and we should be alert about issues around us and report them. Local actions can lead to national level change

For this activity, the following can be updated by office bearers on the wall.

• Letter written by students (Voluntary response, or rotation basis as feasible.)
• Encourage students to write their experience on available paper

• Ask students to not focus on decorating the letter but the content. Keep it simple and fact based.

For activity photos (2-3) to be shared to engagement officers, please share clear pictures of

• Students Creating Letters (2 photos)
• Office Bearer Concluding the session (2 photos)
• Desh Apnayen Wall (2 photos)

https://bit.ly/GG-G9-ActivityReport-CitizenEngagement

https://bit.ly/GG-G9-ReflectionSheet-CitizenEngagement

Annexure 1 – Letter Template (Reference)

​​Annexure 2 – Letter to PM (Follow Up - optional)​ 

(Source: https://www.pmindia.gov.in/en/frequently-asked-questions-faq-2/#:~:text=Ans%3A,Write%20to%20the%20Prime%20Minister.)