Guidelines - Please Read Before Submitting

We want to hear and amplify stories in local languages from the youth across India, which address environmental issues, concerns, alternatives, solutions, actions, and thoughts.  We focus on gathering these narratives in regional languages to amplify the voices that are marginalized, silenced and typically  go unheard.

 

What can your story be about?

You can make use of prompts from a single category, multiple categories or none of them. In the case that your story does not fit into any of these categories, please make sure that there exists some connection between your story and the environment.

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• Climate Change (What does climate change look like for you and your community and how has it affected the community?)

• Local Knowledge and Environmental History (Environmental movements in India or in your community; community traditions, art forms and practices that have helped solve environmental problems; indigenous or traditional knowledge of flora and fauna etc.)

• Neighborhood Stories (Environmental issue in your locality and the impacts. You can talk to people around you, interview them and tell us what environment means for them)

• Alternatives and Solutions (Your own solutions regarding environmental issues or those being done by people around you. Ways in which people in your neighborhood have tackled environmental issues)

• Policies and Advocacy (Has the government (national or local) introduced policies that have had a good/adverse impact on the environment and hence your community? Do you have any suggestions or criticisms? Have you done anything about them?)

• Activism (Have you or anyone you know been involved in environmental activism? What was the issue you/they addressed? You can write about any insights or suggestions)

• Economy and Livelihoods (Find out whether the economic activities of people around have changed because of changes in their environment or vice-versa. Have any novel solutions to environmental issues created new economic opportunities for your people?)

• Agriculture (Agriculture is directly dependent on environmental conditions and changes. You can write about the impact of agricultural policies on the environment and on long-term farming. You can write about how changes in agricultural practices have been affecting the environment and how you think these problems can be addressed. Can you think of ways in which agriculture can be made more sustainable and healthy?)

• Eco-Discourses (Do you have any academic, philosophic or spiritual thoughts and ideas about the environment? You could propose new definitions of terms, discuss theories and trends, talk about something that is bothering you or just express yourself and nature through a creative piece)

 

 

Creative permissions 

• You can use any and all forms of creative writing/expressions that you are familiar with. 

• ‘Story’ is a broad, all encompassing term and includes: different forms of verbal, auditory and visual content such as short stories, poetry, illustrations, videos, audios, comics, podcasts and digital art.

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Guidelines for video/audio submissions (Accepted in all languages):

• Audio: sound should be clear and all dialogue should be audible. Try to shoot videos in quiet places if possible.

• Duration, Editing and Subtitles: 4-8 minutes is ideal. Submit both the video and a transcript if you can (if you can send an English version of the transcript, even better). The final product will be run by you before we put it up on our website in case you have any issues or objections to how your footage was edited.

• Filming: Please film the video VERTICALLY. Hold the camera/mobile phone as still as possible and try not to move the camera too fast to avoid jerky and blurry footage. Make sure the video subject is in the center of the frame. Try to film in the area to which the video refers to.

• Consent: You are responsible to ensure that any and all people that feature in the videos (other than bystanders/ background people in group shots) are fully aware that the content will be put up on our website and will be made publicly available. 

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Authenticity

• All work must be your own and original. 

• If you include facts or excerpts from elsewhere, please ensure to send the source link/name. Eg: “air pollution is rising”. Source: https://www.who.int/health-topics/air-pollution. We hope to receive only original and authentic stories and have a zero tolerance policy towards plagiarism. 

 

Proofreading

• Please do a spelling and grammar check before submitting. 

• Our language editors are also passionate youth who are volunteering and if you edit such errors, it will be much easier for them to compile all the stories. Please help us to respect your and their time. 

 

Publishing

• We will proofread your story without adding our own opinion. 

• We reserve the right to decide whether we will publish your story or not and will send you feedback after editing.

 

DISCLAIMER:

1. The content is solely the author’s opinion and does not reflect Yugma Network’s views. If there seems to be inadequate credit for information, please let us know at yugmanetwork@gmail.com. For further copyright details check our Terms and Conditions HERE. 

2. Yugma maintains the right to edit and publish the submitted contents in accordance with our guidelines.