Wisdom, they say comes from the young. In an endeavour to harness fresh and different points of views, FUREC, dedicated as it is to nurture enlightened citizenship, decided to enter into a dialogue with the young in the hope that their unfettered sugg-estions/perceptions can show new light to policy makers. To this end, FUREC has launched the Enlightened Youth Essay Contest. The first contest was held in 2004 - 2005. A suggestive acronym, EYE-C is being used to refer to the project.
The contest is held annually at an All Indian level. Indians all over the world can participate. Their participation has to be through their school. Schools are advised not to "select" the best students to participate but to encourage every student to pen their views. Good ideas are not restricted to the articulate or the academically brilliant. As preparation for the contest FUREC sends reading material to the participating schools so that it encourages discussion in the class before they sit down to write. The contest is open to students of class IX and class XI.

»»  Purpose
The purpose of this contest is to make the students think about issues that concern all of us. The first step to bringing about any change comes with creating awareness. The contest is designed to create awareness. It is also a tool to understand the minds of our future generation. The topics of the contest are broad based and relevant to the life of a youngster. Eminent people from different disciplines in addition to educationists and spiritual practitioners select the topic for each year.
FUREC has found that many students come up with very interesting observations and so it is difficult to grade them as first or second. FUREC also believes that in this contest, competition is to be perceived at the level of ideas generated or suggestions made and NOT at the level of individual students or participating schools. So instead of grading students by giving out prizes to some, FUREC compiles the most interesting essays into a volume of the year in the DIALOGUE series.
Another interesting feature of this compilation is that it requests spiritual leaders, thinkers, writers and eminent people from the related fields to respond to the writings of the children with their own views/experiences/ stories. This compilation is released on Enlightened Citizenship Day, the 15th of October, every year.
FUREC announces the new competition on the 15th of October every year. It also announces the result of the previous year's competition on the same day.
FUREC calls out to students, teachers and principals to participate and make this a lively forum for enlightened discussion..

»»  The Topics
A team of eminent educationist and social activists and spiritual leaders select two subjects for two categories of students every year, which necessitate youth participation.
»»  Categories
Category I: Class 11th Students         Category II: Class 9th Students
»»  Guidance to Teachers/Students
To guide teachers' incharge and to encourage discussion among the participants a representative selection of material for discussion is sent to the school. The reference material is not binding in any way.
»»  Participation
Voluntary school children of 9 th and 11 th classes may participate in any one of the above subjects. Other stipulations are:      Language - English      Words - 1200 to 1500Max.      Time - Two hours

»»  Requirement
	Participants must bring out following in their written work:
	»	Their understanding of the subject/theme
	»	Personal experience from their day to day life
	»	Suggest remedial actions, if they wish to
	»	Give author's name if any quotations are given in their text
	»	No standard format is required.

»»  Invigilation

The contest will be conducted under the strict supervision of the school authorities on any date between 01 Apr to 15 July fixed by them and this Foundation informed on telephone or in writing on the above given address. Writing work will done on both side of full size white paper (about 30x20 cms) School authorities are requested to issue the answer sheets (white paper) which will be stamped, numbered and initialed by their supervisory staff.

»»  Assessment of Answersheets and Results

A jury comprising of eminent educationist, social activists and Enlightened Citizen is formed to determine the good written work as also select the deserving entries which could be compiled into a Book. The results will be announced on 15 Oct (Enlightened Citizenship Day) every year and Certificate of Participation issued to all participants and deserving entries duly rewarded.

»»  Whom to Contact

Interested school authorities to contact FUREC Project Office, for details at following address:         Foundation for Unity of Religions         and Enlightened Citizenship           2 Floor, Nehru House,           4, Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg,           New Delhi - 110 002.           Tel.: 011 - 41509070           Fax: 011 - 41509016           Email: info@furec.org           Website: www.furec.org