Prasanth Jagannathan

Meet Prasanth, a young man from India graduated in master of social work. He is an ambitious and passionate leader with a humble character and a powerful will to serve both youth and adults, including homeless, emancipated youth, and special-needs groups. He is a people person who has the characteristic that naturally attracts, recruits, and brings people together under a single slogan. Aided by a curious mind, he is a rapid learner and can develop community relationships with ease. His sense of justice and eye for the smallest detail is praiseworthy. He has been actively participating in environmental justice struggles, including the restoration of wetlands in Chennai, promoting climate-resilient and natural farming methods, strengthening institutions of local self-governance for healing landscapes, and maintaining ecological integrity.

Prasanth is an able campaigner, capable of working independently and in teams. He has successfully organized many awareness programs as Eco – Restoration of Water Bodies with Makkal Paadhai, Organized Organic Farmers Market at Agathi, Tambaram and Chennai. He initiated and conducted workshops and environmental politics, which had participation from college students and youth with NAPM (National Alliance of People’s Movement). He was also instrumental in mobilizing youths for creating a city-based youth group called Chennai Climate Action Group. As an amateur filmmaker, he has spent the last six months researching and filming community narratives, traditions, and rituals linking people, identities, and livelihoods to the Poromboke commons. His work on Poromboke commons and cultures highlights the importance of open, unbuilt lands – open earth economies – as opposed to the dominant paved earth economy that hinges on replacing unbuilt infrastructures of survival (the commons) with private built spaces. He is also passionate to explore more about sea level rise, wetlands and coastal erosion along with coastal commons.

Young people like Prasanth, who possess a strong spirit and are willing to devote their lives to the cause of the environmental justice movement, are highly demanded in the field. Many such young people like him are unable to participate as they get stuck into the retrace to support their families. His main goal is to develop a platform for youth that will provide advice and assistance in helping them seek out options for sustainable full-time engagement with activism and allow building solidarity networks with other similar youth groups. Using this grant, he wants to travel, undertake training, interact with other experienced persons and community leaders to explore models to sustain activism, and develop campaigning, advocacy, filmmaking, language, and communication skills. Besides that, he wants to learn more about emerging technologies.