Travellers are seeing beyond adventures and soul-searching as the reason for going on trips. They are combining travelling with social causes…
Most people go wanderlusting because there are sights to see, thrills to seek, the soul to search, and taste buds to indulge. However, a number of travellers are now going beyond these and using their voyages for something more meaningful. Responsible travelling and voluntourism is a big thing, what with people travelling to do voluntary work in remote places to help the economy and also bring about a social change. It’s little wonder then, agencies curating responsible travels are on a rise.
WHY THEY DO IT
Instead of being armchair activists, travellers want to use their trips to bring about a change. For instance, Srishti Bakshi, founder of the CrossBow movement, has embarked on a modern-day Dandi March as a fight against gender bias and to create awareness about women’s safety. She started a 3,800 km walk from Kanyakumari to Jammu & Kashmir, holding interactive and activity-based workshops after being rattled by the gangrape of a teenager and her mother in Bulandshahr, Uttar Pradesh, in 2016. Srishti decided to do something about it instead of quietly accepting it as a common thing in India. “We are a nation that walks. When you say a girl is walking from Kanyakumari to Kashmir talking about women’s safety, there’s an immediate connect,” she says.
Odisha’s Satabdi Mishra and Akshay Routray have been driving across India with their mobile bookstore and library Walking Bookfairs to make books accessible to everyone, no matter what their backgrounds. “We strongly believe that books are a powerful tool of social change. So, we have farmers, housewives, working class people, and students come and read or buy books at a discount,” Satabdi tells us.
There’s also television actor Kunal Bhatia (Jodha Akbar, Sajan Ghar Jaana Hai, and Aarambh) and wife Gul of the NGO Mango People, who have been travelling for the past year, teaching construction of geodesic domes to support sustainable living in farm communities, educational societies and to individuals. “Sustainability in places with limited resources is a great cause to talk about and it’s like taking the power in your own hands,” says Kunal, who conducts workshops on how to make portable houses using earthen materials such as bamboos, cow dung, cobs, etc. so the locals can harness the energy, conserve water, and grow food around their place.
IT KEEPS THEM GOING
While Satabdi and Akshay customised a van into a travelling bookstore and free library with book shelves and drive from their hometown Koraput across India because they love books so much, it’s the love for travelling that keeps Nashik residents Kunal and Gul going. Kunal has now travelled to Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Hyderabad, Goa, and Bihar. “In Bihar, we helped in putting up a free school in this small village called Sitamarhi where there are no schools at all,” he informs.
The NGO also gives volunteers a chance to learn a new skill while giving a means of earning to local labourers. “When people take the responsibility of becoming a social change maker, it’s important to keep your passion alive for it. So, if someone can marry their passion with what they want to do, travel as a medium to do something for the social good will be top of the charts,” says the Hong Kong-based marketer and strategist, Srishthi.
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