Today we’d like to introduce you to Parth Bhatt, a story of a young man all the way from Uttarakhand, India.
Hi Parth, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I’m a high school student from Nainital, Uttarakhand and a young changemaker. I’m an Indian by birth and a global citizen by heart & choice. My father is a serving officer in Indian Army, and my mother is in Army Wives Welfare Association. I have spent life in more than 15 cities and been to more than ten schools including Army Public School(APS), Noida, APS Jodhpur, APS Leh, & APS Ranchi. I’ve been highly active & knowledge-seeking ever since my childhood, which resulted in me being highly involved in co-curricular activities & experimenting new things. As a child I realized, I need to take part in activities aiming to make this world a better place to live. I didn’t want to be one of those who focus only on mundane academic syllabus. I’ve completed over 545 courses by various United Nations Institutes, United States Institute of Peace(USIP), Ivy League Universities and Peace Operations Training Institute, USA(POTI). Ever since my toddler days, I’ve been extremely curious, and I have the zeal to learn more. So, to endorse my zeal and curiosity, I participated in everything since the onset of my academic life, I didn’t care whether it was a debate competition or a fancy-dress competition, I participated in everything in all the 15 schools I’ve been an alumnus of. Starting at the age of nine, I engaged with many NGOs including Smile Foundation, Child Rights and You(CRY).
One day in 2016, when I was 12 years old, there was an announcement in the morning assembly regarding a Model United Nations Conference, and our school wanted to send a delegation, I didn’t have any idea what a MUN was, but to fulfill my curiosity, I gave my name for the school delegation, I really liked the exposure so much, that I participated in more MUNs organized at different places, as I was in small city that time and there weren’t much opportunities there, so I had to travel to different places. In 2017, when I was 13 years old, I was conferred with the AWWA Award of Excellence by wife of Chief of Army Staff of Indian Army for my works in field of Science & Technology and Community Upliftment through Sustainable Development. This award was presented to me for a number of activities by me starting with the use of Solar Energy for efficient power management in Army Units for both operational & peacetime use. This initiative was helpful in providing clean energy and saving environment. I also developed solar power solutions for Command Post vehicles of Army Units, saving other energy sources and improving its operational efficiency. Furthermore, I was involved in utilization of waste material for developing parks and green areas in deserts. I received Appreciation Letters from Generals and senior officers of the Indian Armed Forces for this. Also, I started Chairing MUNs and at the same time, I founded my own international MUN, with the name of Pacem International MUN, which was organized in support of HeForShe campaign of United Nations Women, it was the first conference of its’ kind that the city witnessed. My main motive was to provide good exposure to students which wasn’t available in the city prior to my conference. Then, after that, when I turned 14, I left MUNs after I did about more than 65 MUNs and started attending diplomatic conferences with Ambassadors.
As I told you earlier, I’m a very curious person who just loves to explore more and more, so I didn’t want to confine myself to MUNs only. After trying a lot, I finally made my place in an Ambassador Series Conference in Embassy of the Republic of Korea, it was very tough as I wasn’t meeting a single eligibility criteria, be it minimum age criteria or any, but exceptions were created for me seeing my skills, my knowledge, & my experience and I was allowed to be a part of the meeting. I was very nervous that day, I reached the embassy 9 minutes late, thanks to Delhi traffic. I entered the embassy and sat in the last row. Everyone was giving an introduction one by one, I was at the last, I began by saying “I’m Parth”, then I said, “I’m a high school student from Army Public School, Noida”, each and every single person in the room turned behind and looked at me, it was quite an amazing feeling, after some presentations, it was an interaction session, it was quite fruitful. To be really honest, Korean Diplomats are one of the best people I’ve ever met. My performance was very good in my first-ever diplomatic meeting, therefore I was invited to more meetings of even higher statute after that. I attended another event with Chinese Vice Foreign Minister, and after that, I received an invitation to attend climate action dialogue with Deputy Secretary-General of United Nations. Following this, I attended hundreds of international conferences, meetings & dialogues with Presidents, PMs, UN Diplomats, Ambassadors, Generals, & Ministers from countries all around the world. I have been awarded Appreciation Letters by many senior diplomats for the same.
After some time, I developed an image so good and warm relations with many diplomats that I was able to take some friends of mine in a few meetings with me, Business Mission of European Innovators and Technocrats to India and Climate Action Summit with United Nations Deputy Secretary General, to name a few. My motive for the same was to provide them the exposure and experience which one rarely gets. Moreover, I’ve been motivating Indian youth for mitigation of Climate Change and have organized many rallies. We met various Civil administration officials and proposed complete plans for climate action. I have been spreading awareness on this important issue through seminars, group discussions & media interactions. Simultaneously, I became an alumnus of UN Climate Change Learn in Switzerland. Since then, I’ve completed more than 545 courses by various UN Institutes, USIP, Ivy League Universities, POTI USA, etc. on subjects including but not limited to Peacekeeping, Sustainable Development, Human Rights, Women Rights, Health, Good Governance & Administration, International Law, etc. I’ve been awarded Appreciation Letters by various UN Diplomats including Chairperson of Youth Council of UNESCO and my skills were endorsed by UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy and I was presented an Appreciation Letter by him recently. Also, I was awarded 150 Medals and Badges by various UN Bodies and Peace Operations Training Institute for excellent performance in these courses. In 2019, at the age of 15, I completed Specialized Training in Military Studies from USA.
For my brilliant performance, I was awarded Appreciation Letter by Commander(Dr.) Harvey Langholtz of American Armed Forces, Former Commanding Officer of US Coast Guard Institute. 2020 is by far one of the best years of my life. In January, I had multiple bilateral meetings and met over 150 Presidents, Prime Ministers, Ambassadors, Diplomats, Director General of UNESCO, Chief of Defence Staff & Chief of Army Staff of India, many foreign generals, HE Hamid Karzai(President of Afghanistan, 2001-2014), and Ministers from all around the globe. In these meetings, we discussed on a wide variety of topics like Sustainable Development, creating opportunities for youth at international level, integration of Artificial Intelligent & education, geostrategy, peace & security, etc… In February 2020, during Asia-Africa Conference on Sustainable Development, I was a part of a team which worked on solutions for making quality education more accessible. My team members were senior diplomats from Israel & Indonesia. I see this pandemic as an opportunity, I believe that a hill is always an opportunity to leave your competition behind.
During the time of the pandemic, I engaged in many events including international conferences & conversations with Foreign Minister of Armenia (During Armenia-Azerbaijan war), HE Antonio Guterres (UN Secretary General), HE Ashraf Ghani (President of Afghanistan), Several other Heads of States, Director Generals of WHO, many UN Under Secretary-Generals & Assistant Secretary-Generals, Ambassadors, policymakers and Ministers from various nations, etc. Amidst the lockdown, I conducted multiple sessions and served as speaker in many fests, conclaves, and events. Some of the topics on which I spoke on were Indo-China Conflict, National Education Policy, Sustainable Development, Geopolitics & Geostrategy, Mental Health, etc. Also, I served in V-Force, an initiative of UN Volunteers India, four campaigns during the lockdown period. In 2021, I was invited for Regional Consultation on Forest Education by Food and Agricultural Organization of the U.N. And Dainik Jagran, India’s largest newspaper and world’s largest Hindi newspaper, published an article on me. I was part of conversation with HE Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, Prime Minister of Macedonia, and President of European Council a few days ago. Moreover, UN System Staff College selected me to undertake a course with UN staff from UN Headquarters New York, country teams and government representatives.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Very bluntly speaking, it wasn’t a smooth road at all! One of the biggest struggles along my way was being alone and lonely. While kids of my age are partying at clubs and binge-watching Netflix, I’m having conferences with presidents and ambassadors. Due to this all, I’ve always felt left out of my own age group and I don’t have any friends, I spend most of my time alone and it affects my mental health greatly. But again, had I walked the common path, I wouldn’t be giving this interview to you here and telling my story to the world. Other big challenges I face are ageism and lack of opportunities. Ageism translates to discrimination on the basis of age, and I’ve experienced that a lot!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I define myself as a ‘young changemaker’. Most of my work revolves around the youth and the policymakers. I’ve worked at all levels, whether it is a meeting with world leaders and UN senior leadership or implementing projects at grassroot level and working with the youth, I’ve had the privilege to experience it all. Most of my work is on Sustainable Development and I’ve tremendous interest in International Relations, Diplomacy, United Nations, Military Studies, Aviation, Science & Technology, Astronomy, and Psychology. I’m generally known for my outspokenness, professionalism, maturity, knowledge, and what I consider most important of all, my good nature. What sets me apart from others is my will to do what isn’t done earlier, take the path not taken and leave trails for others rather than following the common path. Moreover, I’m pragmatic and don’t follow any trend like most of the teens of my age just for the sake of looking cool in their Instagram feed.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
I feel that sustainable development is the need of the hour and we are way past the time to think, it’s the time to act now, or else the situations will get dramatically worse. The coronavirus pandemic showed the world the grave need to adopt a more sustainable path of development. In fact, renewable energy was one of the best performing and most resilient sectors in the global pandemic. Talking about diplomacy, most probably the focus of bilateral & multilateral relations between countries will bend towards economics and trade, and the same will be the base of relations amongst many nations. Coming to geostrategy, the future doesn’t belong to the wars fought by armies but to economic, social, and psychological warfare. We have already seen the Saudi-Russian economic war in 2020 affecting the global crude oil trade.
Contact Info:
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/parth._.bhatt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/parth.bhatt.79462815
- Twitter: https://mobile.twitter.com/genius_parth
- Youtube: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCjY2x1V-jrur5FeHjDPRoQg
