Caritas India aims at promoting peace and harmony in the society at this crucial hour where incidents of communal strife is witnessed in the country. Samvaad, a peace building and reconciliation program was rolled out in the seven district of western Uttar Pradesh by Caritas India to bridge the gap in the communities. Through Samvaad Program, Caritas India aims to educate the community and make them conscious and concerned about peace for social justice, equality, dignity, cooperation, and self-reliance. It is a long-collaborative process that involves changes in attitudes, behaviours, and norms. The act of peace building asks for the unity, harmony and support from all folks who may be the beneficiaries.

Last week the entire country observed the festival of Eid al-Adha and not a single incident of communal violence was reported. Prior to Eid, Caritas India partner -Meerut Seva samaj called a meeting of all stakeholders including the interfaith leaders and Peace cadres in Saharanpur to encourage the communities and interfaith leaders to talk on communal harmony, peace and reconciliation. The purpose of this meeting was to sensitize and mobilize different ethnic groups to live in harmony and express their coherence with each other while they celebrate the festival of Eid. Stakeholders from different agencies, and institutions including interfaith leaders from different religious backgrounds came together at one platform with one voice to speak the language of love and respect. They committed that they would promote peace in their respective places and would ensure stability among different faiths when they rejoice & honour God, who is the only creator of the entire mankind. The area witnessed the peaceful celebration of the festival where everyone greeted each other, and no single news of strife was recorded. This initiative taken by the Saharanpur Samvaad team was applaudable for focusing on the preventive measures to sensitize the community prior to any social and cultural event.

Besides the stakeholder meeting, school children of JK Inter college Muzaffarnagar also sensitized the communities and masses by coming out on the streets to promote the message of peace and equality. These children did the peace march in their area sharing the slogans with meaningful messages to indicate how harmony and peace can take away the conflicts from our midst and how peacefully we can live together. This peace march was attended by the School Management, other organizations and their key influencers who joined hands with Caritas India through Samvaad Program to dialogue for peace in their society.