KOCHI: Nobel Peace Prize recipient and children's rights activist Kailash Satyarthi staunchly believed the power of youth is the common wealth for the entire world. With a myriad of TEDx talks on youth culture, it goes without saying that individuals between 15 and 25 years have extraordinary power to trigger a chain reaction and change the world. Twenty-four-year-old Malayali Anto Philip knew that he had to harness this infectious energy and resoluteness. In 2014, along with Shreyans Jain, he founded the ‘Under 25 Club’, which is considered to be India's largest platform of, by and for the youth.
Fast-forward five years, the Under 25 Club has expanded into ‘Under 25 dictionary’, ‘Under 25 news’, ‘Under 25 confessions’, and India’s largest youth festival ‘Under 25 Summit’ which sees some of the smartest and inspirational brains across the community gather at one place to build a culture.
“The story about the name ‘Under 25’ is extremely funny because I remember Shreyans and I talking about what we should call it. We had the weirdest names in mind but then our aim was to make sure the name should give people an idea of what we do. It should be easy to say, easy to remember, it should be fun and young; in the next few minutes, we coined the name Under 25. Over the past six years, we have truly represented and celebrated youngsters in the country. While the summit was really popular, we wanted to create a quality impact for our audience across every vertical. Hence, we started our own dictionary, news and confessions,” says Bengaluru-based Anto, who calls himself an ‘irrational optimist’. With good reason too.
Considering we live in a fast-paced world wherein youth culture changes by the minute, does Under 25 have a hard time keeping up? “The one thing I ask my team is to never keep up with the world but to get beyond that for the world to keep up with us,” says the entrepreneur who swears by patience.
“We have encountered every challenge possible. I am extremely fortunate to have such a fabulous team at Under 25 who make everything absolutely worth it. We scaled up our growth over the last two years because of a very strong foundation, which took four years to build,” he says.
Anto, however, refuses to call Under 25 a brand. “We are a generation. We are building an entire generation of responsible youngsters and our role is critical in every aspect of a youngster's life. There is a long way to go and every day is a step closer to that dream,” he quips.
A host of the summit which sees a plethora of speakers, surely Anto must hoard enriching pieces of advice. “I must say every single speaker is a league apart and have a sacred place in my heart for what they have taught me. But let me tell you my favourite learning -- ‘Do not listen to anyone else much more than you listen to yourself’. It takes some time to realise how powerful this line is but once you do, it’s going to change your life,” he says.
In 2018, the bunch of ‘irrational optimists’ invited Barack Obama to India as the keynote speaker at the Under 25 Summit. “The campaign was a roaring success and we got replies from the official team of Obama stating their love for our efforts and that his dates were blocked. However, we have continued that conversation and let's just say there is more coming your way,” he says, thereby inculcating and strengthening an unfaltering belief in ourselves -- the youth.
