Dhammaranta Jawale was exposed to socioeconomic injustices from an early age. He was born to a family of six in the Jamkhed region of Maharashtra, India. Life in his village and the surrounding area was difficult because they were constantly impacted by drought as it was part of a rain shadow zone. Rain shadows are areas with significantly reduced rainfall situated behind mountainous regions. They often become dry and desert-like and do not allow for vegetation growth. Watching those close to him live under these conditions roused a passion in him to dedicate his career to removing inequities in his community. 

“I witnessed some extreme droughts in my region and also experienced various socio-economic inequalities since I was from the lower social-economic strata as per the traditional Indian caste system,” says Dhammaranta.

Though he initially started working as an Assistant Professor and aspired to be a successful media academician in the Indian higher education domain, YouthLead opened Dhammaranta’s world to other pursuits and today he is focused on the international development sector.

Dhammaranta, 29, serves as a 2022 YouthLead Ambassador (YLA) and also works as an ambassador for the Media and Information Literacy Alliance and the United Kingdom’s Digital Poverty Alliance. All of his current projects weave in an element of developing solutions to socioeconomic disparities with an intercultural, intergenerational, and sustainable lens. As a YLA, he will play a key role in bringing the benefits of YouthLead to national, regional, and local groups of changemakers, raising visibility and awareness about the YouthLead platform as a resource, and networking hub for changemakers.

He looks forward to using YouthLead as a springboard to becoming an international development professional. He cites the group’s activities as teaching him how to find new ways to work better within intercultural environments and overcome barriers to collaboration such as time zones and languages.

Dhammaranta’s new YouthLead connections have allowed him to better contribute to the United Nation’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals and continue the fight to achieve equitable life for all.

“The kind of exposure that I received through this program has changed me as a person,” he adds.