Naveen Gautam from The Inclusivity Project represent Descent Communities Youth
at Ecosoc Youth Forum 2025
CDWD youth grow up navigating complex, overlapping barriers—caste-based exclusion, poverty, lack of access to education, digital divides, climate vulnerability, and systemic discrimination tied to their identity, gender, and social status. From a young age, many face exploitative labor, child marriage, limited healthcare, and erasure of their cultural heritage. For LGBTQI+ youth within CDWD communities, these challenges are even more acute, as they confront stigma from both within and outside their communities.
We believe young people are not just future leaders—they are leaders now. Since 2021, CDWD youth, including our trained Rights Experts, have been boldly raising these issues on global platforms, making space for lived experience in human rights advocacy. From securing the African Commission’s landmark resolution on CDWD rights to spotlighting community issues at the Asia-Pacific Youth Forum on Sustainable Development and ECOSOC Youth Forum their voices are changing the narrative.
We support CDWD youth across 17 countries in four regions—equipping them with tools to advocate for climate justice, inclusive education, digital access, dignified work, and pride in their identities and cultures. Our role is to amplify their vision, bridging local realities with global policymaking spaces like the UN and regional youth forums. At a time when the future of CDWD youth stands at a critical crossroad, we stand beside them—to disrupt cycles of exclusion and build a world rooted in dignity, opportunity, and justice.
