[ Age 14-18 years ] Word Limit 500
[ Age 19-25 years ] Word Limit 750
Shri Ram Chandra Mission is a non-profit educational and spiritual service organization. It has been promoting heart-based living through meditation as a means to universal peace and harmony for over 75 years since its inception in 1945. It is one of 1600 NGOs associated with the United Nations Department of Public Information. The All India Essay Writing Event had been the flagship event of Shri Ram Chandra Mission ( SRCM ) for nearly three decades and was organized in partnership with United Nations Information Centre for India and Bhutan ( UNIC ) for several years since 2005 reaching out to over 25,000 institutions in India. The event was renamed the HEARTFULNESS ESSAY EVENT in 2019 and was launched globally for the first time in 2020 in collaboration with UNESCO MGIEP ( Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development ). This is the thirty first successive year of the Event.
The Heartfulness Education Trust (HET) has designed a variety of programs for youth including The Heartfulness Way curriculum for junior school students aimed at developing in them an understanding and acceptance of core human values (as recommended in the report submitted to UNESCO by the International Commission on Education for the Twenty First Century) as also a life skills program called HELP for senior school students. HET also offers programs for University students under its initiative called Heartful Campus. A program for teachers called INSPIRE has also been running for several years. Details of these programs are available on : www.heartfulness.org/education
Youth is a time of great possibilities. It is a period in life filled with opportunities waiting to be realized, provided you are mindful of them and are willing to strive heartfully for your holistic growth. While education helps us to develop our physical and intellectual capabilities to their optimum extent, and prepares us to thrive in a competitive world, there is one aspect of our development that does not often receive the attention due to it – the development of our inner Being. Without the synchronous development of body, mind and heart our evolution as human beings remains incomplete. It is therefore balance, in addition to excellence, that you must strive for - the balance between mind and heart, the outer and the inner, and, between thinking and feeling. Through the Heartfulness Essay Event, we invite you to tap into your inner space, tune in to the soft voice of the heart that never fails to guide and inspire and, express in words your experience related to the theme of this year’s Event. We encourage you thus to begin the practice of referring to the heart more and more.
We are very happy to announce two new events for our youth. For schools related to Category 1 there is an option to participate in "SEI Insights" and for students participating in Category 2 it is "Youth Innovation Awards". For the detailed information on these Events and to participate, please click on the below link.
English, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu
To participate in the Event please follow the guidelines below :
a. Participants may select any one of the 11 optional languages to write the essay on the topic specified for their Category.
b. The essay must be typed or handwritten on A4 size paper. Essays may be handwritten in black or blue ink or computer typed in a relevant prescribed script for each language.
c. The Participant’s name, Father’s Name, Age, Name of Institution must be written on every page of the essay.
d. The word limit for Category 1 ( Ages -14 -18 ) is 500 and must be strictly adhered to.
e. The word limit for Category 2 (Ages – 19-25 ) is 750 and must be strictly adhered to.
f. Please mention the total number of words of the essay after the concluding paragraph.
g. Submitted entries must not bear any appeals, illustrations or slogans.
h. The scanned copy of the essay (Max size 3 MB) must be uploaded on our website. Link : hfn.link/essayevent.
i. The details for submission of the essay is available for download in the “Guidelines for Submission“ section of the website.
j. In case of submission of essays through the school/college, the institution mail-id must be entered for all entries in place of the participant’s email id on the submission screen.
k. The institution may write to us requesting login credentials at essayevent@heartfulness.org A login credential for the institution will be provided to help the coordinator submit/manage all the essay submissions made using the institution’s email id.
Participating students have the option to carry out research on the theme as it is not an on-the-spot competition. However, all submitted essays must necessarily be the original work of the author and references or quotations therein must be duly acknowledged.
a. The evaluation of all submitted entries will be carried out by a jury for each of the languages based on the following criterion :
1. Theme introduction/interpretation
: Weight 10%
2. Structure and flow
: Weight 10%
3. Language
: Weight 10%
4. Originality
: Weight 20%
5. Relevance of ideas to the theme
: Weight 40%
6. Research/attention to details
: Weight 5%
7. Conclusion
: Weight 5%
b. To fulfill the purpose of this Event, the essay must reflect the author’s personal experience or views on the topic. Originality and relevance of ideas to the topic carry the maximum weightage.
c. Essays plagiarized from books or the internet will be rejected.
d. All awards will be subject to the sole discretion of the jury and their decision will be final.
e. The intent of the information provided in the English version of the Information Leaflet and flyer shall prevail over all other translated versions.
For Individual Student Participants
A Winner and a Runner- up : in each of the 11 authorized languages in each category will receive a trophy and certificate.
Certificates with Rank : Essays ranked from third to the tenth position in each of the 11 languages in each category will be awarded mementos and certificates stating the rank.
Merit Certificates : An E- Merit Certificate will be awarded to the 10% of entries shortlisted by the jury for the final round of selection in each of the 11 languages in both categories.
Certificate of Participation : E-certificates will be awarded to all participants who fulfill the participation criterion as per the guidelines.
Some participants may be required to undertake an interview by the jury by telephone or a video call as a final round of selection for the top awards. The jury will have the discretion to accept or disqualify any of the submitted essays and their decision will be final.
Appreciation Certification for Participating Institutions.