Documents for Participants
Information Leaflet
Guidelines for Submission
Evaluation Criteria
[ 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 The Shri Ram Chandra Mission (SRCM) for over 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).
The Event this year is being organized in collaboration with THE COMMONWEALTH. This year marks the thirty-second 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), Brighter Minds for development of cognitive and intuitive faculties, a life skills program called HELP for senior school students and an initiative called Heartful Campus for University students. A program for teachers called INSPIRE has also been running for several years. Details of these programs are available at : 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 due attention– 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.
All essays must be uploaded through our website only as per guidelines mentioned below.
Essays received through email or post will not be accepted
English, Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Malayalam, Marathi, Odia, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu
Documents for Participants
In Guidelines for Participation : ( Essay submissions from institution)
All institutions interested in participating in the event must Register the details of their institution on our website. (hfn.link/essayevent)
• Once registered on our website, the registration details and a link for students to submit essays will be sent to the registered email id.
• The link for submission needs to be shared with the students for uploading their essays.
• The student is expected to go through the guidelines for submission. Select the topic and language according to his/her age. Write/type the essay on A4 size paper. Scan the essay ensuring file size less than 3MB. The scanned document has to be uploaded using the submission link that has been shared after entering his/her details.
• The institution may collect the physical essays, and scan and upload the essays on behalf of the students using an institution admin login.
• 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.
All youth between the age of 14-25 but not enrolled in any institution are also eligible to participate in the event as Direct Participants. The direct submission link will open on 30th August 2024.
To participate in the event follow the guidelines for submission of essays.
a. Participants may select any one of the 12 optional languages to write the essay on the topic specified for their Category.
b. The essay must be typed or legibly handwritten on A4-size paper. Essays may be handwritten in black or blue ink or computer-typed in a relevant prescribed script/font for each language.
c. The Participant’s name, Father’s Name, Age, and 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 institution, please check if your institution has registered. You may search for the registered institution on our website. Check with your institution coordinator for the submission link and the mode of submission. You may use the submission link or submit your essay to the coordinator of your institution as decided by your institution.
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 participant
A Winner and a Runner- up : in each of the 12 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 12 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 12 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.
For Participating Institutions
Appreciation Certification for Participating Institutions.
Gold Appreciation Certificate : for Institutions submitting over 300 Essays
Silver Appreciation Certificate : for Institutions submitting over 200 Essays
Bronze Appreciation Certificate : for Institutions submitting over 100 Essays
All awards will be subject to the sole discretion of the jury and their decision will be final.
