The Right Stuff
£ Aakash on
a mission
I
met Aakash in my Economics class at college. He was loud, annoying and the centre of attention. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think I would be friends with him at first but, hey, I was new at the college and needed all the friends I could get.
We got chatting and he told me he was campaigning to increase the minimum wage for 16 year olds so it’s the same as 21 year olds. I tried to keep talking about football but he wasn’t having any of it. I eventually gave in and listened to what he had to say. Aakash is 16 years old and is on a mission. He wants people the same age as many of us to get paid the same minimum wage as 21 yearolds. At the moment, 21 yearolds get paid £2.23 more than 16 yearolds – often for doing exactly the same job. This blatant discrimination against children is based on their age, not their ability. No disrespect to 21 yearolds, but this doesn’t necessarily mean that the 21 yearold is more skilled than the 16 yearold. Aakash’s campaign is called ‘Same Job Same Dosh’ and its aim is for the minimum wage for 16 yearolds to be the same as that of 21 yearolds. He campaigns through Facebook, Twitter and an online campaigning platform for young people called Battlefront. He recently developed a set of standards for businesses to follow 6
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This blatant discrimination against children is based on their age, not their ability.
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to show they are supporting equality for 16 yearolds. Once they have started to follow this standard, Same Job Same Dosh will issue them a seal of approval to show they pay 16 yearolds fairly. Aakash is encouraging big businesses and shops to take on board the standard, and hopes to see it alongside other standards such as Fairtrade. He knows that the Government rules and policies around this issue may not change, but says that ‘the aim is to make paying fairly more fashionable’. Through his campaign he has met politicians such as Nick Clegg and musicians like Ellie Goulding and Professor Green. He started his campaign only last summer and believes that if you have a passion to change something then you should follow it and try
your best to achieve your goals. He goes on to say that it is hard for him to balance school work with the demands of his campaign, but believes that good time management is the key. Aakash’s best investment to date has been a diary! Aakash thinks that creating online content such as videos on YouTube is really useful when trying to bring the campaign to life and gain more followers and supporters. He has a flip camera and lots of ideas to make sure he can do this. I have learnt that Aakash is still loud and the centre of attention but he is on a mission. He has a purpose: to inform people and businesses to change the minimum wage for 16 yearolds to the same as that of 21 yearolds. He hopes to increase his campaign further and would like to raise greater awareness of his campaign to make it even more successful. I’m with him. Are you? l Words by Mohanish Image provided by Battlefront
NFind out more here:
www.battlefront.co.uk/aakash