Over 500 Hyderabad students used plays and posters at COVA’s Sambandh-2026 to expose how the US-Israel-Iran conflict drives poverty, inflation and family ruin, commemorating Hiroshima while urging peace.

More than 500 students from 45 schools and colleges transformed a city stage into a powerful classroom on the human cost of conflict during the 24th annual Sambandh inter-school and inter-collegiate competitions organised by the Confederation of Voluntary Associations (COVA) Peace Network.

Held to mark the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki nuclear bombings, the Swami Agnivesh-Praful Bidwai-B.M. Kutty Memorial Sambandh-2026 focused on the impact of the US-Israel and Iran conflict. Through one-act plays and posters, young participants showed how distant wars translate into empty kitchens, unpaid school fees and shattered homes in ordinary Indian families.

Rising Costs and Families Under Siege

Students depicted the cascade of consequences with striking clarity. Rising fuel prices, LPG shortages and broader inflation have pushed middle-class households towards poverty, making basic needs – food, children’s education and healthcare – unaffordable. Plays contrasted life before and after the outbreak of conflict, illustrating how violence dismantles livelihoods, relationships and security.

One recurring message captured the scale of the threat: “WAR means WORLD AT RISK.” Performances emphasised that the fallout never stays confined to battlefields. Ordinary people in civil life, especially the poor, bear the heaviest burden as they slide into hunger while the middle class struggles to stay afloat.

The poster competition drew more than 400 entries. Artists paired stark imagery with slogans that refused to look away. One of the most poignant read: “A child knows no borders and signs for no war – but when the sky fractures, it is always the crib that burns first.” The visual and verbal force of these works reinforced the central theme that children and families pay first and longest.

Voices from the Stage and Organisers

Mazher Hussain, Executive Director of COVA Peace Network, said the plays and posters “powerfully captured the pain, struggles and hardships endured by ordinary families during times of war.” He noted that the entries succeeded in bringing out the long-term devastation caused by conflict and held real potential to sensitise wider society.

In the results, Birla Open Minds International School took first prize in the college category, while Unique School was adjudged the best entry among schools.

The programme was inaugurated by Rev. Br. Santosh Kumar, Director of the Boys Town Group. Vithal Rao Arya spoke about the life and legacy of Swami Agnivesh, highlighting his lifelong commitment to social transformation. The event also paid tribute to Praful Bidwai, a leading campaigner against nuclear weapons, and B.M. Kutty of Pakistan, who worked tirelessly for peace in South Asia, especially between India and Pakistan.

A Two-Decade Tradition of Peace Education

Sambandh has been organised by COVA almost every August since the early 2000s to commemorate the nuclear holocaust of 1945 and to keep alive the memory of peace activists. Past editions have explored themes such as the impact of war and violence on families, different forms of violence in society, and the need for students to check communal, caste and gender-based conflict.

The annual platform typically draws hundreds of students into debates, essays, quizzes, plays and poster-making. Its consistent aim is to move participants beyond textbooks, building empathy and a sense of responsibility for a less violent world. COVA’s broader work includes the Compassionate Citizenship Programme, now integrated into Telangana’s school curriculum, which encourages students to research social issues, engage communities and advocate practical solutions.

This year’s focus on the economic and social fallout of the US-Israel-Iran tensions connected local classroom concerns – fuel prices, household budgets, disrupted education – with global geopolitics. Students demonstrated an ability to translate abstract news into lived experience, showing how conflicts thousands of kilometres away tighten belts and empty plates in Hyderabad homes.

Why Student Voices Matter

The event underscored a simple but urgent truth: wars do not end when the guns fall silent. Their economic aftershocks and psychological scars linger for years, disproportionately affecting the most vulnerable. By placing students at the centre of the conversation, COVA created space for a generation that will inherit the consequences of today’s decisions to articulate those costs in their own words and images.

Organisers hope the award-winning plays will reach wider audiences through social media and community screenings, extending the sensitisation beyond the competition hall. In a city that has long grappled with questions of communal harmony and social equity, the sight of schoolchildren staging the destruction of family life and painting the first victims of fractured skies carried particular resonance.

The 2026 Sambandh closed with the same quiet determination that has marked two decades of the programme: the belief that informed, compassionate young people remain one of the strongest barriers against the next cycle of violence and the poverty it breeds. 

As the students packed away costumes and posters, their message stayed clear – peace is not an abstract ideal but a practical necessity for the survival of ordinary families.