YOUTH AFFAIRS
National Youth Policy
The Committee for Action Plan
of the National Youth Policy was constituted under the Chairpersonship
of Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, on December
13, 2004, to chalk out plans for implementation of the programmes
and activities for all round development of youth.
Based on the decision taken in its meeting held on
March 17, 2005, eight sub-committees on Education, Training
and Employment, Health and Family Welfare, Preservation of Environment,
Ecology and Wild Life, Recreation and Sports, Arts and Culture,
Science and Technology and Civics and Good Citizenship, identified
as key sectors in the National Youth Policy, were constituted.
A draft National Plan of Action on the above subjects has
been prepared.
Meanwhile,
a Parliamentary Forum of Youth was constituted under the Presidentship
of Hon’ble Speaker of Lok Sabha.
The first meeting of this Forum was held on March 13, 2006. The draft Plan of Action prepared by the Ministry will be finalized,
based on the suggestions made by the Forum.
Scheme of Promotion of National Integration
Under the Scheme, National
Integration Camps are organised on the theme of multi-culturalism,
with the aim of forging a national cultural bond between various
communities and regions. These
camps further seek to remove a sense of alienation from amongst
people and provide an opportunity for people belonging to regions
of North, South and West to intermingle.
An amount of Rs.58,80,000
was sanctioned to Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, New Delhi, for
holding five national integration camps at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata,
Chennai and Bangalore for 250 youth for 7 days each, and eight
Inter State Youth Exchange Programmes for 900 participants from
North Eastern States and J&K during the financial year 2005-2006.
Similarly, an amount of Rs.46,80,000 was sanctioned to
National Service Scheme, New Delhi, for holding five national
integration camps at Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and Bangalore
for 150 youth for 7 days each, and eight Inter State Youth Exchange
Programmes for 900 participants from North Eastern States and
J&K during the financial year 2005-2006.
Inter State Youth Exchange
Programmes is one of the component of National Integration Scheme. Students and non-students youth of one or more
States are taken to other States to understand the diverse culture
of our country. During
2004-2005 and 2005-2006, an amount of Rs.726.86
lakh and Rs.521.54 lakh were incurred for holding 204 and
213 programmes respectively.
The organisation
of the National youth Festival and celebration of National Youth
Day and National Youth Awards are integral parts of this Scheme. Eleventh National Youth Festival was held at
Patna from February 13-17, 2006.
About 2,500 participants from all over India participated
in various cultural and other programmes during the festival.
On February 13, 2006, National Youth Awards for the year
2004-2005 were conferred to select 27 youth and one organisation
in recognition of their outstanding performance in community and
social work.
Scheme of Promotion of Adventure
The Scheme aims at inculcating
in the youth the spirit of risk-taking, endurance and cooperative
teamwork and encouraging quick and effective reflexes in challenging
situations. Tenzing Norgay
National Adventure Award is one of the components of the scheme. The Tenzing Norgay National Adventure Award
for the years 2003 and 2004 were conferred on August 29, 2005
on Shri Harish Kapadia, Shri Mohan Singh Gunjyal, Nb. Sub. Amar
Prakash, Shre Nadre Sherpa, Wg. Cdr. Jayashankar and Shri Mayur
J. Mehta.
During the financial 2004-2005
and 2005-2006, an expenditure of Rs.310.86 lakh and Rs.269 lakh
was made for holding 169 and 224 programmes respectively.
Scheme of Promotion of Scouting and
Guiding
The Scheme of Scouting and Guiding
is designed to promote balanced physical and mental development
of the young people. It
inculcates in them a spirit of patriotism, social service and
communal harmony. During the financial year 2004-2005 and 2005-2006, an amount of
Rs.93 lakh and Rs.164.42 lakh were sanctioned for holding scouting
and guiding programmes in the country.
Further, an amount of Rs.12.48 lakh was also sanctioned
for holding scouting and guiding programmes exclusively in North
Eastern Regions.
Financial Assistance for Promotion
of Youth Activities and Training
Under the
above Scheme of Financial Assistance for Promotion of Youth Activities
and Training, training at Government Cost was provided to 61,715
youths all over India in various vocational trades.
Youth Hostels
Construction
of youth hostels at Warangal (Andhra Pradesh); Lucknow (UP); Sirsa
and Yamunagar (Haryana); Ajmer and Udaipur (Rajasthan) were completed. Ten more
youth hostels are at advance stage of construction/ completion
in various States.
Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development
Rajiv Gandhi
National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur (Tamil Nadu), an autonomous body under this Ministry,
was sanctioned 14 additional posts for effectively carrying out
the assigned activities and functioning of the Institute was expanded
with the creation of 4 more divisions. The construction of the
building campus is almost complete and approval has been accorded
for construction of new library building and an auditorium. The
Institute undertook series of programmes, like (a) Youth motivation
and empowerment progrmmes; (b) Training progrmmes on Information
Technology in Aid of Youth Functionaries; (c) programmes like
Anti Terrorism Day and Sadbhawana Diwas etc; (d)Theme based National
Seminars and Workshops; (e) International progrmmes; and (f) Research
and Extension projects. Proposal
for granting Deemed University status to RGNIYD has also been
initiated.
YUVA
The Ministry of Youth Affairs
and Sports is building a comprehensive response of youth to HIV/AIDS
epidemic in India titled YUVA (Youth Unite for Victory against
AIDS). This Nation wide campaign would involve 21
million youth volunteers belonging to the five youth and adolescent
based organisations in the country, such as National Service Scheme
(NSS), Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), Bharat Scouts and Guides
(BS&G), National Cadet Corps (NCC), and Youth Red Cross (YRC).
This will also include young Panchayat leaders in our Panchayati
Raj Institutions, Youth Hostels and Rajiv Gandhi National Institute
of Youth Development (RGNIYD), Sriperumbudur.
The Ministry will collaborate with Planning Commission,
National AIDS Control Organsiation (NACO) and other international
development partners, such as UNFPA, UNICEF, UNAIDS, UNODC, USAIDS,
DFID, in implementation of this programme.
The strategy is to reach out the entire 450 million youth
and adolescent’s population in the country through these 21 million
youth volunteers with special focus on prevention and life skill
education.
National Service Scheme
The strength
of NSS has been increased from
20.40 lakh in 2003-04
to 24,24,124 in 2005-06.
The number of special camps
held to create awareness in
the field of cleanliness, adult education, environment protection,
pulse polio immunization, and drives against social evils like
dowry, drug abuse, superstition etc. in villages has been increased
to 15,162 against 10,500 in 2003-04.
A new programme, namely Disaster
Management, has been added in the regular programmes of NSS. Many training programmes have been conducted
by NSS in collaboration with Ministry of Home Affairs, and more then 300 key functionaries have been
imparted meaningful training.
Apart from increase in the
above activities, the Ministry has taken various steps during
last two years to ensure the better implementation of the National
Service Scheme. These have been further strengthen by introducing
by new Monitoring Information System (MIS). This includes following
components:-
Ø
Monthly review of targets-
physical and financial.
Ø
Quarterly review of targets fixed for enrollment of NSS Volunteers
in each State, based on field back of NSS Regional Centres,
Ø
Annual Meeting of Heads of NSS Regional Centres /State Liaision
Officer and Heads of Training Orientation Centre and Training
Orientation Research Centre to ascertain the annual achievement
as well as hindrances faced in implementation
of the programme.
Ø
Targets of TOC/TORC have been enhanced to provide induction/orientation training to Programme
Officers/Programme Coordinators etc.
Keeping with
the commitments on the
CMP of the UPA Government, a
proposal has been made to strengthen and deepen NSS as also to
introduce NSS for students of 9th and 10th
Class. This will
increase the number of NSS volunteers and extend the benefit
to adolescents
as well.
Launching of Scheme
for empowerment of Adolescent youth
The scheme has been launched
in October 2004. The major components of the scheme are seminar
and research and technical resource development. The scheme seeks
to assist NGOs, educational institutions and other organisations
for taking up programmes and projects for catering to the special
needs of the adolescent (10-19 years).
The scheme has been well received
& well appreciated and considerable achievements have been
made. Under the scheme,
grants-in-aid of Rs.6.80 crore and Rs.6.50 crore was released
during the financial years 2004-05 and 2005-06, respectively,
to various NGOs and other organisations.
Special Cell for Adolescent Youth
A special cell has been set up in the Ministry for development and empowerment
of the adolescent youth. It
provides overall policy support for implementing National Youth
Policy, build resource database, develop advocacy strategy, design
advocacy events and need based communication materials on adolescent
issues, capacity building of project partners, set up a monitoring
and evaluation system to facilitate experience sharing among stakeholders,
documentation and dissemination and liaise with other departments
for an effective inter-sectoral coordination.
In this regard, Ministry has collaborated with UNFPA and
launched a project titled support to Adolescent Health and Development
(2004-07) as part of UNFPA’s Sixth Country Programme.
This project focuses on strengthening capacity of the Ministry
for implementing Adolescent Scheme, advocacy on Adolescent issues,
and capacity building of RGNIYD, NYKS, NSS and NGOs for implementing
adolescent programmes.
Launching
of Rashtriya Sadbhavana Yojna
With a view to encouraging spirit of volunteerism, leadership and sensitivity
towards community needs, the development among the youth, a Scheme
titled ‘Rashtriya Sadbhavna Yojna’ has been launched on July 1, 2005. Under the scheme, 10-20 volunteers in each of the 500 districts
are enrolled as volunteers for a period of one year at a monthly
honorarium of Rs.1000. Each
of the best performing registered Youth Club / Rural Sports Club
/ Mahila Mandal in a block and the Youth Development Centre and
Rural Information Technology Youth Development Centre (RITYDC)
in a district select from amongst its members (with minimum matriculate
educational qualification) a volunteer to represent it. In a departure from NSV scheme, the volunteers
are nominated by the best youth club in a block and by the best
Youth Development Centre in the district and selection process
is not done by the officials.
This will truly empower the youth club movement across
the country. Under the scheme, grants-in-aid of Rs.6.50 crore were released
during the financial year 2005-06 to NYKS to implement the same.
Gandhi Gramodaya Sankalp Abhiyan – Self-Reliant Model Village
Project
Nehru Yuva
Kendra Sangathan, an autonomous organisation under this Ministry,
with 500 District NYKs, more
than two lakh youth clubs with 8 million volunteers under its
ambit, has launched a project entitled,”Gandhi Gramodaya Sankalp
Abhiyan – Self Reliant Model Village Project” on October 2, 2004,
under which each Nehru Yuva Kendra would adopt one village with
a view to develop it as a model self-reliant village. The project
aims at facilitating development of a few self-reliant villages
on the lines of Gandhiji’s principles of Gram Swaraj.
For 2005-2006, 497 villages have been selected and adopted
for implementation. Villages, having heterogeneous population,
over 1,000 in number, with predominance of BPL, families having
their own gram panchayat and an active youth club, have been selected
in consultation with NSS. Baseline surveys have been undertaken
and environment-building activities have been organised for mobilising
the community. An amount
of Rs.209.97 lakh has been allocated for the project, out of which
Rs.40,000 per NYK was allocated under regular programmes of NYKS
for conducting Participatory Resource Mapping Exercise in 498
adopted villages. In addition, an amount of Rs.11.40 lakh was sanctioned by the Ministry
of Youth Affairs and Sports for organising a National level Seminar
and 18 State level Seminars.
Recognising
registered Youth Clubs as NGOs
In order
to further keep the intervention a focused one, a few areas have
been prioritised, viz., Education, Health, Employment Generation,
Environmental Conservation, Social and Religious Harmony.
All NYKS will address and implement a few activities as
per the local needs in the above mentioned areas.
Vocational training projects under the Ministry’s scheme
of ‘Financial Assistance for Promotion of Youth Activities and
Training are being sanctioned which shall encourage self-employment
in these villages.
It is expected
that the experience and learning outcome of the project will contribute
towards understanding the importance and dynamics of decentralised
developmental planning at community level and also finding out
ways and means for enhancing people’s participation in the process
of development.
During 2004-2005, a clear policy
decision has been taken to reorganise all registered youth clubs
/ mahila mandals / sports clubs as NGOs and consider them eligible
for seeking assistance under various schemes undertaken by the
Ministry through NGOs. Information in these regards has been sent
to all the State governments through Chief Secretaries. They have
been requested to register themselves so as to enable them to
access funds for community development.
Launch
of Nehru Yuva Sandesh – a monthly news magazine
Nehru Yuva
Kendra Sangathan has started publication of a monthly news magazine,
titled ‘Nehru Yuva Sandesh’, in November, 2004. The 20-page magazine
publishes articles and information relevant to the youth. It also highlights and disseminates information about policies of
the Union and State Governments as well as best practices of the
youth clubs affiliated with Nehru Yuva Kendras around the country.
SPORTS AND GAMES
The Scheme
of Sports Fund for Pension to Meritorious Sportspersons, a component
of the Scheme of Incentive for Promotion of Sports Activities,
has been revised with effect from April 1, 2004.
Under the revised scheme, it has been provided to give
pension to sports persons who have won medal at Olympics, World
Cups, World Championships in Olympics and Asian Games Disciplines,
Commonwealth/Asian Games rate of pension has been enhanced as
follows:
(a) Medalists at the Olympic Games
Rs. 5000 p.m.
(b) Gold medalists
at the World Cups/
Rs. 4000 p.m.
World Championships in Olympics
and Asian Games disciplines.
(c) Silver and Bronze medalists of the Rs. 3500 p.m.
World Cups/World Championships
in Olympics and Asian Games disciplines
(d) Gold medalists
of the Asian/
Rs. 3500 p.m.
Commonwealth Games
(e) Silver and Bronze medalists of Asian/ Rs. 3000 p.m.
Commonwealth Games
(f) Gold medalists of Para – Olympic Rs. 2500 p.m.
Games
(g) Silver medalists of Para-Olympic Games Rs. 2000 p.m.
(h) Bronze medalists of Para-Olympic Games Rs. 1500 p.m.
Under the
revised scheme, sportspersons who have won Bronze and Silver Medal
in the World Cup/World Championship, Asian and Commonwealth Games,
have been made eligible for grant of pension.
Sportspersons who have won Gold, Silver and Bronze Medal
in Para-Olympic Games have also
been made eligible for grant of pension.
Under the Scheme of Special Awards to Medal Winners in
International Sports Events and their coaches, a component of
the Scheme relating to Awards has been revised with effect from
April 1, 2004. In the
revised scheme, rates of special awards for senior, junior and
sub-junior categories have been enhanced as follows:
Special Awards for Seniors
|
Name of the Game/Champion-
ship
|
Gold
Medal
Before After
Revision Revision
|
Silver Medal
Before After
Revision Revision
|
Bronze
Medal
Before After
Revision Revision
|
|
Olympics and Official World Championship.
|
Rs. 15 lakh 30 lakh
|
Rs. 9 lakh 18 lakh
|
Rs 6 lakh. 12 lakh
|
|
Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.
|
Rs. 5 lakh 10 lakh
|
Rs. 3 lakh 5 lakh
|
Rs.2 lakh. 3 lakh
|
|
Official Asian Championships and Commonwealth Championships.
|
Rs. 1.5 lakh 3 lakh
|
Rs. 1 lakh 2
lakh
|
Rs.0.75 lakh 1.50
lakh
|
Special Awards for Juniors and Sub-Juniors
|
Name of event.
World Championships..
Juniors
|
Gold Medal
Before After
Revision Revision
Rs, 1 lakh 2
lakh
|
Silver Medal
Before After
Revision Rivision
Rs,75,000 1.5 lakh
|
Bronze Medal
Before After
Revision Rivision
Rs.50,000 1 lakh
|
|
Sub-Juniors
|
Rs.50,000 1 lakh
|
Rs.40,000 80,000
|
Rs.30,000 60,000
|
|
Asian and Commonwealth Championships
Juniors
|
Rs.50,000 1 lakh
|
Rs.40,000 80,000
|
Rs.30,000 60,000
|
|
Sub-juniors
|
Rs.25,000 50,000
|
Rs.20,000 40,000
|
Rs.15,000 30,000
|
Assistance to National Sports Federations
A total amount of Rs. 2927.43
lakh during 2005-06 and an amount of Rs. 2919.59 lakh during 2004-05
was sanctioned to the National Sports Federations towards holding
of national/ international Championships in India; participation
of Indian teams abroad as well as for purchase of sports equipment.
Scheme relating to Talent Search and Training
During 2005-06, 44 sportspersons
were sent for training abroad, and 26 sportspersons during 2004-05
under the Scheme relating to Talent Search & Training. Apart from these sportspersons, 14 coaches/Supporting
Personnel during 2005-06 and 14 Coaches/ Supporting Personnel
during 2004-05 were assisted for attending Seminars/Conferences/Coaching
courses etc. The total
amount spent under the scheme during 2004-05 was Rs. 146.81 lakh
while during 2005-06 it was Rs. 181.93 lakh.
Assistance to disabled sportspersons
Assistance to sportspersons
falling in disabled category got a fillip last year with the recognition
of Paralympic Committee of India (Physically disabled) and Special
Olympic Bharat (Mentally Challenged).
Similarly, following the dynamic criteria, All India Sports
Council for the Deaf was upgraded to ‘Priority’ category for assistance.
Participation of Indian Contingent in Commonwealth Games, 2006
For participation
in XVII Commonwealth Games held at Melbourne from March 15 to March 26, 2006, the Government
had approved participation of 265 persons (248 at Government cost
and 17 at No cost to Government) in 10 disciplines.
The Indian
Contingent had retrained 4th position in these Games
by winning 50 medals (22 Gold, 17 Silver and 11 Bronze).
Sports Authority of India
Ø
Activation of the Regional Centre at Bhopal and Sub-Centre
at Lucknow would help in making available training infrastructure
to a large number of trainees.
Ø
SAI has a concrete plan of action to increase the intake of
trainees from the present figure of 10,000 to 45,000 trainees
by 2010 so as to provide a larger pool of talented sportspersons
for various games. These measures have been complemented by enhanced
diet money and equipment support to these trainees.
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