Lok Sabha Question No. 2034 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-09-22
Subject: AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan
Ministry: YOUTH AFFAIRS AND SPORTS
Asked by: Manickam Tagore B, Amol Ramsing Kolhe, Kuldeep Rai Sharma, Supriya Sadanand Sule, DNV Senthilkumar. S.

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

## MINISTRY OF YOUTH AFFAIRS AND SPORTS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2034

TO BE ANSWERED ON 22.09.2020

## AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan

2034.  SHRI MANICKAM TAGORE B.: DR. AMOL RAMSING KOLHE: SHRI KULDEEP RAI SHARMA:

SHRIMATI SUPRIYA SULE: DR. DNV SENTHILKUMAR S.:

Will  the  Minister  of  YOUTH  AFFAIRS  AND  SPORTS  be  pleased  to state:

- (a) whether the Government has partnered with UNICEF to strengthen  the  youth  volunteers  in  the  country  to  achieve AtmaNirbhar Bharat Abhiyan and if so, the details thereof along with  the  steps  taken  to  mobilize  one  crore  youth  to  become self-reliant through such measures;
- (b) whether the Government has any policy/scheme for the character development of the young students in the country and if so, the details thereof;
- (c)  whether  the  ministry  has  any  plans  to  devise  campaigns targeted  towards  increasing  leadership  skills  amongst  the youth of India; and
- (d)   if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

THE MINISTER OF STATE (INDEPENDENT CHARGE) FOR YOUTH AFFAIRS AND SPORTS (SHRI KIREN RIJIJU)

- (a)     Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports and United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) have signed a 'Statement of Intent' on 20.07.2020 to

establish  YuWaah,  Generation  Unlimited  (GenU),  a  global  multistakeholder platform in India.  As per the Statement of Intent, the objectives of this project are:

-  Support young people by providing entrepreneurship classes (online and offline) with successful entrepreneurs and experts, towards establishing entrepreneurial mindset among young people.
-  Upskilling of young people on 21 st  century skills, life skills, digital  skills  through  online  and  offline  channels  and  support them through self-learning,  for  their  productive  lives  and  the future of work.
-  Create linkages with  aspirational  economic  opportunities to  connect  young  people  with  employment  opportunities, including building pathways to connect them with jobs or selfemployment.  For  this,  innovative  solutions  and  technology platforms  will  be  engages  to  take  maximize  the  scale  and reach.
-  Providing career guidance support to young people through  career  portal  as  well  as  through  job-readiness  and self-exploration sessions to make young people career-ready.

The role of Department of Youth Affairs in this project is to provide relevant  experts  to  participate  on  the  YuWaah  Technical  Working

Groups/ Task Forces.

To strengthen the Atma Nirbhar Bharat Abhiyan, the Department of Youth  Affairs  through  its  organisation  i.e  Nehru  Yuva  Kendra Sangathan has undertaken the following steps :

- (i) District Nehru Yuva Kendras across the country are publicizing Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyan - economic package for the country to become 'self-reliant', to revive the Indian economy and deal with COVID-19 crisis.
- (ii) Publicity  Campaign  is  carried  out  through  WhatsApp  group, sharing  of  scheme's  PDFs,  Awareness  of  vocal  for  local,  eposters, Videos, Documents, etc. through Social Media. Wall writing  is  another  effective  method  adopted  for  Publicity Campaign.
- (iii) NYKS has taken up the work of youth mapping, skilling and handholding as part of Atmanirbhar Bharat. Its objective is to make  aware  and  motivate  youth  to  avail  opportunities  for their  economic and personal wellbeing to live a meaningful life.
- (b)     Yes,  Sir. Ministry  of  Youth  Affairs  and  Sports  undertakes character  development  of  young  students  in  country  through  its National Service Scheme (NSS) which was introduced in 1969 with the primary objective of developing the personality and character of the student youth through voluntary community service. NSS is being  implemented  in  senior  secondary  schools,  colleges  and universities.  The  design  of  NSS  envisages  that  each  education institute  covered  under  the  scheme  has  at  least  one  NSS  unit comprising of 100 student volunteers led by teacher designated as Programme Officer (PO). Each NSS unit adopts a village or slum for taking  up  its  activities.  NSS  attempts  to  establish  meaningful linkage between 'campus and community'; 'college and village'; and 'knowledge and action'.
- (c)  &  (d)   Yes,  Sir.  With  a  view  to  develop  leadership  qualities among the youth of India, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has launched 'National Young Leaders Programme (NYLP)' a Central Sector Scheme, in December, 2014 which enables youth to realise their full potential and to contribute to the nation-building process. The scheme aims at motivating the youth to strive for excellence in their  respective  fields  and  to  bring  them  to  the  forefront  of  the development  process.  It  seeks  to  harness  the  immense  youth energy  for  national-building.  The  Programme  beneficiaries  are  the youth in the age-group of 15-29 years, in line with the definition of 'youth'  in  the  National  Youth  Policy,  2014.  The  Programme  has following 5 components:
- a) Neighbourhood Youth Parliament
- b) Youth for Development Programme
- c) National Young Leaders Awards
- d) National Youth Advisory Council
- e) National Youth Development Fund

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