Urivi Vikram Charitable Trust, New Delhi organized the Third National Seminar on theme, “Demographic Dividend: Challenges of Young People in India” on May 6, 2015 at India International Centre, Max Mueller Marg, New Delhi. Policy Makers, scholars and activists from multidisciplinary backgrounds from across the country participated in the deliberations with the aim to propose a set of doable recommendations for optimum utilisation of our demographic dividend.
The Guest of Honor, Shri Sunil Arora, IAS Secretary, Skill Development and Entrepreneurship pointed out the ‘Skilling India’ and ‘Make in India’ are two sides of the same coin and combined efforts of national and state level ministries and relevant stakeholders could help in pushing the skill development plans towards success.
In the keynote address, Smt Vandana Kumari Jenna, IAS Secretary to GoI talked about the need for change in mindset of people to train and accept women in job roles traditionally approved for men in our society. She also suggested that emphasis must be given to realms of health, education, improvement of employability skills to appropriately harness demographic dividends.
Shri Raj Kishore Mishra, IAS (Retd), Former Regional Director (ASIA), Common Wealth Program, Ms. Preeti Sudan, Ad. Secy, WCD and Dr Rakesh Kumar, Jt Secy, National Health Mission, MoHFW were the speakers in the first session on “An Overview of Young People as Demographic Dividend.” Chairperson of this session, Dr ME Khan, Population Council of India summed up by saying that facilitation of available labour into enabling environment is an essential concern and emphasis must be laid on targeted interventions for convergence of efforts of all stakeholders including central and state ministries as well as the communities.
Dr Devendra Agochia, Former Head of Youth Affairs Division, Common Wealth Secretariat, London, Sh Krishnan Khanna, Founder and Chairman, i Watch, Author of “Transforming India”, Sh Amod Kanth, General Secretary, PRAYAS and Ms Usha Bhasin, Former DDG, Prasar Bharti spoke on various relevant issues in Session II on “Holistic Development and Challenges” chaired by Sh Rajiv Gupta, Secretary, MYAS, GoI. The primary takeaway was that unless efforts towards an inclusive and enabling environment are made, it is difficult to change the traditional mindset of the masses.
Dr R Chandrasekhar, President, NASSCOM chaired the third session on “Availing India’s Advantage.” Dr E Sanakara Rao, Director and CEO, IIFCL AMC Ltd, Ms Liyli Marli Noshi, Social Activist, Arunachal Pradesh and Dr UNB Rao, (Former IPS officer) Founder and Chairman, UVCT were the eminent speakers for this session.
Sh Padmanabhaiah, former Union Home Secretary, chaired the session on “Way Forward” wherein Sh Sunil Mahajan, Addl DG, CIDC and Sh SM Vijayanand, Secretary, Panchayati Raj, GoI were the illustrious speakers.
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| Dr. U N B Rao Founder & Chairman UVCT |
UVCT is a non-governmental and non-profit Organization, was established in India in 1991. The Trust had earlier organized a 3-day National meet on theme “Towards a policy for Young Adults in July 1999, which paved the way for Planning Commission to constitute the first-ever Working Group on Adolescents (Brought out the ‘Report on Adolescents’ in 2001). The other National Meet organized by the UVCT was on the theme “Adolescents: Vision 2020” in July, 2005, which helped in bringing out the gaps between the Requirements of Adolescents vis-a-vis and what was made available to them for empowering them. (www.uvct.org)
Dr. U N B Rao (former IPS officer) Founder & Chairman UVCT in his welcome address said “The aim of this seminar was to forge network of policy makers, implementing agencies and other relevant stakeholder in translating schemes into operations. The objective is also to develop collective mechanisms to study and take stock of the progress of youth development at regular intervals. We at UVCT are committed in doing this endeavor for empowering youth and realizing their potential.”
