hrs : Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Room-II, India International Centre (Main Building), Max Mueller Marg, N
Delhi-3
its Third National Seminar pertaining to
Young people (aged 10-24 years) on Wednesday, May 6, 2015, at Conference
Room-II (Main Building), India International Centre, Max Muller Marg, New Delhi
– 110 003. First one was held in 1999 on the theme ‘Towards a Policy for Young
Adults’ and the Second one in 2005 on the theme ‘Adolescents: Vision 2020’.
Young People in India”. Policy makers, Scholars and Activists from
multi-disciplinary background across the country will participate in
deliberations with an aim to propose a set of doable recommendations for youth
development in India.
opportunities;
progress for a common future;
lead economic and social development of the country;
core issues, including education, health, mental health, crime, role of
parents, teachers and other stakeholders in guiding them.
people in the context of targets set to achieve by the year 2022.
Forge a network of the policy makers,
implementing agencies and other relevant stakeholders in translating schemes
into operations.
Develop collective mechanisms to
study and take stock of the progress of youth development at regular intervals.
Context :
Demographic dividend is the accelerated economic growth that results from decline in infant and child mortality, and consequential rise in the number of young population – usually 14 to 30 years – in a country. This is accompanied by an increase of the people of the working age-group (14-65 years), creating opportunity to have less number of economically dependants at household levels. Ratio of working age to dependent population in South Asia is expected to increase for the next 15-20 years followed by gradual downturn. India must utilize the available time for proper nurturing of the younger generation, irrespective of men and women, to make them productive work force.
India has resounding growth policies and programmes in place. Besides the conventional growth policies, the country is making all-out effort to benefit from digital technology. The Government of India has recently taken steady steps to build skilled work force in the country. Under the National Skill Development Council (NSDC), over 32 Sector Skill Councils have been made functional. They work independently and in partnership with the governments and the private commercial enterprisers, to augment the skill development programmes across India. The Government of India has made skill development not a programme but a movement. The target is to provide training and skill development to 500 million youth in the next five years. The Government of India hopes to make the country self-sufficient with skilled personnel to cater to all existing and emerging market demands by the year 2022. India expects to have surplus skilled work force who can contribute to build up global economy.
However, India has not been able to fully reap the advantage of its large stock of population of workable age. Industries, on the other side, are struggling with scarcity of skilled workforce. Progressive actions are needed to take care of future basic minimum living standards including food, water and energy of this promising workforce. Investing in young people, by providing education and employable skills, is critical for their effective utilization. Of late, various governments in India have started looking into this aspect seriously and endeavored to create job opportunities by diversifying industry and encouraging young people’s entry into the work force. They are not so successful yet to enable the young Indians take a smooth transition from academic pursuits to livelihood engagements due to several roadblocks. This is especially important for young girls because appropriate management of family planning and reproductive health is critical for their proactive participation in the work force. Notwithstanding enormous opportunities, India is facing challenges to create marketable avenues for its demographic resources.
This seminar will elaborate in detail on the perspective of the Young People as demographic dividend and discuss their holistic development and challenges. The Seminar will attempt to explore how we can avail India’s advantage and draw a way forward for more informed mechanisms to take stock of youth development in India.
(UVCT) in Nation Building
opportunities are offering better livelihood options and the governments are
making needful policy shift to reduce the curse of unemployment, and on the
other side, the ground realities are progressing at slow pace, Urivi Vikram
Charitable Trust feels that taking stock of the situation of Democratic
Dividend through a National Consultation is crucial. There is a need to
critically assess the challenges and opportunities for the dividend that
increasing demographic stock offers to the country.
6, 2015, is the reiteration of UVCT’s determination to empower the young people
of India and partner with the governments, civil society organizations and
corporates to ensure that this ‘demographic dividend’ is translated into the
productive asset of human resource. A look at employment, education and skill
status of the youth of India would indicate that, perhaps, the country is
losing a great opportunity to utilize dividend optimally from the potential
demographic stock in the country.
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Formation of UVCT
and Activities |
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Urivi Vikram Charitable Trust
(UVCT) established its credentials to uplift young adults both by direct intervention in skill building as well as by instilling self-confidence and self-drive in them, through psychological counseling and career guidance, besides putting them through Life Skill Education. Alongside, a number of vocational training programmes are also undertaken. UVCT, a national level NGO with 23-years standing, and a registered society (Certificate No. 26392 of 1994), is having functional chapters in five states, Delhi, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka. It has been pursuing a mission to strengthen not only economic productivity but also social responsibility of Young People (age group 10-24 years). UVCT is deeply involved in all aspects relating to development of young – from direct intervention by running programs to highlighting issues at national policy making levels. The programs of the Trust cover (i) Life Skills Education; (ii) Livelihood generation ; (iii) Psychological Counseling and Career Guidance; (iv) Women Empowerment; (v) Reforming and Rehabilitating Children-in-conflict with Law; (vi) Financial Support for bright students from poor families. The UVCT’s motto has been to find ways and means to transform India’s ‘Burden of Population’ into an ‘Asset of Human Resources’. It advocates and endeavors to promote holistic growth of young people who are the future of the nation. |
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National and
Regional Meets on Young People |
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UVCT took a pioneering advocacy
campaign, along with several other NGOs and governmental organizations, for appropriate development of adolescent population in the country. Its initiative came at a time, to be realistic, when very little was done on the adolescent agenda. In a bid to overcome this serious omission, a National Consultation was held on “Towards a Policy for Young Adults” in 1999. The outcome of the Meet was compilation of an Advocacy document for a “National Policy for Young Adults”, which was submitted to the Government of India and the Planning Commission of India. Based on this document, the Planning Commission of India constituted the first ever Working Group, by including UVCT as a Member, which brought out a “Report on Adolescents” (2001). In continuation to
this initiative, UVCT organized a Regional
Seminar in 2002 on “National Policy on Adolescents”. It resulted in the first exclusive Scheme of Financial Assistance for Development and Empowerment of Adolescents, in April 2014, with the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports as the nodal agency (Unfortunately, the Scheme lost its identity and got subsumed into National Programme for Youth and Adolescent Development(NPYAD). However, UVCT’s relentless persuasion and campaign culminated into a joint action by the government agencies and the private organizations in holding the second National Meet in 2005 on “Adolescents : Vision 2020”, in a bid to identify the demand-supply gaps. Various government, bilateral and donor agencies have since eventually incorporated adolescent concerns in their policies and programmes for their development.
In
2007, the Urivi Vikram Charitable Trust founded the National Centre for Adolescents (UVNAC) at Dwarka, New Delhi, and carried forward its mission to champion the concerns of the young people. |
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Other notable
endeavors of the Trust |
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The Trust organizes Careers Melas in Delhi and various other places of the country. The Trust has conducted studies on a wide range of issues related to adolescents and young people. The project Shakti was launched with an avowed objective of harnessing the enormous energies of school dropouts. The UN Inter Agency Working Group on Population and Development while evolving their programme on “Life Skill for Health Promotion of Out-of-school Adolescents”(2002), graciously accepted that it was on the basis of Shakti programme of UVCT. Skill development has been made the prime focus of the activities in all its Centers spread across five states of India. |
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you may kindly contact H.R. Bangia Director (Coordination) at h.r.bangia@gmail.com (09811326670) or Rinu
Suresh Nambiar (Seminar Coordinator) at rinusureshonly@gmail.com
(08527276778).
