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Year End Review - 2004
A scheme for development and empowerment of adolescence, strengthening of Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, convergence with various Ministries to empower two lakh youth clubs, adoption of 500 villages for their all round development by devoted cadre of youth, formulation of Rashtriya Sadbhavna Yojna were the highlights of the department of Youth Affairs. A National Committee for preparation of draft National Plan of Action has been set up under the chairpersonship of Secretary, Youth Affairs and Sports to effectively implement the National Youth Policy 2003. During the year the report of the National Commission for the Youth has been laid in the Parliament and its recommendations are being examined.
In the arena of Sports, sanctioning of new infrastructure projects, synergy with National Sports Federations, several new measures to promote sports in the country, task force for upgrading SAI infrastructure for Common Wealth Games 2010, publication of District sports infrastructure directory and a new website (Sportal) on national and international sports persons marked the major activities the Sports wing of the Ministry.
The Scheme for Development and Empowerment of Adolescents:
A new scheme has been approved and launched by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for the development and empowerment of adolescents accounting for 22.8 per cent of our population. This is the first ever scheme of the Government of India focusing on issues relating to adolescents in the age group of 10-12 years. The Ministry provides financial assistance to youth clubs, non-governmental agencies and institutions for taking up life skill education (including thinking skills, social skills and negotiating skills); Environment Building (activities like thematic competitions, exhibitions, street threatre, parents and teachers workshops etc.); Seminars and workshops; Career Guidance Melas; Residential Camps and Research and technical resource development. The District Collectors throughout the country have been requested to forward viable proposals in this regard. Counselling centres for adolescents and other projects have been sanctioned in a number of districts in the country.
Convergence of initiatives in the area of youth welfare:
For the efficient delivery of the services to the rural areas in the country, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has focused on both intra-ministerial and inter-ministerial convergences for effectively involving the youth in delivering education, health, rural development and environment related awareness programmes to the door steps of the rural people. These steps have been taken to make the optimum use of the youth force which is perhaps the largest youth volunteers force in the world. While the Youth Clubs, Sports clubs and Mahila Mandals account for over 8 million rural non-student youth, there are over 2 million student youth under the National Service Scheme.
Some of the recent initiatives with regard to convergence include; Convergence between the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and National Service Scheme at both the policy and the implementation is being forged, 500 District Youth and Reasource Centres to establish linkages with training institutes/banks etc to disseminate information regarding recruitment schedule; setting up of libraries in Districts Youth and Resource Centres in collaboration with the Ministry of Culture, preparing mid-day meals in collaboration of Ministry of HRD, management of Anganwadis in uncovered areas in collaboration with the Department of Women and Child Development, mobilisation of awareness generation about HIV/AIDS, pulse polio immunisation collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and training of rural youth volunteers in the task of disaster management in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development:
The government this year has taken major initiatives to strengthen the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of National Youth Development, Sriperumbudur with a focus on making it an international centre of excellence for youth development. Accordingly, four additional academic divisions namely, (i) Training, Evaluation and Extension; (ii) Research, Evaluation and Documentation/Publication; (iii) Panchayati Raj and Youth Affairs and (iv) International Centre for Excellence in Youth Development have been created. The existing Academic Division has been renamed as Social Harmony and National Unity. Fourteen new posts have been created to man these divisions, as well as strengthen the administrative wing. These posts have been advertised and the faculty would be selected soon.
Separately, various steps have been taken to provide proper infrastructure for the institution in its campus at Sriperumbudur. The existing infrastructure is not only grossly inadequate but is lying incomplete for the last many years due to contractual disputes. The contract has been cancelled and work is being allotted to CPWD. In addition, construction of an auditorium at an estimated cost of rupees two Crore has also been taken up.
Gandhi Gramodaya Sankalp Abhiyan:
The Nehru Yuva Kendra launched on the 2nd October 2004, the Gandhi Gramodaya Sankalp Abhiyan aiming at transforming mahatma Gandhi’s vision of the self-reliant village into a reality. The aim is to take the first step towards “Gram Swaraj” by promoting the creation of 500 model villages in 500 districts of India where NYKS has its presence.
The objectives of the scheme include; preparing a voluntary and devoted cadre of young men and women from each selected village to work for all round development of their village, to give a new thrust to the NYKS programmes for attainment of village Swaraj, to create Gram Vikas Nidhi (Village Development fund) for realising the dream of self-reliant village and to seek cooperation of government agencies implementing schemes for rural development. The Youth force involved in this task would work towards strengthening of Panchayati Raj, promoting communal harmony and cast amity, removing social evils and superstitious practices, implementing prohibition, and converging and maintaining all natural water resources. It will also work towards total literacy and universalisation of elementary education under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
Rashtriya Sadbhavana Yojana:
A new scheme “Rashtriya Sadbhavana Yojana” has been prepared by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports to harness the energies of the youth and to rekindle in them a spirit of patriotism and love for social harmony. Under the scheme, the volunteers will be enrolled from the best performing youth clubs and mahila mandals to motivate their participating in the national building. The task of volunteers (named as Sathis) would be to mobilize youth and inculcate in them the zeal to participate in programmes for youth and community development. They would be trained in educational, employment, social and cultural issues affecting the youth in order to enable them to become peer educators. They would spread awareness about national integration, national unity, social harmony and brotherhood. They would also make youth and communities aware about social evils like gender discrimination, caste barriers etc and social practices and behaviours like smoking, drinking and drug taking. The scheme is likely to be finalised and launched soon.
SPORTS
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports implements a number of schemes for creation of sports infrastructure in the country. Under the scheme of Grants for Creation of Sport Infra-Structure, the Ministry provides grants to the State Governments, NGOs, and Universities etc for creating infra-structural sports facilities. Under this scheme, a large number of projects have been sanctioned. In addition, a sum of rupees 10 crore has been released for 63 projects during the current year. Similarly a total assistance of rupee 3.40 crore has been given to 380 rural schools for purchase of sports equipments and development of play fields during the period. An assistance of 12 crore rupees have been given to 465 colleges/universities for purchase of consumables and non-consumable sports equipment. Preparations are also on for the common wealth games scheduled to be held in Delhi in 2010. Pursuant to this, a group of Ministers (GoM) has been constituted for coordinating the work in this regard. The first meeting of the GoM was chaired by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh. A Task Force has been constituted for upgrading Sports Authority of India (SAI) infrastructure for the Common Wealth Games 2010 and its first meeting has already been held.
With a view to strengthening scouting talent in the country, ten additional units of Army Boys Sports Company (ABSC) have been sanctioned. About a dozen national and international level elite sportspersons have been assisted under the National Talent Search & Training Scheme. The State Sports Academy Scheme is also being revised to make it more attractive to the Sponsors. A decision has also been taken to bring the six schemes of the Ministry under one umbrella to avoid overlapping of objectives and duplication of efforts. These schemes relates to Incentives, Awards, Infrastructure, Talents Search & Training, Events and Institutions.
As a measure to improve transparency and accountability, representatives from National Sports Federations are now being invited for discussions at the time of clearance of their proposals. The federations are being made aware of their obligations under the guidelines for assistance and for making efforts to ensure compliance.
A district wise directory has been prepared giving detailed information about the existing sports infra-structure with a view to streamline the system of selection of sites for sanction of new infra-structure. The listed infrastructure is now being rated to ensure their better utilisation.
An assistance of over rupee 30 crore has been released to recognised National Sports Federations for participation of sports persons in national and international events, for conducting sports events in the country and also for purchase of sports equipment.
Intensive discussions have been held with the major national sports federations at the highest level in the Ministry to work out strategies for preparing Indian sports persons in various discipline for participation in the international events in 2005 and 2006 and as well as the next Olympics.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports organized a ‘Run for Sports’ to mark the National Sports Day, August 29,2004 in an effort to generate sports awareness amongst the people in general and youth in particular. Flags were distributed to collect funds for the National Sports Development Fund which is operated by the Ministry. The National Sports Development Fund was set up with a view to mobilize funds from various sources for the promotion of excellence in sports. Assistance from this fund has been availed of by a number of sports persons. Major RVS Rathore, Silver Medalist in the Athens Olympic Games has also been given a significant amount as assistance for further specialised training.
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