NEHRU YUVA KENDRA SANGATHAN

Guwahati, January 4, 2005

Introductory

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) is an autonomous organization of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. NYKS has its offices in 500 districts of the country. NYKS caters to the needs of more than eight million non-student rural youth enrolled through about 2 lakh village-based Youth Clubs. These Youth Clubs work in the areas covering education and training, awareness generation, skill development and self-employment, entrepreneurship development, thrift and co-operation, and also conducts sports and adventure programmes. For implementation of the programmes, every district NYK has a network of trained cadre of District Youth Coordinators, National Service Volunteers and members of Youth Clubs/Mahila Mandals.

NYKS accomplishes its task through two categories of programmes i.e. 'Regular Programmes' such as Youth Club Development, Vocational Training, Work Camp, Awareness Generation, Cultural Programme, Sports promotion, Adventure Promotion, Seminars and Workshops and Celebration of National and International Days/ Weeks and secondly the 'Schemes' entrusted to it by the Ministry viz. National Service Volunteers scheme, Financial Assistance to Youth Clubs at District, State and National level and Youth Development Centre. Some of the programmes during 2003-04 are as follows:

• Youth Club Development

  The main objective of this programme is to promote the Youth Club movement in the country. The aim is to mobilize, educate and train the rural youth in their respective villages so that they can actively take part in developmental and community welfare activities on the one hand and become self-supporting Youth Clubs on the other. Under this programme, a five-day orientation camp for 25 youth is organized followed by a campaign. Through this activity, 1014 programmes have been organized in which a total of 26942 youth participated.

• Awareness Generation

  The programme is designed to address any immediate or prevailing problem or issue of local and social importance, affecting the life of the people, particularly the youth in rural areas. It is also to share experiences and provide information to Youth Clubs about the development programmes and schemes of various departments and agencies in their respective districts so that they can get benefit out of them. During the year, NYKS organized 1286 programmes in which a total of 192461 youth participated.

• Vocational Training

  The principal objective of this programme is to update and improve vocational skills of the rural youth so that they may supplement their income form their existing occupation, improve productivity from existing skills and learn new skills for which there is increasing demand in their districts. Under this activity, 4801 programmes were organized to benefit 105131 youth.

• Sports Promotion

  The basic objective of this programme is to promote the sports culture and a spirit of sportsmanship among the rural youth. It also aims at popularizing rural sports and games, which require minimum infrastructure, equipment and finance.

• Cultural Programmes

  The main objective is to promote and encourage the local folk art and culture of rural India, and through these to convey important social messages. NYKS organized 1002 cultural programmes with a participation of 215838 youth.

• Work Camps

  The objective is to foster among the rural youth a sense of dignity of labour, leadership qualities, promote skills and capacity for implementation of schemes and management of community assets. Each camp is of 5 days' duration involving at least 25 youth. Besides physical activities hat the work camps involve, the opportunity is also used for discussing social and developmental issues. With these objectives, 876 Work Camps have been organized in which a total of 53762 youth participated.

• Adventure Promotion

  In order to inculcate a spirit of adventure, self-determination, discipline, unity and sense of belongingness among rural youth, adventure programmes are organized. NYKS organized 641 such programmes in which 19858 youth participated.