Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangatha: an overview

The Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) is an autonomous community based non-political youth organization of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India. The NYKS was set up in 1972 as Nehru Yuvak Kendra under the erstwhile Ministry of Education. The NYKS today prepares over 11,000 youth leaders every year. Nearly 17000 trained volunteers enrolled every year. Not less than 139 Rural Information Technology Youth Development Centres ( RITYDCs) are associated with it; and it currently has 500 offices all over the country at district headquarters. At present, it has 2.16 lakh village level youth clubs and 80 lakh non-student rural youth affiliated to it in 13-35 age group.

Objectives:

.To form Youth Clubs and involve the youth in nation building activities.

.To develop their values & skills so that they may become responsible and productive citizens of India.

.To act as a catalytic agency in reaching the benefits of Central and State Government Schemes to the rural community in general and the youth in particular.

.To inculcate in the rural youth the spirit of voluntarism and cooperation.

.To utilize NYK'S large Network for development and promotion of programmes in priority sectors such as employment generation, literacy, family welfare, environment conservation, national integration, gender equality and women's empowerment.

Road Map for Future:

.Implementation of National Youth Policy

.Implementation of Rashtriya Sadbhawana Yojana

.Implementation of the schemes for adolescents Disaster Management and preparedness

.Red Ribbon Express

.District Resource Centres (establishment of Library and other infrastructure with the help of Raja Rammohan Roy Library Foundation)
.At least one self reliant Youth Club/ Mahila Mandal in each of 5.5 lakh Indian villages
.Empowerment of youth clubs through IT networking

.Establishing one Rural Information Technology Youth Development Centre in each district
.Establishing 5000 Youth Development Centres all over India by the end of X Five Year Plan

.Covering the entire districts of the country by Nehru Yuva Kendras by the end of X Five Year Plan

.Extending the network of NYKS in all the tribal areas of the country

.Employment generation of youth through joint collaboration with Khadi & Village Industries Commission

During the current year (2009-10) the NYKS have been doing the following functions and activities in various States, as was stated by the Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports, Pratik Prakashbapu Patil in the Lok Sabha today. He further said that an amount of Rs.87.25 crores has been released till date this year against the earmarked funds of Rs.112.00 crores

Functions & Activities:

•Youth Awareness Campaign.

•Capacity Building of Youth for Social Sector Programmes.

•Skill Up-gradation Training Programme for Women in 100 border/tribal/backward districts.

•Incentives and Awards to Youth Clubs.

•Provision of Sports Material for youth clubs.

•Sports Promotion Programme.

•District Folk Cultural Festival.

•Celebration of Important National/International Days & Weeks

•District Youth Convention.

•Grant-in-aid to Youth Clubs

For further information visit: http://www.nyks.org/