Addressing the youth session of the 12th Pravasi Bharatiya Divas here today, he said, the new Youth Policy focuses on Developing the Youth into a productive work force, by providing them the right education and skills and promoting entrepreneurship.
Developing a strong and healthy generation through effective healthcare and promotion of a healthy lifestyle and sports, Promoting social values and spirit of community service, Effectively engaging with the youth and facilitating their participation in governance process and Inclusive policies to take care of disadvantaged sections of youth and the youth with special needs.
He said, The Government of India, through the proposed new National Youth Policy, also intends to promote ‘social entrepreneurship’ as an attractive employment proposition and to create an enabling policy regime for setting up of venture funds and provide angel investment that the social entrepreneurs require. This would facilitate setting up of social ventures in India by the Overseas Indians.
Here is the full text of Minister’s speech:
“I would like to compliment the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs for creating an excellent platform, in the form of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas, for engaging with the distinguished Indian Diaspora from across the world and more so, for deciding to celebrate the first day of the Pravasi Bhartiya Divas this year as the Youth PBD. I also express my gratitude for an opportunity to share my views with all of you on this occasion.
The youth are the most important and dynamic segment of the population in any country. In India, 27.5% of the population belong to the 15-29 year age group while 41.3% are in the 13-35 years age group. By the year 2020, the population of India is expected to have a median age of 28 years only as against 38 years for US, 42 years for China and 48 years for Japan; making India one of the youngest nations in the world. This “demographic dividend” is a fantastic opportunity which we must capitalise on.
A significant section of Indian Diaspora consists of highly skilled young professionals, who have been successful in their respective spheres of work and have earned a name for themselves as well as for the country of their origin making us proud. A recent trend in the past few years has been that a number of young Indians have started returning home – attracted by opportunities created by the fast-growing Indian economy. Most of these individuals are highly skilled young men and women who are either taking senior management positions or are setting up their own enterprises in emerging industries.
Many of them have also started working on developing self-sustaining non-for-profit institutions that work towards promoting various social causes like access to quality education, health education, gender empowerment, social cohesion, etc.
I am glad to mention that the Government of India is in the process of introducing a new National Youth Policy with the vision of empowering the youth of the country to achieve their full potential. The new Youth Policy focuses on:
(i). Developing the Youth into a productive work force, by providing them the right education and skills and promoting entrepreneurship.
(ii). Developing a strong and healthy generation through effective healthcare and promotion of a healthy lifestyle and sports.
(iii). Promoting social values and spirit of community service.
(iv). Effectively engaging with the youth and facilitating their participation in governance process.
(v). Inclusive policies to take care of disadvantaged sections of youth and the youth with special needs.
In this context, the two youth volunteer networks created by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, with pan-India presence, namely, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and National Service Scheme (NSS) can play a very crucial role. NYKS currently has about 8 million non-student youth volunteers enrolled through about 2.80 lakh youth clubs across rural India. NSS has about 3.25 million student volunteers in senior secondary schools and colleges all over the country.
These networks promote social values and the spirit of community service. I encourage the Overseas Indian community to connect to these networks and work with them. In fact, some of brightest NSS volunteers, who have been chosen to participate in the Republic Day Parade this year, are present here today and so are some NYKS volunteers. This is an opportunity for the Indian Diaspora to interact with them.
The Government of India, through the new National Youth Policy, also intends to promote ‘social entrepreneurship’ as an attractive employment proposition and to create an enabling policy regime for setting up of venture funds and provide angel investment that the social entrepreneurs require. This would facilitate setting up of social ventures in India by the Overseas Indians.
I wish to add that my Ministry will seriously work to create an institutional framework under which the Overseas Indians will get an opportunity to come and work with NYKS, NSS or other Social Organisations in India, thereby further strengthening their ties with India.
In the end, I wish to convey my best wishes to all our Overseas Indian friends and all the distinguished delegates present here. I am confident that the deliberations during the Youth PBD today will result in intensifying our relationship with our Overseas Youth Indians.”
