With a view to achieving the objectives of developing the personality and leadership qualities of the youth and to engage them in nation building activities, the Government has decided to continue the Scheme of “Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram” over the 15th Finance Commission Cycle (2021-22 to 2025-26) at an outlay of Rs 2,710.65 Crore.
The Union Minister for Youth Affairs & Sports, Shri Anurag Singh Thakur, thanked the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for approving the continuation of the Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram (RYSK) Scheme. The Minister stated, “On behalf of the Ministry and all stakeholders, I express our deep gratitude to the Prime Minister for extending the tenure of the Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram Scheme for another five years as well as bringing it into national prominence.”
The RYSK Scheme is the flagship Central Sector Scheme of the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports. The Scheme beneficiaries are the youth in the age-group of 15-29 years, in line with the definition of ‘youth’ in the National Youth Policy, 2014. In case of programme components specifically meant for the adolescents, the beneficiaries are in the age-group of 10-19 years. The programmes of RYSK Scheme are implemented through seven sub-schemes: –
(i) Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan(NYKS)
(ii) National Youth Corps (NYC)
(iii) National Programme for Youth & Adolescent Development (NPYAD)
(iv) International Cooperation
(v) Youth Hostels (YH)
(vi) Assistance to Scouting & Guiding Organizations
(vii) National Young Leaders Programme (NYLP).
Under the NYKS Sub-Scheme of RYSK, at present there are about 50.34 Lakh youth volunteers enrolled through 2.57 Lakh Youth Clubs and cover 623 Districts across the country
The primary objective of the RYSK Scheme is to motivate the youth to strive for excellence in their respective fields and to bring them to the forefront of the development process. It seeks to harness the immense youth energy for national – building.
The RYSK Scheme aims at promotion of National Integration, Adventure, Youth Leadership and Personality Development, Development and Empowerment of Adolescents, Technical and Resource Development.
The RYSK Scheme programme include Skilling and Handholding-Aatma Nirbhar Bharat, Combating COVID-19: Mass Awakening and Action Campaign, Establishing Disaster Risk Reduction & Preparedness Teams, Youth led Fit India Movement, Youth Wellness and Positive Life Style, Training of Youth on Clean Village-Green Village-Catch the Rain, Youth Club Development Campaign-Formation of Action Plan, Observance of Days of National Importance, National Youth Day & Week, District Youth Convention, Awards to Outstanding Youth Clubs and Declamation Contest& Nation Building, Tribal Youth Exchange Programmes, North-East Youth Exchange Programme and other Youth Exchange Porgrammes. Apart from this, Catch the Rain Project in collaboration with National Water Mission, Jal Shakti Mantralya, Involvement of Youth in Namami Gange Project in collaboration with National Mission for Clean Ganga, Investor Awareness Programme in collaboration with Investor Education and Protection Fund Authority(IEPFA), Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Futher, the National Youth Festival, North-East Youth Festival, Neighbourhood Youth Parliament, International Youth Exchange Programmes and various International Youth Summits/Meetings/conferences viz. BRICS Youth Summit, Youth-20 Summit, IBSA Youth Summit, Commonwealth Youth Meetings, SCO Meetings etc. are organized.
The Ministry of Youth Affairs has been granted the fund of Rs. 41.60 Crore for creation of National Yuva Volunteer Registry under the RYSK Scheme. The creation of National Yuva Volunteer Registry will facilitate quick and effective mobilization and deployment of volunteers and enable real-time tracking of volunteer work in the country.
In pursuance of clarion call of the Prime Minister in Mann Ki Baat, the National Youth Parliament is being organized under the RYSK Scheme. The 1st National Youth Parliament was organized in 2018-19 and during the year 2020-21, the National Youth Parliament was organized in 36 States/UTs with participation of 2,34,353 youths.
The Ministry also collaborates with UN Agencies like United Nations Volunteers (UNV)/United National Development Programme (UNDP) and the Commonwealth Youth Programme (CYP) on various youth related issues. Under the RYSK Scheme, Youth Hostels provide good accommodation for the youth at reasonable rates and financial assistance is provided to scouting and guiding organizations.
The other features of the Scheme are broadly retained for continuity and strengthening of the established good practices. Besides, the Scheme has been rationalised by making it leaner and simplifying the structure and approval process, as well as by removing the redundancies and syntactical deficiencies.
As per the vision and direction of Prime Minister, the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports is implementing the programmes under the RYSK scheme for youth development and empowerment across the country. As part of commemoration of “Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav” Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports had taken up Clean India campaign wherein more than 1.14 Crore Kgs of waste, mainly Single Use Plastic were collected with the participation of more than 98 lakhs youth volunteers from all over the country. One of the activities of Department of Youth Affairs has been popularizing volunteerism among the youth as volunteerism teaches the youth to learn from each-other and find new opportunities and resources and build confidence & capabilities. They are also encouraged to take part in volunteerism on mass scale as has been evident from involvement of Youth Volunteers during the Covid-19 pandemic and Clean India Campaign.