India 2018

578 India 2018
29
Youth
Affairs fairs and Sports
THE youth represent the most dynamic and vibrant segment of the population.
India is one of the youngest nations in the world, with about 65 per cent of the
population under 35 years of age. The youth in the age group of 15-29 years
comprise 27.5 per cent of the population. It is estimated that by the year 2020,
the population of India would have a median age of 28 years only. This
'demographic dividend' offers a great opportunity. In order to capture this
demographic dividend, it is essential that the economy has the ability to support
the increase in the labour force and the youth have the appropriate education,
skills, health awareness and other enablers to productively contribute to the
economy. The Government of India makes significant investment on
programmes for the youth, through various Ministries/Departments.
National Youth Policy
The National Youth Policy, 2014 (NYP-2014) was launched in 2014, replacing
the erstwhile National Youth Policy, 2003. NYP-2014 has been finalised after
extensive consultations with all the stakeholders. The Policy defines 'youth' as
persons in the age-group of 15-29 years.
Schemes for Youth
The Department of Youth Affairs was operating a number of schemes for
development and empowerment of youth. Some of the schemes had Annual
outlay of less than ` 10 crores. In order to improve the effectiveness of these
schemes, it was considered necessary to merge these schemes into a single
scheme, which can act as the flagship scheme of the Department. This would
help in achieving better synergies between the schemes and thereby, improve
their effectiveness and help in achieving better outcomes with the available
resources.
The Department undertook a comprehensive exercise to re-structure/
consolidate all the schemes which are now being operated by Department of
Youth Affairs into 3 flagship Schemes as follows:
S. Names of Old Schemes
No.
1. Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS)
2. National Youth Corps (NYC)
3. National Programme for Youth & Adolescent
Development (NPYAD)
4. International Cooperation
Names of New Schemes
Merged into a new 'umbrella' Scheme
called "Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran
Karyakram (RYSK)".