Case9-April-2013

Youth and Development

Working with youth – need of the hour

Working for / with youth is need of the hour to regulate the energy and motivation of young souls in right direction for self & state development. India is largest country in the world with highest number of youth population. As per 2001 census, 41% of total population belongs to youth category (13 to 35 years). And out of total youth 2/3rd are living in rural areas. For ensuring sustainable development & national building the contribution of youth are inevitable. But, in current situation youth are facing multiple issues such as

• No or lack of guidance on career / life planning. This dilutes the energy of youth and builds dilemma on their future. Also it mis-directs the youth force in to negative and useless purposes.
• Right kind of counseling in the adolescent ages on health & hygiene aspects are essential to build health seeking behavior among youth.
• There exists a great gap among the opportunities available for urban youth & rural youth. Rural and tribal youth are more vulnerable in economic society, exclusion in mainstream systems is observed to rural youth community.
• Addressing youth issues in right attitude will serve great impact to human kind.

“Youth” as a theme in DHAN Foundation

The theme on ‘Youth and development’ was launched in DHAN Foundation on October 02, 2010. The theme focuses on bringing youth in the development arena and shaping them as more vibrant and productive force of the society. Poverty reduction will spell better way when the right choice of career life and livelihood is made available to each youth in the early stages. It has direct relevance to DHAN’s mission of poverty reduction.

By enabling the life skills and functional education to youth in the early life stages will help them to be selfreliant and also it will provide space to consolidate the energy for common cause. Since youth is seen as the vibrant section of the society, the theme aims at building them with necessary health, education and employment opportunities to uplift their lifestyle.

The new theme on youth and Development aims at building the youth group with skill and value education in order to make them as a vibrant social capital in the society. The characteristic factors of youth group are as follow,

• Youth is a stage wherein full-time education gets over.
• Living /leaving parental home and establishing new living arrangements.
• Set of personal relationship and responsibilities are generated as part of matrimonial part.
• It is a stage wherein settlement in a career happens and livelihood gets established.
• It is critical stage which has more susceptibility toward external environment.

The age group of the youth is getting defined in various terms by various institutions at global level. Similarly, different age groups of the youth have different set of requirements in relation to their life stage and lifestyle. The expectations from the youth are always at higher order for education and employment.

Youth action in existing programmes of DHAN Foundation:

1. Among the members covered through the thematic institutions of DHAN Collecitve namely Kalanjiam foundation & Vayalagam foundation an amount of 50% of total members are in youth category which covers around 2.5 lakhs of youth. In addition to that, around 10% youth are occupying leadership space at community level which covers around 25,000 youth.
2. The themes on Working with Panchayats & ICT are providing direct thrust to building and organizing youth for community development. The experiences from these themes are getting incorporated
3. The subsidiary institutions of DHAN Collective namely Tata–Dhan Academy, Dhan People Academy, LIFE (Livelihood Initiatives for Functional Education) centre & CHRD (Centre for Human Resource Development) are almost 100% working for youth. The primary purposes of these institutions are “grooming youth with social concern and build attitude, skill & knowledge of youth for development action with grassroots’.
4. The present manpower of DHAN Foundation is around 750. However, the average age of DHAN Foundation is around 30. Hence, DHAN as an institution itself is “youth” institution.

The theme is initiated with a view to integrate the youth section with the existing programmes of the institution. The theme would operate both as a standalone and cross cutting one within the existing programmes.