Srinagar, Oct 25: The J&K government has conceived a pioneering initiative of youth clubs to engage and empower youth as partners in governance under the aegis of Mission Youth, an official spokesman said here Tuesday.
According to the official spokesman, the clubs established in 2021 aim to offer the youth of J&K an opportunity to become change-makers and around 4290 clubs had been formed.
The volunteers in youth clubs are trained to work through real challenges and make meaningful changes.
These volunteers develop a civic identity as leaders and change-makers and become socially more socially active.
The volunteers in these clubs are being trained in all aspects of government schemes and are part of emergency and crisis management plans and subsequently involved in planning and decision-making. The clubs serve as the focal point for positive engagement of the youth and endeavour to strive that they do not fall for radical propaganda and other social issues that trouble our youth.
Rs 7.25 crore has been provided as grant-in-aid for specified activities of the youth clubs in the last financial year and Youth Engagement programs have been convened in all districts through these youth clubs and more than 2 lakh youth have been associated with the program.
Aqib, a youth volunteer from Pulwama, said that they were always feeling alienated from the system but after joining the youth club were feeling part of the system and governance.
He said they were supporting the government in the drug de-addiction campaign in every Panchayat of the district.
“We will make Pulwama a drug-free district within the next few months,” he said.
In Poonch district, the youth volunteers feel jubilant about their participation in the socio-economic expansion of their district.
“The process of developmental planning and governance apparatus was never as much participatory as made by this novel initiative of the government,” said Rameez of Poonch. “Our youth volunteers organized scores of community-oriented activities during last year. We were able to plant more than 30000 saplings including Chinars in the district in a single go.”
Similarly in Budgam district, youth volunteers are participating actively in every welfare programme of the government. The mega COVID vaccination and de-worming programme in the district were organised by youth volunteers in collaboration with the health authorities.
“We ensured to reach every child of every household in every panchayat,” said Mehjabeen, one of the lead members of the youth volunteer programme.