11 October 2023: The Union Cabinet, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, has approved establishment of an autonomous body Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat) to serve as an overarching enabling mechanism powered by technology for youth development and youth led development and provide equitable access to youth to actualize their aspirations and build Viksit Bharat across the entire spectrum of the Government.
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| The Union Minister for Defence, Shri Rajnath Singh in a group photograph with CEOs and other top industry leaders of Italian defence companies at Rome, in Italy on October 10, 2023. |
Impact:
The primary objective of Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat) is to make it a whole of Government platform for youth development. Under the new arrangement, with access to resources & connection to opportunities, youth would become community change agents and nation builders allowing them to act as the Yuva Setu between the Government and the citizens. It seeks to harness the immense youth energy for nation-building.
Details:
Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat), an autonomous body will benefit the youth in the age-group of 15-29 years, in line with the definition of ‘Youth’ in the National Youth Policy. In case of programme components specifically meant for the adolescents, the beneficiaries will be in the age-group of 10-19 years.
The establishment of Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat) would lead to:
Leadership Development in the Youth:
Improve the leadership skills through experiential learning by shifting from isolated physical interaction to programmatic skills.
Investing more in youth to make them social innovators, leaders in the communities.
Setting the focus of the Government on Youth Led development and to make the Youth “active drivers” of development and not merely “passive recipients”.
Better alignment between youth aspirations and community needs.
Enhanced efficiency through Convergence of existing programmes.
Act as a one stop shop for young people and Ministries.
Create a centralized youth data base.
Improved two-way communication to connect youth government initiatives and activities of other stakeholder that engage with youth.
Ensuring accessibility b creating a physical ecosystem.
Background:
With a view to engage youth and their empowerment guided by the principles of ‘whole of government approach’, in a rapidly changing world, which has an environment of high velocity communications, social media, new digital opportunities and emergent technologies the Government has decided to establish overarching enabling mechanism in a form of a new Autonomous Body, namely Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat).