Shillong, May 29: The Department of Youth Affairs, Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, on Friday began a two-day Chintan Shivir at IIM Shillong with officers of the department, MY Bharat, and National Service Scheme to strengthen youth engagement and improve programme delivery for Viksit Bharat.
Speaking on the occasion, Union Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said MY Bharat, with 2.17 crore youth volunteers, has become a national movement of public participation. He called for taking MY Bharat to every district and block, urged National Youth Volunteers to emerge as community leaders, and stressed measuring impact through outcomes.
He announced an anti-drug campaign from June 26 to August 15, programmes in 150 institutions for 150 years of Vande Mataram, and MY Bharat Centres in all 783 districts.
Union Minister of State Raksha Nikhil Khadse said the campaign aims to share ideas and field experiences for Viksit Bharat 2047, highlighted the Northeast’s sports culture, and called for stronger coordination with states to expand the MY Bharat Portal’s reach.
The two-day event is to discuss strengthening youth engagement, improving programme delivery and advancing the vision of Viksit Bharat through youth-led development.
Dr. Priyanka Shukla, CEO, MY Bharat presented the strategic priorities and implementation framework under the Annual Action Plan.
The first day featured sessions on transformational leadership development, annual action planning, youth club best practices, digital youth engagement through the MY Bharat Portal, experiential learning programmes, volunteering opportunities and strengthening institutional mechanisms under MY Bharat and NSS.
Representatives from Assam, West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand and Manipur shared successful models and field experiences relating to youth mobilisation, portal registration, volunteering initiatives and community engagement, facilitating cross-learning among participants.
The deliberations during the first day focused on strengthening grassroots youth engagement, promoting institutional convergence, enhancing programme impact and developing actionable solutions for effective implementation of youth-centric initiatives across the country.
