The Government will introduce a new National Youth Policy with an aim of “empowering the youth” and developing them into a productive workforce.

 Speaking at the Youth Session of the 12 Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi, Youth Affairs and Sports Minister Jitendra Singh today said that the new policy seeks to attain the above goals by providing the right education and skills and promoting entrepreneurship.

“The government is in the process of introducing a new National Youth Policy with the vision of empowering the youth of the country to achieve their full potential,” Singh said.

The new policy also focuses on developing a strong and healthy generation through effective healthcare and promotion of a healthy lifestyle and sports, he added.

The policy aims at effectively engaging with the youth and facilitating their participation in governance and envisages inclusive programmes to take care of the disadvantaged sections of youth and youth with special needs.

Talking about the two youth volunteer networks created by his ministry Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) and National Service Scheme (NSS), he said that the two schemes can play a vital role in this regard.

NYKS currently has about 8 million non-student youth volunteers enrolled through approximately 2.80 lakh youth clubs across rural India.

Similarly, NSS has about 3.25 million student volunteers in senior secondary schools and colleges across the country.

“I encourage the Overseas Indian community to connect with these networks and work with them,” he said.

“The policy also seeks to promote social entrepreneurship as an attractive employment proposition and to create an enabling policy regime for setting up of venture funds and provide angel investment which social entrepreneurs would require. This would facilitate setting up of social ventures in India by Overseas Indians,” he said.

Singh added that his ministry would work to create an institutional framework under which overseas Indians will get an opportunity to work with NYKS, NSS and other such organisations.