Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram

India is one of the youngest nations in the world and is expected to have a very favorable demographic profile in the time to come.  This is referred to as the Demographic Dividend i.e., the power of the working people who can increase the productivity of the country.  In India, youth in the age-group of 15-29 years constitute 27.5% of the population. It is expected that by the year 2020, the population of India would have a median age of 28 years only as against 38 years for US, 42 years for China and as high as 48 years for Japan. This ‘demographic dividend’ offers a great opportunity.  The challenge before the nation is to develop and empower its huge youth population as productive work force.  The Government has introduced National Youth Policy, 2014 with the VISION  “To empower youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations".  The Department of Youth Affairs has been operating a number of Schemes for development and empowerment of youth. Some of the Schemes have Annual Outlay of less than Rs.10 crores.  In order to improve the effectiveness of these Schemes, it has been considered necessary to merge these Schemes into a single Scheme, which can act as the flagship scheme of the Department.  This will help in achieving better synergies between the Schemes and thereby, improve their effectiveness and help in achieving better outcomes with the available resources.  The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has a new umbrella Scheme called ‘Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakaram’ (RYSK) along with two other schemes namely National Service Scheme (NSS) and Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD) for the development of adolescents and youth of the country. The proposed financial allocation for the above Schemes for 2016-17 is Rs. 500 crores under Plan and Rs. 96 crores under Non Plan.  The Scheme beneficiaries shall be the youth in the age-group of 15-29 years, in line with the definition of ‘youth’ in the National Youth Policy, 2014.  In case of programme components specifically meant for the adolescents, the age-group shall be 10-19 years.  The following existing Schemes/ Programmes shall get subsumed in the Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram (RYSK):  Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS).  National Youth Corps (NYC).  National Programme for Youth and Adolescent Development (NPYAD).  International Cooperation (IC).  Youth Hostels (YH).  Assistance to Scouting and Guiding Organisations. National Discipline Scheme (NDS)  National Young Leaders Programme (NYLP).  Source: PIB