UNICEF and Sports Ministry to Collaborate for Atmanirbhar Bharat

July 20, 2020

The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India has signed an agreement with the UNICEF in order to mobilize 1 crore youth volunteers at the earliest in order to achieve the goals of Atmanirbhar Bharat. This has been signed by the Sports Minister, Kiren Rijiju and the UNICEF officials in India.

Highlights

The agreement signed by UNICEF and Sports Ministry is a step towards realizing the vision of mobilizing 1 crore volunteers to contribute to PM’s vision of Atmanirbhar Bharat. The Ministry has entered into this agreement with YuWaah, a multi-stakeholder platform formed by the UNICEF and it will work in partnership to promote volunteerism among the youth in India as well as to help them transition from education and learning to productive work, skilling and becoming active citizens of the country.

This is a very important partnership during the challenging times and it is going to give a strong focus to the existing policies of the government in which the PM has already called for a clearly-charted roadmap for the youths in the country. The government will also be able to listen to the ideas and views of the young people through this initiative.

Under this program, both the parties will work with young people to create and implement solutions tackling education, skilling and unemployment issues for young people in India. It will also include collaboration on supporting young people in entrepreneurship, up-skilling young people, creating linkages with aspirational socio-economic opportunities, promoting change-making and civic participation among the young people, supporting a direct dialogue and the establishment of a feedback mechanism between young people and policymakers. The agreement will also focus on capacity building of the NSS and NYKS cadres and volunteer forces.

YuWaah Initiative

Generation Unlimited, known as YuWaah India, is a global multi-sectoral and multi-stakeholder alliance created to meet the need of education, skill development and employment opportunities for young people aged between 10-24 years. It brings together partners from both the government and the private sector. The scheme will include adolescent girls and boys and the main objective is to promote access to foundational, transferrable and 21st-century skills for youth inside and outside the conventional education systems prevalent in the world.

UNICEF

The United Nations International Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is a UN agency mainly tasked with providing humanitarian and developmental assistance to children all over the world. It is headquartered in the New York City, USA. UNICEF has a presence in 192 countries and it is also the most widespread UN Agency across the world. Its activities include immunizations and disease prevention, administering treatment for children and mothers with HIV, improving childhood and maternal nutrition, promoting sanitation, education, etc.