Plan to involve youth in policy formulation

The HinduIN DISCUSSION: (From left) Pratik Prakashbapu Patil, Minister for State Youth Affairs &Sports; K. Kasturirangan, Member, Planning Commission and C.R. Kesavan, deputy president, RGNIYD at a function at Sriperumbudur on Wednesday. Photo: R. Ragu

The Ministry of Youth Affairs plans to set up a portal to provide a forum for the youth to participate in formulation of policy, Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports Pratik Prakashbapu Patil said on Wednesday.

Addressing the Foundation Day celebrations of the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development (RGNIYD), Mr. Patil said the portal sought to give voice to the aspirations of the youth and increasingly engage them in the planning process. “The Ministry is planning to move youth affairs to the foreground of planning and policy-making and encourage youth to have a say in governance.”

According to him, the Education Ministry was also conceiving interdisciplinary courses in medicine and engineering. For instance, doctors these days needed to have a bit of engineering skills to implant mechanical devices and lawyers had to have a fair level of expertise in an area such as DNA testing.

The Minister released the Youth Development Index and Report and a compendium of articles, ‘Unfolding Tribal Mindset with Focus on North-East of India,' brought out by the RGNIYD.

Delivering the third Foundation Day lecture, K. Kasturirangan, Member, Planning Commission and former ISRO chairman, said the early failures of the country's space missions provided important stepping stones to success.

Using the ISRO experience to encourage the youth to use failures as a learning opportunity, Mr. Kasturirangan said some of the failures such as an occasion when three rockets failed and the fourth was abandoned helped scientists detect faults “early in the game,” and avoid carrying them into bigger vehicles.

He recounted how the ISRO overcame a glitch to facilitate a successful maiden flight for a geosynchronous satellite. India was only the fourth nation to develop such a satellite and it took eight years to assemble. But, the rocket failed to take off after countdown. A team of scientists toiled to work out the possible scenarios for the anomaly and, finally, the satellite was launched in orbit after 18 days.

The ISRO's spirit of innovation that led to the development of some of the world's best remote sensing satellites for specific applications and the team work behind space missions were the other lessons for the youth, Mr. Kasturirangan said.

A.K. Upadhyay, Secretary, Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, called for earmarking a larger role for youth in the nation-building process in the Twelfth Five Year Plan. He pointed out that the estimated 8 million youth enrolled in the two lakh rural youth clubs across the country presented a resource base that could be leveraged to deliver various national programmes.

C. R. Kesavan, RGNIYD vice-president, said the institute aimed to capitalise on the demographic dividend in a country where 40 per cent of the population was in the 15-35 age group.

P. Michael Vetha Siromony, RGNIYD Director, spoke.