Youth comprise about 19% of the total population in India. The response of the non profit sector to constructively engage young people with issues of the underprivileged and marginalized has been sporadic and scattered. There is need for well-designed, inter-linked and focused spaces for them to interface and encourage youth action as a sector in development. Consequently, the Trust is focusing on building a clearing house for engagement of youth through its Youth and Civil Society initiative, which is structured at the following levels: (a) direct action programmes to generate learning from field action; (b) common platform that brings these projects and other youth focused organisations together; and (c) open programmes such as diploma courses, summer schools, fellowships, camps that offer exciting opportunities for engagement of youth and also serve to disseminate learnings.

While the Trust reaches out to 13,000 youth directly through its partners witin the Youth & Civil Society Initiative, there is an increased realization that mainstreaming of such work and experiences require: a) encouraging non youth focused organizations to integrate youth development agenda in their overall community development program; b) encouraging linkages with larger national youth level bodies such as Nehru Yuva Kendras, Bharat Scouts and Guides and National Service Schemes; and c) developing programs to connect youth and non youth focused organizations on a common platform and promotes active citizenship among youth in the country. This requires pooling of resources and competencies, as no single organization, by itself, can take this large agenda forward. Consequently, a group of individuals that are passionate about youth development and have rich experience in the field were called for initial consultations and the ‘Youth collective’ was conceptualized. These include academicians, professionals from civil society organisations, media persons and donor agencies. Further consultations led to identification of gaps in youth development sector, defining the agenda, developing meaningful programs, roles and structure of the Collective, among others. The proposed program is an outcome of series of consultations with the Collective. (Click here to read more)

A few notable organisations being supported within the Trust’s Youth and Civil Society Initiative include:

Centre for Civil Society (CCS), New Delhi
The Centre for Civil Society has been conducting innovative programmes for the youth of the country. The Trust is supporting CCS’ efforts towards encouraging youth participation in civil society, through well designed education programmes for college students and those in schools of journalism and media. The educational programmes cover the following: (a) Liberty and Society Seminar (LSS), which seeks to create change agents by promoting understanding of public policy and its implication on people; and (b) Research internship for facilitating understanding of social and economic issues by providing training in critical thinking, research, analysis and writing.

Pravah, New Delhi

Partners for Urban Knowledge, Action & Research (PUKAR), Mumbai
PUKAR undertakes and supports inter-disciplinary and multi-sectoral research in urban studies, with Mumbai as its base. Its main projects are in the area of: (a) gender and space, which includes research in different localities to understand factors influencing women’s access to public space and then engagement with colleges of architecture for dissemination; (b) neighborhood projects involving research and documentation of localities by citizens; (c) post-industrial landscapes which focus on documentation of industrial sites and districts through mapping and photography, on conducting interviews with workers and managements and through discussions and pedagogy, exploring the implications of the shift from manufacturing to services in Mumbai; and (d) writing across the city on documenting the multilingual literary histories including theatre, fiction and poetry produced in the city in at least nine Indian languages and facilitating translations across them to stimulate public discussion on cosmopolitanism. The Trust’s support is towards a youth centered knowledge building initiative on development issues through scientific research and dissemination that aims to reach out to 1,800 youth in Mumbai and Thane district, Maharashtra. It is based on PUKAR’s experience that research is a powerful strategy, especially with youth, to help citizens relate with larger context of the city and their roles as citizens. With Trust support, PUKAR is initiating such work with 600 young persons each year through 30 senior fellows in Mumbai city and Thane district.

MITRA Technology Foundation, New Delhi
Set up in the year 2000, MITRA focuses on application of information technology in the social sector, particularly in the volunteering sector. In its early years, the organisation supported non profits in adapting information technology and researched e-governance initiatives. Its interventions in the volunteering sector are through iVolunteer, which started as a channel on icicicommunities.org. It has since then emerged as an important player in the volunteering sector through operating volunteer bureau across the country. Currently, the Trust is supporting the organisation towards the latter’s iVolunteer India Fellows project. MITRA Technology Foundation is working with 16 undergraduate students in Delhi. The fellows are selected through a round of interviews and an orientation workshop conducted to orient fellows on working with civil society organisations and rural issues. The fellows are then placed in non profit organisations for a period of six to eight weeks, where they will be associated with the work of the respective organisation or focus on an independent project, which will be facilitated by the respective organisation.

Foundation for Education and Development (FED), Jaipur
Established in 2000, FED implements field programs in education and development, conducts research and provides forum for networking. Since 2001, FED has been implementing Doosra Dashak (DD), a field program focusing on education and development of individuals in the age group of 11-20. The program consists of four month residential camps for adolescents, for inputs in area of language and numeracy, health, life skills / citizenship education and societal analysis. These camps are organized along with creation of women’s and youth organizations, which are followed up through short term workshops / trainings. FED currently works in five blocks, covering 300 tribal and minority dominated villages in Rajasthan. So far, upto October 2006, their program has reached out to approximately 3,000 adolescents, out of which, 50% are girls. Effective November 2006, the Trust is supporting FED over a three year period to expand DD to 80 villages across two blocks, namely, Desuri in Pali district and Bassi in Jaipur district of Rajasthan. This would: (i) enhance educational levels, thereby preparing ground for social, cultural and educational advancement; (ii) improve health and nutrition, and (iii) involve young people in village development. Key components of this project include: (a) education of adolescents through four months residential camps to induct out-of-school adolescents, continued education for pass outs of residential camps and impacting school systems; (b) youth action for village development, which includes institutional development through formation and strengthening of 40 joint forums of adolescent boys and girls at the village and block level, besides using the youth as development activists for improvement in public services; and (c) capacity building of Doosra Dashak team members through annual theoretical reorientation and professional training.