About Conference
About National Youth Conference
Immersive participative result-oriented deliberations
National Agenda Catalysing groundswell of Employability, Entrepreneurship and Jobs Rural Youth
India will overtake China as the world’s most populous country by April, 2023. A more significant milestone is that India will have the largest population of working age (15-64) than any other country in the world. With an average age of 29, the demographic bulge is forecasted to continue till 2050, with the largest growth in the coming decade. If harnessed well, this youth energy can create a never-before opportunity for ushering prosperity for India.
Youth in India (378 million Young people between the age of 15-29 years) face a particular vulnerability with marginalization in the labour market because of various reasons – lack of skills and work experience, access career guidance and information asymmetry. Unemployment among 20-24 years olds is at a staggering 43 percent. Accounting for more than 2/3rd of the youth population, India’s rural youth have a unique opportunity to influence India’s economy and the society as the country surges to become a USD 5 trillion economy by 2025.
The Government of India’s draft National Youth Policy (NYP) 2022 has set ten-year vision for youth development to ‘unlock the potential of youth to advance India’ and emphasizes the priority areas of employment & entrepreneurship for youth. NYP together with National Education Policy, 2020 seeks to imparts career opportunities and life skills to all young people, ensuring youth have access to sustainable livelihood opportunities that encourages them to stay within and revive the rural economy, generate employment via micro-region-specific strategies, foster entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship, and support the informal and emerging gig economy.
Drawing inspiration from the NYP; Global Opportunity Youth Network (GOYN) and Transform Rural India Foundation (TRIF) in partnership with “Work4Progress” set up by “la Caixa” Foundation, and “Yuwaah” – Generation Unlimited India set up by UNICEF; and supported by Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Youth Affairs, Ministry of Skill Development and Enterprises; Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) and #SAMUDYAM (hosted at Development Alternatives) is organizing the National Conference with call-out on creating large scale place-based economic opportunities for youth in India.
The conference builds on the significant action already underway through initiatives of the government through RSETI, Kaushal-Bharat, SFURTI, MSME Cluster, PMKY and such programmes and brings evidence of what does and does not work, bringing leading stakeholders with best practices, thinking and experiences. Conference learnings will inform integrated and convergent actions; linkages with other programmes and evolve up-scaling.
District as a Unit of Change
Mass-scale economic opportunity for rural youth is best attended using district as a unit of change; providing an integrated, place-based saturation combining existing livelihoods and employment programmes for targeted action to address gaps in labour supply, creation of local demand as well as improve the quantity and quality of local employment. With the number of young entering workforce far outweighing jobs created, entrepreneurship is of particularly critical focus. A unified delivery drawing all the programmes and schemes distributed across Ministries is critical to respond to the multifaceted nature of the youth employment challenge, draw synergy and convergence, this requires moving away from linear and distributed programming, to map a ‘suite of solutions’ that support youth to enter, remain, and grow in the labour force. Pillars of the building a programme of this nature include:
Place-based saturation at District
- Coordinate the local employment ecosystem to address structural barriers to economic opportunity
- Customise youth employment strategies to local needs and current, future market demand
- Advance a “suite of solutions” for youth employment and entrepreneurship commensurate with the size of youth unemployment
Youth Voice and Leadership
- Build around the aspirations, perspective of young people in the creation of solutions
- Create a national network of youth leadership to share learning, actions, and innovations
- Link young people to resources, support, and allies to build their agency and navigational pathways
Data and Technology
- Build system capacity to adopt data-driven approaches to problem analysis, collaborative decision-making, and strategic planning
- Support district to gather and share “one-stop” data and opportunity
- Accelerate digital platforms that can shift outcomes at mass scale
Elements of this approach has been tested in partnership with Global Opportunity Youth Network (GOYN) and Work4Progress (Samudyam) within the scope of existing government programmes of Rural Development and other programmes of Government if India, and is primed to scale across rural India.