Draft Karnataka Youth Policy aiming to empower youngsters released

Bengaluru: Karnataka Sports and Youth Empowerment Minister Narayana Gowda on Wednesday released the draft Karnataka Youth Policy aimed at shaping the future of youngsters so that they can contribute significantly in nation building.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said there is a need to shape the future of the youth who are the future of the country.

Keeping this in mind, the Karnataka government constituted a 14-member expert committee headed by Dr R Balasubramaniam, founder of Vivekananda Youth Movement, to formulate a new youth policy that factors in changes that took place since the last youth policy was adopted in 2012.

To understand the needs of the state’s youth population, the government sought inputs from young people aged 15 to 29 through an online form. Members of the committee responsible for drawing up this policy also sought youth inputs by visiting educational institutions and conducting consultations in different districts across the state between December 2021 and February 2022.

The policy focuses on education and training, jobs, entrepreneurship, health, sports, restructuring youth empowerment and evaluation of the youth programme.

The government will also take into consideration the suggestions and other inputs before bringing out the final report.

According to the draft policy, inputs from the youth in the state were also collected through different means during the Karnataka Youth Festival (Yuvajanotsava) held in January 2022.

Members of the expert committee discussed the inputs in three separate meetings conducted between December 2021 and February 2022.

Based on inputs and subsequent discussions, the members decided that the policy should focus on building human and social capital in a sustainable manner, the report said.