Nurturing Active Citizenship among Youth in India: A Consultation

Over 100 participants representing different organizations from across the country and from Nepal, South Africa and USA attended a consultation on Nurturing Active Citizenship among Youth in India. The consultation was held on March 3 – 4 in New Delhi. It was co-hosted by Pravah and Innovations in Civic Participation (ICP) and supported by the American Center in New Delhi and the Youth and Civil Society Initiative of the Sir Ratan Tata Trust.

Designed as a listening space to understand different perspectives on youth civic engagement, the consultation brought together key stakeholders and engaged them in a dialogue to explore the needs of the field and to make recommendations for creating a more supportive environment for youth development and active citizenship.

This was the first time such a big and diverse group of people were meeting to discuss youth active citizenship in India. Participants included government officials committed to strong youth policy, leaders of youth led organizations and high-performing youth development programs, heads of educational institutions, representatives from the private sector as well as young people working to improve their communities. The overwhelming response reiterates the need for such collaborative spaces. It also indicates that perhaps the time has come for youth and active citizenship to be put on everyone’s agenda.

Mrs. Sindhushree Khullar, Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs opened the consultation by talking about the importance of the youth vote in the coming elections and the need to view young people as the drivers of social change. Outlining the government’s investment in youth, she pointed out that it was not a lack of resources but the lack of innovative programs that were a drawback. The Secretary’s national perspective was followed by the sharing of personal experiences: Rama Shyam, Nirmala and Kartikeya spoke eloquently about their journey as young active citizens, the influences that motivated them and the impact of their work on themselves as well as their communities. Participants also shared their own understanding of active citizenship.

A panel discussion highlighted the need and ways to invest in youth as active citizens. Panelists included representatives from the US Embassy, Times Foundation, the Sir Ratan Tata Trust, Pravah and Oxfam India. A variety of innovative approaches for building youth active citizenship were also presented by representatives from different organizations, such as NYKS (the national youth program), PUKAR (Mumbai), Drishti (Ahmedabad), the Bosco Institute (Assam), CYDA (Pune), Pravah, Project Citizen and the Green schools program of CSE in New Delhi. These approaches all see the potential for youth to be social change agents and give young people opportunities to learn how to initiate change and influence others. Participants also learnt about international experiences of youth active citizenship through the case studies of Americorps (USA), GroundBREAKER (South Africa) and Youth Initiative (Nepal). Dr. Eboo Patel, Founder of the Interfaith Youth Core, USA engaged the young participants in a discussion on the role of young people as active citizens.

The 2 days of animated discussions and debates resulted in a list of needs and recommendations which will be disseminated to all the stakeholders in the field of youth active citizenship including the Ministry of Youth Affairs. Some of the needs that emerged include:

Comprehensive, centrally available and accessible data on the status of youth and youth civic engagement in the country
Capacity building of youth organizations to integrate active citizenship into their work with young people
Open, non-judgmental platforms for young people where they can learn skills and develop perspectives around social issues so that they can lead processes of active citizenship
Participation of civil society in the review of national youth policy and programs
Greater involvement of young people in policy making and implementation
Evaluation tools, methods and frameworks to measure the impact of youth active citizenship programs
Greater visibility and recognition for youth active citizenship

The recommendations included a youth minister who is under 45 years and the creation of a national youth commission, comprising of young people to take responsibility for looking after youth interests and reviewing programs and policies across all sectors from the youth perspective.

The consultation was successful in bringing together a diverse group of people representing different stakeholder groups and building ownership for an agenda for action. It is the first – yet critical - step for deeper engagement and collaboration contributing to a more supportive environment for young people as active citizens.

Pravah-ICP Consultation