J&K Mission Youth gets PMs’ award for ‘Excellence in Public Administration’

Srinagar, June 22: Mission Youth, a comprehensive youth development program, launched by Jammu and Kashmir government, has proved boon towards enhancing skills and entrepreneurship among youth of the region.
Remarkably, tremendous work performed by the Mission Youth during past few years bore fruit when the Mission Youth was awarded with Prime Minister’s award for the Excellence in Public Administration 2022, under the Innovation (State) category on 16th Civil Services Day this year.
The initiative has been successful in addressing the socio-economic issues faced by the youth of the UT by providing them a platform to optimally harness their skills in different potential entrepreneurial prospects, thereby contributing towards growth and development of the region.
One of the primary objectives of Mission Youth was to address the issue of unemployment among youth which has been successful in creating employment opportunities by providing requisite training and support for entrepreneurship. Under the initiative, the government has established incubation centres and provided financial assistance to young entrepreneurs to start their own business ventures. This has not only created jobs but also boosted economy of the region.
Muzafar Wani of Ramsoo, Ramban, always dreamt of owning a vehicle as he wanted to secure a respectable livelihood that could fulfill the needs of his family for a better tomorrow. Wani, who was working as driver couldn’t bear expenses of his family including his two daughters with that meagre salary.
“Sometimes I would not get work for many days. Many times I decided to stop my daughters from going to school. I always wanted to educate them but financial constraints always forced me to look another way”, Wani said as he was revealing his struggle of 12 years while working for different vehicle owners on daily basis.
Wani couldn’t save enough money to purchase his own vehicle and the unfulfilled needs of the family had left him in an devastating feeling of frustration and depression. That is when the Mumkin scheme started by J&K Government through Mission Youth came to the rescue of Wani.
“In October last year, a friend of mine informed me about the ‘Mumkin’ livelihood scheme for unemployed youth and asked me to contact Mission Youth officials, Wani asserted. It was like a dream come true when I was informed about the benefits of the scheme, he said”. An elated Wani said that he is satisfied being the happy owner of Tata Yodha and is earning enough to feed his family and educate his daughters.
In the present financial year, 4482 youth have been facilitated for self-employment under the scheme with a total financial support of 165 crore through scheme banking partner and 16 crore as government contribution towards subsidy. Self-employment avenues created under this scheme have instilled a sense of self- reliance and positivity among youth.
Similarly, Tejaswani scheme is a specially tailored self-employment programme for empowerment of young women of Jammu & Kashmir aimed to promote entrepreneurship among them.
This scheme helped them in attaining economic independence and improved their social status. All women entrepreneurs covered under the program have been given Entrepreneurship Development Program trainings through Jammu and Kashmir Entrepreneurship Development Institute (JKEDI), for attaining proper market skills and technology knowhow for making their business viable.
An amount of ₹ 7.25 crore has been provided as grant in aid for specified activities of the youth clubs in present financial year.
“We always felt alienated from the system but after joining Youth Volunteer Program of Mission Youth, we are feeling part of policy making and governance”, said Aqib from Pulwama.
The youth volunteer members of Pulwama organized a month long drug de-addiction campaign in every Panchayat of the district recently. “We will make Pulwama a drug free district within next few months”, said an enthusiastic Youth volunteer.