SRINAGAR : Mission Youth is a holistic program to bring the interests and empowerment of youth to the centre of policy making.

Mission Youth has been established as a specialized agency by J&K Government aimed to simultaneously achieve the twin goals of harnessing the rich demographic dividend and transforming youth of J&K into ambassadors of innovation, peace and development through various interventions for Youth Engagement and Outreach.

All the interventions rolled out under Mission Youth are specially customized for the youth, conceived on modern, novel lines and implemented through innovative techniques so that these interventions are able to strike a chord with the youth. Mission Youth, thus, has been perceived by the youth as a beneficial initiative with which they are enthusiastically engaging.

Under Mission Youth, the Government has launched Youth data Portal for creating a database of youth so as to map their support requirements as per their needs and aspirations. 10 District Youth Centres have been approved for youth engagement at district level. Furthermore, Super 75 scholarship scheme for both girls and boys has been initiated under which scholarship to the tune of one lakh is being provided to meritorious students from BPL background. A provision for assistance of youth in reputed coaching institutes for upsc and state psc exams under the aegis of Parvaaz Scheme has also been established under Mission Youth.

The most important scheme under the Mission Youth is Mumkin through which small commercial vehicles are provided to beneficiaries, with banking partner extending loan facility up to 100% of the vehicle’s on-road price.

Sahil, a young man says that he has received vehicle through Mumkin Scheme. “I am thankful to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for launching schemes for the benefit of youth. Everyone can’t get Government job. Youth should also look for opportunities in business. Youth upto age of 35 can avail the benefit of Mumkin Scheme”, Sahil said.

The manger of Shuhul Mahindra Nowgam, Car showroom Syed Nazik Andrabi says that they have delivered many vehicles to the beneficiaries of Mumkin Scheme. “ It has helped unemployed youth to earn their livelihood. We give them 10% rebate, 10% subsidy is given by Government and rest of the amount is financed by JK Bank. They don’t have to pay anything on their own,” he said.

TEJASWINI Scheme of Mission Youth aims to promote entrepreneurship among young women. The scheme envisages giving financial assistance upto Rs 5 lakhs to young women for setting up gainful self-employment ventures, suited to their skills, training, aptitude and local conditions. In the present financial year assistance to more than 2000 women entrepreneurs has been approved under the scheme.

More so, one thousand innovative projects of youth have been approved for assistance under Spurring Entrepreneurship Initiative of Mission Youth for giving a platform to individuals with promising ideas and the aspiration to grow to give tangible shape to their potentially high growth business ideas.

Mission Youth under its AVSAR (Connect to Opportunities Initiative) has signed a MOU Vision India for providing job opportunities to the youth of J&K. A dedicated portal of job opportunities for youth and J&K has been provisioned to facilitate them in getting the best job opportunities. The placement service window has been extended to all youth on complimentary basis and with preferential benefits.

Mission Youth is also working on creating a database of all unemployed youth along with their bio-data so as to help them in finding decent jobs under this program as per their skill set and core capabilities. To sum up it would be apt to say that Mission Youth has transformed the youth development scenario in J&K in a remarkable manner.

Different programmes are formulated under Mission Youth with the objective to positively engage youth of J&K through multi-pronged strategy involving all necessary systematic interventions. The organization envisions inducing a sieve of demand driven interventions for inclusive development of youth which includes provision of livelihood generation, skill development, education, counselling & rehabilitation, sports and recreation among others.