Young India Foundation

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Young India Foundation
YIF Logo.png
Logo of YIF
Founded2017;5 years ago (2017)
Founder Sudhanshu Kaushik
Type NGO
PurposeYouth
Headquarters New Delhi, India
Region served
India
Staff
18
Volunteers
100
Website youngindia.foundation

The Young India Foundation (YIF), established in January 2017 by Sudhanshu, is a nonpartisan national youth organization which primarily works on youth rights and their representation by recruiting and training young candidates for local level positions. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] It provides consultation and advocates for youth rights in India, which currently has over 600 million young people below the age of 25 in India. Almost 70% of the country's people is below the age of 30. [7] [8]

Contents

While the organization focuses on electoral politics and awareness campaigns, it also provides opportunities for youth representatives from different areas of India to exchange ideas and experiences and coordinate program plans, . [9] [10] The foundation is also running a campaign to lower the age of candidacy from 25 for MPs (Members of Parliament) and MLAs (Members of Legislative Assembly) in India. [11]

Team

The Young India Foundation consists of a team of entrepreneurs and activists, from Columbia University, Stanford University, Lady Shri Ram College, and University of Oxford among others, who have been actively involved in youth-oriented development programs, policies and mobilisation. [12]

Activities and campaigns

While YIF deals with all issues affecting youth in India on a national, regional, and local level, its primary motive is to help young people get elected in local and regional electoral positions in municipality and positions in the panchayati raj system. [13]

YIF organizes events in India to raise awareness for their age of candidacy campaign which focuses to lower the age when an MP or MLA can run for elections. [14] The campaign highlights how India has the youngest and largest demographic yet the oldest age of candidacy. [15]

As of October 2018, YIF is running a campaign to lower the age of candidacy in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections from 25 years. [8] The campaign to lower the minimum age for candidacy to be an MP or MLA from 25 years was also recognised by Shashi Tharoor, a Member of Parliament serving Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. [16]

  1. YIF will file a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court to recommend a legislation to lower the age of candidacy for MPs and MLAs from 25.
  2. After the Supreme Court of India’s recommendation, YIF plans to lobby the elected parliamentarians for amendment of three bills:  Article 84, Article 173 (b) and Section 35 (2) of the Representation of the People’s Act 1950. [17]
  3. To bring more young people into the movement, it has engaged in social media campaigns,aimed at creating awareness to make the young vote bank more relevant, and give youth a fair share in electoral representation

In April 2018, YIF supported 23-year old Jagbir in his campaign for the position of Panch in his ward. To increase the reach of the youngest candidate fighting elections, YIF’s campaign worked to encourage voters in his constituency to vote for him, and he won the Panch’s seat in rural Haryana. [18]

Candidate selection process

YIF selects candidates using the following parameters:

The YIF community support program is extended to those with the inclination for volunteering and public service. It operates an active Slack community where candidates can network with other people who are considering running for office or for volunteering for YIF. This community has been structured based on specialty and demographics , and helps the  candidates and volunteers in self-organizing, setting up in-person meetings, and commiserating when they encounter challenges.

YIF candidates are given mentorship by experts from a range of domains, such as digital media and political communication. YIF shares links to training and other informational programs by partner organizations with its staff and volunteers.

YIF has conducted boot camps to effectively prepare young people to run for elections. [19] These bootcamps take place in a variety of cities and cover topics ranging from nomination paperwork to social media profiles. [19]

Membership and structure

As of October 2018, YIF has over 100 volunteers in a variety of capacities, including YIF representatives, Regional Wishers and college and high school ambassadors. There are three ways to participate: Central YIF, State YIF, and university branches. [20]

The Central Core Committee is the main statutory decision-making body of YIF that governs the state, university and other programs. The university branches function and recruit people from universities all over India. Volunteers can apply to a campus ambassadorship program, to become the focal point of the youth rights movement in their respective university or college campuses. The primary objective of the team is campaign management, undertaking research, daily administration, recruitment of candidates and chart the roadmap for better reach. In addition, the organisation has State and city branches in Delhi, Bangalore, Gujarat. Haryana, and Kolkata [9]

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References

  1. ↑ "Does India Need More Young People In Politics? - NDTV HOP". hop.live. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  2. ↑ "Want To Fight Elections & Below 25 Yrs Of Age? This Organisation Will Do All The Work For Free". The Logical Indian. 11 December 2018. Retrieved 3 May 2019.
  3. 1 2 "Home". Young India Foundation. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  4. ↑ MUKHERJEE, JHUMPA; CHOUDHURY, SHOMA (2010). "Revisiting the National Youth Policy". Economic and Political Weekly. 45 (26/27): 32–34. JSTOR   40736688.
  5. ↑ "टेड टॉक में दी सलाह, समाज में बदलाव के लिए युवाओं को राजनीति में बढ़चढ़कर हिस्ला लेना होगा". Dainik Jagran (in Hindi). Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  6. ↑ Dutta, Mohan Jyoti (2017). Imagining India in Discourse: Meaning, Power, Structure. Springer. pp. 23–25. ISBN   9789811030512.
  7. ↑ Sultana, A. Shahin (2015). "A Critical Exploration of National Youth Policy of India- 2003 and 2014". Indian Journal of Sustainable Development. 1 (2). doi:10.21863/ijsd/2015.1.2.012. ISSN   2394-7675.
  8. 1 2 "Blog | Cult Altered". Cult Altered | build change. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  9. 1 2 Government of India. "Profile of Indian Youth Organisations". Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. 1– via JSTOR.
  10. ↑ JEFFREY, CRAIG (14 July 2010). "Timepass: Youth, class, and time among unemployed young men in India". American Ethnologist. 37 (3): 465–481. doi:10.1111/j.1548-1425.2010.01266.x. ISSN   0094-0496.
  11. ↑ "Blog | Cult Altered". Cult Altered | build change. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  12. ↑ "The Team". Young India Foundation. Retrieved 22 October 2018.
  13. ↑ Muncie, John; Goldson, Barry (2006). Comparative Youth Justice: Critical Issues Comparative youth justice: Critical issues. doi:10.4135/9781446212608. ISBN   9781412911368.
  14. ↑ "Age of Candidacy". ageofcandidacy.in. Retrieved 19 July 2018.
  15. ↑ "- YouTube". YouTube .
  16. ↑ "Shashi Tharoor on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 23 October 2018.
  17. ↑ "THE REPRESENTATION OF THE PEOPLE (AMENDMENT) BILL, 2017" (PDF).
  18. ↑ Young India Foundation (8 August 2018), Jagbir, 23, Wins a Panch Seat , retrieved 23 October 2018
  19. 1 2 "To Truly Challenge The System Consider Contesting An Election". Youth Ki Awaaz. 3 June 2019. Retrieved 3 June 2019.
  20. ↑ Young India Foundation (Fall 2018). "Young India Foundation Constitution". Young India Foundation Constitution: 4–6.
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