‘NYK Youths are the back –bone of a nation, they have matured heads in young shoulders’- Dr.K.Govindaraju, Chairman, South Zone Board of Continuing Education

Trichy 24:‘Nehru Yuva Kendra’s Youth have matured head in young shoulders and they have capacity to guide the rest of the youth as the back –bone of a nation’  said Dr.K.Govindaraju, Chairman, South Zone Board of Continuing Education in his presidential speech given in Youth Empowerment campaign organized by Nehru Yuva Kendra, Trichy. Dr.K.Govindaraju added that the State Elections for Tamilnadu is scheduled on the 13^th April and the NYK youth and the young women NYK groups to create awareness among the masses on the importance of voting and the need for ensuring cent per cent polling. It is also important that rural sports should be promoted and NYK youth should encourage the differently abled to take part in the special sports program of the State and Nation and they should get prepared for the Special Olympic for the differently abled.Dr.K.Govindaraju expressed his happiness that seven out of nine differently abled selected for special Olympic in Athens in June, these seven are from Trichy. It is important that youth to allot time for the differently abled services in rural areas were NYK is strong and operational.Mr.K.Subramanian, District Coordinator of NYK, Trichy enlightened the youth that the voters campaign organized by NYK in collaboration with District Administration and reputed NGOs of the District  have been evoking good response from all sections of the society as  the voters awareness campaign sensitizes  the electorate to their fundamental duty towards the nation building process. “Every adult citizen has a duty, responsibility and right to exercise his / her franchise without fear or favour which he / she must do diligently and judiciously, to create a healthy, transparent and accountable democracy, free of corruption – to create an informed citizenry and provide good quality of life to citizens etc. Mr.Theresnathan, AD of PIB, Chennai said “Every voter should be aware of the ‘Part’ and ‘serial number’ where his/her name appears in the electoral list.PIB-AD advised the youth ‘Please understand this model or formula, youths - same thinking young blood evincible – they have qualities to win target, vision – they should have great imagination or wisdom, Center – integration of above factor and will include in all youths. The above formula or model has come into existence with wide research. If every rational old – blood will awake young blood then it is the possibility of the integration of India.Mrs.Santhiya,Project Head of Tamilnadu Link Workers program said that it is very important that youth should have common responsibility of zeroing down the new HIV/AIDS prevalence and they can extend their voluntary service for Link workers scheme being implemented in all rural Blocks of Trichirappalli District. Today, Indian – youths have mislead with television or cable system. They are forgetting their culture and moral values after flowing into the water of western culture .our culture is our diamond – property. Youth should respect our cultural values for the progress of India. The words development, progress and unity lay vary much importance. Youth can easily integrate India but youths are also suffering the problem of violence. Prof.Irudayaraj,a renowned Social scientist mentioned that people should be aware of their rights and duties pertaining to voting process for democratic India’.

Mrs.Percy, the District Officer of APAC Link workers scheme, being implemented by SEVAI said ‘Trichy district Link Workers scheme is enjoying the support of the Governments and also PRIs, public and NYKs, she added that Under NACP III, the Link Worker Scheme was launched to saturate the reach of the HIV related services to the high risk groups based in the rural areas. This reinforced the requirement of an intensive rural based intervention for reaching the marginalized groups which remain uncovered even after the expansion of urban based prevention programmes. The LWS aims to address the complex needs of the rural HIV prevention, care and support requirements through: Identifying and training, the village level workforce of Supervisors, Link Workers and volunteers on issues of HIV/AIDS, gender, sexuality, STIs and above all on mobilizing difficult-to-reach, especially vulnerable sub populations including high risk individuals, youth and women. Linking the HRG and vulnerable populations to the public health services for STI, ICTC, ART and then their follow up back to communities (saturation of coverage to HRGs), Generating volunteerism among the community for fighting HIV & AIDS and inculcating health values is another cornerstone of this strategy. Addressing issues regarding counselling, condoms and behaviour change, the link worker scheme will be useful to reach out to the rural population with the focus among the high risk population such as youth, women etc. The program will cover villages through a mapping exercise. The high risk group identified through these link workers scheme are linked with the NGOs implementing TI in the respective districts for promoting behavior change and linked with other services.  While the role and contribution of youth is of vital importance in all countries, it is particularly significant in a country like India where the proportion of the youth in the country's overall social and demographic profile is continuously increasing. According to the 2001 Census, there were approximately 355 million people in the 15 to 35 age group, 74 per cent of whom lived in rural areas. The number is expected to rise to approximately 510 million by 2016. Both central and state governments need to harness the energies of this large group, providing them with adequate infrastructure of world standards for excellence in sports at national and international levels. Kumar in his consolidated speech said. Adolescent youth in the 10-19 years age group numbered 230 million, accounting for 22.8 per cent of the population. It is proposed to target this segment of the youth population through specific intervention strategies that will focus on youth and power, gender justice, youth health and responsible living. The major thrust will be on involving the youth in the process of national planning and development and making them the focal point of development strategy by providing proper educational and training opportunities, access to information on employment opportunities including entrepreneurial guidance and financial credit, proper platforms for developing qualities of leadership, tolerance and open mindedness, patriotism, etc’. Earlier SYSTEM centre .Chitra welcomed the gathering and Mahesh Proposed vote of thanks.-EtNS.