Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS, an autonomous body of the ministry of youth affairs & sports) & Ministry of Home Affairs, (Govt. of India) have organised a five days Tribal Youth Cultural Exchange Programme, which was inaugurated recently at a function organised at Alipur based Zonal Office of NYKS by Dr. Shakeel Ahmed (Hon'ble Minister of State for Communication & IT, (Govt. of India). On this occasion Meenakshi Natrajan (Vice Chairperson, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan), Dr. Shakeel Ahmed Khan (Director General, NYKS), Yogendra Chaudhury, 180 tribal youths from 6 districts of 3 states along with many others were present there.

Tribes are a group of people having distinct language, culture, lifestyle, and socio-economic condition and are living in a specific geographical area. Normally, the tribes are residing in interior forests and in remote and in inaccessible areas or in the outskirts of forests and hilly regions. According to Article 180 of the Constitution, the Scheduled Tribes are the tribes or tribal communities or part of or groups within these tribes and tribal communities, which have been declared as such by the President through a public notification. As per the 1991 Census, the Schedule Tribes account for 67.76 million representing 8.08 percent of the country's population. The tribes are characterized by primitive traits, geographical isolation, distinct culture, shy of contact with other community at large and economical backwardness. Poverty, unemployment physical weakness, insecurity, illiteracy, inaccessibility and remoteness has put tribes in a deprivation trap.

Immediately after independence, Governments both at National and State level has given much importance for the development and welfare of the tribes and this has resulted in bringing changes in the living conditions of the tribes across the nation. But the achievements comparing with the quantum of money spent and the time consumed, one may see that the achievements are not that glossy. Illiteracy, unemployment, poverty and its related syndromes have forced the tribes to alienate themselves from the mainstream. Misinformation campaign by the disruptive forces among the tribes have vitiated the situation further.

The tribes who are residing in the remote corners of the nation is not having first hand information about what is happening elsewhere in the country. If the student and youth community are getting sufficient information and opportunities to interact with their peer groups in other parts of the nation, the extremist activities among them can be curtailed. The tribal youth should be positively engaged and educated and for that youth exchange programmes will be of great help.

Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan with the financial support from Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India has implemented First Culture Exchange Programme for the Tribal Youth during the last financial year which was a successful event. Hence, Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS) have planned to organize second Tribal Youth Cultural Exchange Programme for the youths of 6 districts from 3 states.

NYKS, an autonomous organization under Ministry of Youth Affairs-and Sports, Govt. of India is the largest grass root level youth organization in the country working for the welfare and development of youth especially among rural youth. It has its activities spread in 500 districts and in about 2.25 lakh villages. The youth organizations affiliated with NYKS are working for the development of its members as well as for the community. Over the years NYKS is involved in organizing youth cultural exchange programes for bringing harmony, friendship, fraternity and integration among the youths. NYKS is organizing North Eastern Students and Youth Cultural Exchange Programme for the last seven years and Jammu Kashmir Youth Cultural Exchange Programme of the last three years. Both these activities has created enthusiasm among the participating youths and helped in instilling nationalistic fervor and harmony. Likewise if Cultural exchange programme is organized for Tribal youths it may help them to understand and realities and nationalistic fervor can be generated and will enable us to bring them to the mainstream.

Objectives of the cultural exchange programme is to provide an opportunity to the tribal youth of 6 selected districts of three states to visit different places to understand the cultural ethos, language, lifestyles, developmental activities, educational avenues, employment opportunities and to see historical and cultural monuments and to have leisure activities. To conscientise the tribes about the rich and traditional cultural heritage of the tribal communities and enable them to preserve it for the future generation and help the tribal youth to develop emotional linkage with their peer groups in other part of the country. It's an effort to share and appreciate each other's traditional and cultural heritage as well as development in different spheres of life as well as to provide an opportunity to the participants to interact with the local communities, PRIs and the youths affiliated with the NYKS Youth Clubs so as to develop emotional and cultural ties with the youth placed in similar life situation in different parts of the country.

Total number of participants including escorts from Bihar, Chhatisgarh & Jharkhand is 180. In the programme 30 participants (28 youths and 2 escorts) each are selected from 6 selected districts with maximum tribal population in 3 states and with insurgency problem. Tribal youths in the age group of 13-35 are selected to participate from each selected district. Youths attached with NYKS affiliated youth clubs, mahila mandals, students from colleges, schools, etc are selected to participate. Each team consists of 28 youth (14 male and 14 female) and 2 escorts (1 male and 1 female).

On this occasion Chief Guest Dr. Shakeel Ahmed (Hon'ble Minister of State for Communication & IT, (Govt. of India) said, tribal youths played vital role in Indian independence and its quite sad that today they are living such a life. They deserve much better life than this and provide the opportunity, efforts of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and Home Ministry for organising this unique affair is worth a applaud.

Meenaksh Natrajan Said, there are almost 8% people in India from Tribal communities and our aim is to motivate them so that we can have scientists, politicians and others from this community as well and if that dream can be achieved these tribal communities have status of their own at that time.

Dr. Shakeel Ahmed Khan (DG, NYKS) said, the objective of organising this programme is to provide opportunities to tribal youths and their communities to develop emotional linkage with their peer groups in other part of the country. Through this programme Indian Govt. has taken initiative to conscientise the tribes about the rich and traditional cultural heritage of the tribal communities and enable them to preserve it for the future generation. We are trying to organise these kinds of programmes at their place as well.

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