In a bid to involve tribal youths in the development process, a new mission named ‘UDAY’ was launched here on Wednesday jointly by the UNFPA, the Rural Electrification Corporation Foundation (REC) and the Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences (KISS).
At the inaugural event, UNFA Regional Director Dr Jennifer Butler said that the UDAY is a multi-stakeholder project envisioned to address the challenges faced by the young people from vulnerable tribal communities and seeks to position them at the centre of development initiatives in the State.
She highlighted that the project would endeavour to create change agents in the community who would engage in social development processes and influence their peers for the betterment of their communities.
The project aims to engage 1,000 young boys and girls in equal number of remote habitations to influence at least 20,000 youths to get involved in the development process. The project would be initially implemented in three districts, Koraput, Malkangiri and Rayagada.
Gracing as chief guest, SC and ST Development Minister Ramesh Majhi said the mission UDAY would help young tribal people to take advantage of Government programmes that have a focus on skill development and livelihood enhancement and would empower them and their communities.
REC Director SK Gupta said that CSR collaboration with development agencies and the Government would add new impetus to flagship programmes at the national and State levels and foster culture of innovative CSR partnership.
KISS founder and RS member Achyuta Samanta said that KISS is privileged to be a part of this challenging project and would work closely with the district administrations in achieving the envisioned goals.
More than 250 youths from different districts and officials from different departments were present. Among others, UNFPA Assistant Representative Venkatesh Srinivasan, State head Dr Deepa Prasad and KISS officials were present.