The Bastar district administration will join hands with UNICEF to create a cadre of 6,000 youth volunteers under ‘Yuvodaya’ initiative to fight Covid-19 and its impact on people.
A MoU will be signed between the Bastar administration and UNICEF on September 23 in Jagdalpur. The MoU will be for two years.
Rajat Bansal, District Collector of Bastar, said in a statement: ‘Yuvodaya’ (Rise of Youth) initiative will be led by the district with the support of UNICEF, volunteers and NGOs. Nodal officers will be appointed at district, block and gram panchayat levels to monitor and guide Yuvodaya."
He added: “Volunteers under the initiative will provide training for skill development and the experience gained by volunteers from this initiative will improve their employability. All volunteers will be given certificates for community services."
The Yuvodaya initiative will have its logo, theme song and uniform for volunteers.
Job Zachariah, Chief of UNICEF in Chhattisgarh, said in a statement that the adverse impact of Covid could wipe out all the gains achieved in various sectors in the last 50 years, especially in education, health, nutrition and protection of children.
“We cannot permit the adverse impact of Covid to fall on children and the marginalized people. Youth are powerful social change catalysts and their energy could be used for social and economic development in this hour of crisis” he added.
The scheme aims to channelize the power of youth to support government programmes in villages to improve livelihood, health, nutrition, education, sanitation and agriculture.