Women and Children Development Minister Smriti Irani launched a national initiative supported by UNICEF to provide education, skilling and employment to India’s over 30 crore young people aged between 10-24 years.

Speaking at the launch, Irani said the government is determined to lead in making ‘YuWaah’ - Generation Unlimited a transformational alliance that brings a national step change in preparing young people for the transition from education to 21st century work.

Generation Unlimited (Gen U or YuWaah), supported by UNICEF, brings young people together with the private sector, governments, international and local organisations to tackle the urgent challenge of investing in their learning and training so that they are prepared for the complex and fast-changing world of work and can be active and engaged citizens. 

UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore said any country’s greatest assets are the energy, ideas and vision of its young generation. “As young people build their own futures, they’ll build India’s future. Investing in them is the best investment India can make,” Fore said.

Background

NITI Aayog in partnership with UNICEF India took the lead in catalysing a national partnership of committed stakeholders – YuWaah – to expand socio-economic opportunities for India’s young people, especially those from marginalized groups. 

This initiative comes close on heels with the launch of the global partnership – Generation Unlimited – at the UN General Assembly to get every young person into quality education, training or employment by 2030. 

UNICEF’s executive director Henrietta Fore, along with NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant, led the national consultation of key stakeholders in the education, skills development and employment/entrepreneurship ecosystem to support the realization of aspirations and opportunities for India’s adolescent population. 

A one of its kind initiative, the partnership provides a mechanism to listen deeply and actively to young people’s voices, ideas and aspirations. It gathers evidence to co-create solutions with the young people and build gender responsive solutions.

Scheme important for India’s workforce

A strategic long-term partnership, YuWaah aims to enable sustained and coordinated investments to co-create solutions for learning (including alternative and flexible learning programmes), life and employability skills, career guidance and employment opportunities (including entrepreneurship). The target of the partnership is on adolescents and young people in school (25 million), out of school (20 million) and in institutions (4 million). 

The current workforce in India is 48 crore, of whom 93 per cent (44.6 crore) are employed in small, informal-sector enterprises, UNICEF said in a statement. More than 60 per cent (28.8 crore) are employed in rural India. In addition, 90 per cent of India’s workforce has received no formal skills training. In the next twenty years, India’s current population of 44.4 crore children will enter the working age, the statement said. 

YuWaah aims to support this massive exercise by bringing together key stakeholders to recognize, design and implement solutions to expand employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for education, skills, decent jobs and sustainable livelihoods – that are accessible to all.

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