Bedadka Gram Panchayat is gearing to the first ‘Youth-friendly Panchayat’ of the country. In line with this historic objective, a ‘Workshop on Empowerment of Local Government System – Bedadka GP, Kasaragod District, Kerala’ was organised by the Department of Local Governance, Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD) during 5-6 October 2017 at Sriperumbudur. Bedadka GP is planning to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the RGNIYD, after discussing the details and conclusion of the workshop in the GP Committee meeting. This was the first such initiative by the Department of Local Governance, RGNIYD by which one of the Local Governments in the country has expressed their commitment, desire and interests to transform into a ‘youth-friendly, youth-centric and youth-led’ local Government system. Towards strengthening and rejuvenating the development journey of Bedadka GP with special thrust towards providing a face lift to their efforts to ‘mainstream youth’, a five member team led by Adv. C Ramachandran, President of the Bedadka GP visited RGNIYD and participated in the workshop. Sri. Sukumaran Payam, Chairperson, Standing Committee on Education and Health; Smt. MK Sabitha, Secretary, Bedadka GP; Sri. Damodaran Master, and Sri. Prasanth Payam, both Members of Bedadka GP Planning Committee were also in the team. During the two-day workshop, technical sessions on ‘Mainstreaming Youth in Local Governance’, ‘Empowerment of Local Governments and Youth Organisations in Disaster Preparedness and Risk Reduction’, Constituency Management System – Potentials and Prospects, Tribal Youth in Agriculture, Geo-spatial Techniques for Governance and Development, One Stop Centre for Bedadka GP, Youth Budgeting, Gender-responsive Budgeting, Migration and Livelihood issues, use of Participatory Techniques, etc. were included. In addition, brief presentations on the history, geography, economics and politics of Bedadka GP were made by the team members, which was followed by elaborate discussions in which the students of M.A. Local Governance and Development of RGNIYD, led by Sri. Vidyadharan and Sri. Kaladharan, the student-volunteers from Bedadka GP, actively participated.During the concluding session of the workshop, Dr. K Gireesan provided a summary of the workshop with thrust on the following aspects. (a) Conduct of a ‘Youth Status Study’ at Bedadka GP. (b) Starting of a ‘One Stop Centre for Youth’ at Bedadka GP. (c) Initiation of the ‘Constituency Management System’, ICT-enabled Spatial Decision Support System, as a pilot initiative at Bedadka GP. (d) Carry out ‘Youth Budgeting at the Local Level’ using the model framework formulated by RGNIYD. (e) Exploring the tourism potentials and other possibilities for ‘Enhancing the scope of own funds’ by the Bedadka GP. The workshop revealed that such micro level attempts have a unique significance towards realising the ‘Empowerment of Local Government System’ and transform them as ‘People’s Government’ not a rhetoric but a reality in which academic institutions like RGNIYD could play a very important role by providing technical guidance and professional support. The Workshop was deemed to be successful in raising hopes, aspirations and positivism among the participants in their march towards the realisation of a ‘Youth-friendly, Youth-centric and Youth-led Local Government system and the society’.

SUMMARISED REPORT OF WORKSHOP ON ENTREPRENEURSHIP Ms Sharmistha Bhattacharjee, the Head of Dept of Social Engineering, began the 2-day workshop, with inspirational quote and welcomed the Director of the Institute Dr. M.M.Goel and the Guest Lecturer G.Ravikumar, Director, Centre for Entrepreneurship Development, Anna University, and Chennai. The Director, being a noted economist, spoke in brief about the kinds of enterprises, women entrepreneurship, and reorienting education system. The Guest Lecturer, G.Ravikumar pointed out to the adverse employment opportunities and how the economy is unable to generate job, as to the availability of labour. Entrepreneurship, is the need of the hour, as it not only solves the unemployment problem of the individual, but also creates job, thereby enabling even the marginalised with jobs which otherwise they do not have access to. He brought out a comparison between the entrepreneurship climate between the east and the west. He raised a very important point of why youth do not take up entrepreneurship. And he analysed the reason to be their thoughts of an enterprises spanning to the extremities of businesses, hence he suggested that we look on to starting up first, with or without innovation and enable oneself to take things one-step-at-a-time. He concluded saying entrepreneurship need not always be about starting up, but with initiative, even in workspaces, one can establish himself as an Intrapreneur. The session began with myth busting around entrepreneurship by Bibhuprasad Pallei, followed by a small activity to evaluate the participants. The next session comprised of the competencies required for the entrepreneur like creativity, self-reliance passion. A set of skills required in entrepreneurship was also spelt out. Mr.Pawan elaborated the history of institutional support in India for entrepreneurship since the time of Independence. Various organisations like EDI,NIESBUD,TCO,IIC were explained as to the work done by them with regards to entrepreneurship. This session handled by Ms.Radhika, gave an insight into conceptualizing the business idea by way of explaining case studies of student entrepreneurs, like the story Insomnia cookies, Dell, Hello tractor, Rangsutra, and Jayashree Industries. Resource person Vandana Pervez , handled a session on Business Model by engaging participants with their ideas in business and she also gave valuable in marketing skills. Various kinds of advertising avenues available in the cyber space and how beneficial it is to entrepreneurs and the documents and other essentials like logo, tagline, website, which are indispensable to businesses were covered in this session. Aoakum Walling handled a session on various entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial journey, citing, Arunachalam Muruganandham of Jayshree Industries, the journey of the founder of Chilasa, a furniture company which gives employment to rural artisans. The participants were involved with an activity, to come up with a marketing strategy for their product and were evaluated by the judges and the best two teams were rewarded with prizes .

RGNIYD-Regional Centre, Chandigarh successfully concluded three days Workshop on Life Skills from 09-11 October, 2017 for 50 young soldiers of Ladakh Scouts at Chandimandir, Haryana. This was a short, interactive workshop on a range of key skills to help the soldiers to get ahead in their personal and professional life once they are retired from their current service. The Life skills workshop included the expert sessions on topics such as Introduction to Life skills, Trust building, Negotiation skills, Fundamentals of Entrepreneurship development and Leadership.Life Skills are usually associated with managing and living a better quality of life. They help us to accomplish our ambitions and live to our full potential. Any skill that is useful in dealing with day to day challenges is considered a Life Skill. During the leadership session facilitated by Mr. Stanzin Dawa, Regional Director, RGNIYD-RC, Chandigarh.He said that it is the responsibility of a leader to pace up any organization and to give the right direction and right shape to the ideas of the people. A great leader is the driving force behind the progress of any organization, he further added. Giving a legendary example of Mother Teresa, he said that we remember her not because of her bank balance but for her noble deeds which won many hearts. A great leader is one who is a great human with a compassionate heart. Leadership doesn’t mean position and power; you need to have a winning attitude to be a leader. The workshop received an overwhelming response from the soldiers.

RGNIYD RC Chandigarh had organised a 4-day workshop on Employability Skills through Life Skill Approaches from 10th to 13th October 2017 in collaboration with University College, Munak, Sangrur. 80 NSS volunteers from various streams have participated very enthusiastically in this workshop to acquire key employability skills in order to construct a personal development plan. It is important for students to become self- aware and recognise their skills. They also need to develop the confidence to market their skills effectively when the time comes to apply for jobs. Over the past two decades, educators, employers, and policymakers have increasingly placed great emphasis on the development of life skills as a way to prepare young people for success in today’s rapidly changing and globalized world. Although young people around the world are more and more likely to pursue formal education, upon graduation they often find that they are not adequately prepared for the world of work. Because of skills relevant to key growth sectors of the modern economy – both technical and “soft” skills – are often not covered in traditional education systems, employers often find a “skills mismatch” between the competencies youth need to succeed in the workplace and those they actually possess. This is a critical challenge for today’s youth, and one key approach to overcoming this challenge is through the provision of life skills training. The workshop was aimed to impart Leadership and Team building qualities in the Youth as the unemployment rate amongst the educated youth is reportedly increasing with the increase in their education level. Today there has been growing recognition of the important role which young people play in Nation building. Mr. Avinav Thakur, Training Coordinator RGNIYD, guided the participants through various indoor and outdoor exercises, presentations and team building games to gain more confidence in their skills and strengths and to overcome barriers to employment. These activities lead to help youth to develop a broad range of skills and knowledge in order to participate in the current and future labour market. The main focus of this workshop was to increase the level of awareness and understanding of context, culture, identity and diversity while dealing with the issues of unemployment.

A four day Workshop on “Start Up Stand Up for Potential Young Entrepreneurs” was organized by Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD), Regional centre, Chandigarh in collaboration with Department of Food Science, MCM DAV College for Women, from 10-13 Oct, 2017 at RGNIYD Regional Centre Chandigarh. The purpose of the workshop was to inform and empower the students with enhanced understanding of the requirements and basis of entrepreneurship with emphasis on skill development and various funding schemes available. A total of 56 students of B.Sc. (Microbial and Food Technology) attended the workshop. The inauguration ceremony embarked with lamp lighting and welcome address by Mr. Stanzin Dawa, Regional Director, RGNYID, Regional Centre, Chandigarh who laid stress on the need for skill based development and entrepreneurship among youth of the country. This was followed by a formal introduction about the workshop by Dr. Geeta Mehra, Head, Department of Food Science, MCM DAV College for Women, Chandigarh. She gave valuable insight into the topic encouraging participants to set up an enterprise through a well-delineated process including need identification, narrowing down alternatives, technical and financial feasibility, laboratory/market testing and commercial launch. Inaugural address of the session was delivered by Dr. Paramjeet Singh, Director, RCED, Chandigarh. His motivational and interactive address enlightened the audience about the importance of self-employability and its advantages in near future. After tea break, the session resumed with keynote speaker, Prof. Amarjeet Singh, Community Medicine, PGIMER, Chandigarh. His special emphasis on food safety was presented to the students in a highly innovative and dramatic manner laying stress on the importance of implementation of guidelines and food safety rules across the country. The workshop included sessions on Law and Entrepreneurial Opportunities, Entrepreneurship Development: Go-to-market strategy, Project Financing – Agencies and Modalities, Supercritical Fluid Extraction Technology, Fruits and Vegetable Processing, Licensing and Registration of Food Organisation, Information Technology and Social Media as an enabler for entrepreneurship, Bakery Technology, Whet your appetite, feed the world: Recipe for an agro-food entrepreneur! and Intellectual Property Rights. The eventful workshop concluded with inspiring words of Mr. Stanzin Dawa. The valedictory address was delivered by Guest of Honor, Dr. Ajit Dua, Director, Punjab Biotechnology Incubator, Mohali. She gave an inspiring speech to all the students laying emphasis on the need of starting potential food ventures thereby promoting entrepreneurship. This was followed by distribution of certificates to all the participating students by Dr. Ajit Dua and Dr. Geeta Mehra. Final vote of thanks was given by Ms. Kamalpreet Kaur, Training Coordinator, RGNIYD, Regional Centre, Chandigarh.

RGNIYD-Regional Centre kickstarted Three days’ workshop on YouthEmployability Skills from 12-14 October 2017 at Botadkar College. The workshop is attended by 64 participants very enthusiastically in this workshop to acquire key employability skills in order to construct a personal development plan. It is important for students to become self- aware and recognise their skills. They also need to develop the confidence to market their skills effectively when the time comes to apply for jobs. Over the past two decades, educators, employers, and policymakers have increasingly placed great emphasis on the development of life skills as a way to prepare young people for success in today’s rapidly changing and globalized world. Although young people around the world are more and more likely to pursue formal education, upon graduation they often find that they are not adequately prepared for the world of work. Because of skills relevant to key growth sectors of the modern economy – both technical and “soft” skills – are often not covered in traditional education systems, employers often find a “skills mismatch” between the competencies youth need to succeed in the workplace and those they actually possess. This is a critical challenge for today’s youth, and one key approach to overcoming this challenge is through the provision of life skills training. The workshop was aimed to impart Leadership and Team building qualities in the Youth as the unemployment rate amongst the educated youth is reportedly increasing with the increase in their education level. Today there has been growing recognition of the important role which young people play in Nation building. Mr. Sanjeev Kumar, guided the participants through various indoor and outdoor exercises, presentations and team building games to gain more confidence in their skills and strengths and to overcome barriers to employment. These activities lead to help youth to develop a broad range of skills and knowledge in order to participate in the current and future labour market. The main focus of this workshop was to increase the level of awareness and understanding of context, culture, identity and diversity while dealing with the issues of unemployment.

"RGNIYD RC successfully conducted a Workshop on Leadership and Personality Development in collaboration with Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya, Sector 25, Chandigarh from 16-17 October, 2017 at JNV, Chandigarh. The workshop was facilitated by Ms. Amanpreet, Sr. Training Coordinator, RGNIYD RC and Ms. Kamalpreet Kaur, Training Coordinator, RGNIYD RC. 53 NSS Volunteers participated in the workshop with full enthusiasm and dedication. All successful organizations and businesses need effective leaders. The leadership of effective and well trained leaders is paramount to providing an agreed upon goal for the organization’s success. Leaders are invaluable when it comes to formulating and communicating new strategic directions, as well as communicating with and motivating employees to increase dedication to organizational goals. Ineffective leaders tend to invert this principle and consider merely that the leader must be served by the people. This faulty idea fosters the notion that leadership as an opportunity to take: to acquire personal status, advantage, gain, etc., at the expense of others, which is grossly wrong. Leadership is instead an opportunity to give; to serve the organization, and crucially the people too. Personality plays an important role carrying oneself effectively, communicating with others, engaging with others, developing relationship with others, creating networks. These attributes are important to be an effective leader. Personality is the collective exposure of personal character traits of an individual which can be his thought pattern, feelings, and emotional exuberance. Psychology treats personality development as an ongoing and dynamic process which is largely impacted by the atmosphere. In 21st century, due to science and technology things are changing rapidly, in order to deal with the changing circumstances and challenges effectively leaders need to upgrade their leadership skills timely. The programme is designed to help the participants analyze you and assess their skills, interest, personality and aptitude. Creating and leading a successful team needs time, dedication, effort and skill. With our program, participants will learn what it takes to be a good leader, how to form a team, and how to continuously improve the way their team functions and lead it to success. Experiential methodology was adopted to facilitate the training and participants were given the opportunity to learn by doing. The participants felt motivated, inspired and they learned valuable lessons of leadership and teamwork in fun manner. In the closing ceremony, Mrs Santosh Sharma, Principal, JNV, Chandigarh thanked the organizers and facilitators for grooming their students and igniting the spark of leadership in them."

RGNIYD, Regional Centre, Chandigarh organized “ Workshop on Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities through Sports” in collaboration with Association of Professional Social Workers and Development Practitioners (APSWDP), Chandigarh from 21-23 October 2017. A historical “Inter-State Wheel Chair Cricket Tournament” was played between the teams of Haryana and Punjab on first two days of the workshop. The goal of this workshop was to mainstream the players in the sports and boost their confidence which will help them to be independent in their life. It was the first time in Chandigarh that a cricket tournament was organized for the person with disabilities. The players for states represented in this tournament were from Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and they displayed inspirational cricket spirit and won the hearts of audience on a very first day. It was quite an energetic atmosphere. The inauguration ceremony of the workshop witnessed the presence of some prominent personalities from Chandigarh including Mrs. Asha Jaswal, Hon’ble Mayor, Chandigarh who was the Chief Guest and Shri Nirmal Chand, Regional Director of RBI along with Mr. Stanzin Dawa, Regional Director, RGNIYD, RC, Chandigarh. Mrs. Asha Jaswal lauded the players along with the organizer of the workshop RGNIYD, RC, Chandigarh, and APSWDP, Chandigarh for their efforts to bring such a historical tournament in the city beautiful. She also assured that the government will support the persons with disabilities regarding improvised friendly equipment and jobs.

RGNIYD-RC successfully concluded four days Workshop on Youth Mainstreaming (24-27 October, 2017) at Dayanand College, Ajmer. Youth mainstreaming is a critical part of pursuing a vision for an egalitarian world. It helps embed young people’s aspirations into development planning and ensure equality between youth and adults. In its best form, it connects democracy initiatives to equitable development outcomes for young people and communities. Young people constitute one quarter of the world’s population, and one third of the population in developing nations. The rationale behind organizing this workshop was to address the distinct and expressed needs and aspirations of young people and to foster young people capacities. Mr. Ajatshatru, Certified Trainer Play for Peace and Ms. Akanksha Sharma, Training Coordinator, RGNIYD-RC were the facilitators for the workshop. During the four days of the workshop, the issues like Gender Mainstreaming, Caste Discrimination, Nationalism and Patriotism, Effective Communication – four ways of Listening, Active Listening, Negotiation Skills, Equity, Equality and Reality were addressed. Various training methodologies like Brainstorming, Small group discussions, Documentaries, activities and cooperative games were incorporated in the sessions to effectively deliver the knowledge and enhance the skills of the participants.

The Department of Social Work under the project called “Adolescent Resource Centre supported by UNICEF, RGNIYD organized a two day workshop on “Adolescent Education Programme” (AEP) for Government and Private School teachers and ICDS Staff on 13th & 14th October 2017 at its campus, Sriperumbudur. The prime objectives of the workshop are to understand the issues and needs of adolescent and implement practices and possibilities for effective Psycho-Social and extra-curricular intervention for adolescent development, sharing the current practices and trends on the various dimensions of adolescence educations, and to explore the development of media and material of various kind in the area of adolescence education and their roles. Better understanding of the adolescent health – Physical, Psychological & Social. In this workshop the teachers were imparted training on effective teaching learning methods, effective class room management, teachers mind-set towards children, mastering in Life Skills techniques and strategies for personality and leadership development, developing skills in counselling adolescents and peer education strategies and career guidance. A total of 36 teachers (12 men and 24 women) participated in this two day workshop. At the end of the workshop the teachers will submit action plan to implement this training to the adolescents at schools. The inauguration of the workshop was held on October 13, 2017 in the seminar hall, RGNIYD. Professor (Dr.) M.M. Goel, Director RGNIYD while delivering the inaugural address justified the need for understanding, analysing and interpreting the problems of adolescents and train them with life skills for inclusiveness to survive, exist and excel in times to come. Shri. R. Rajarathinam, District Education Officer (DEO), Kanchipruam district presided over the inaugural programme and delivered presidential address in which he said that the adolescence period is challenging, and vulnerable and in order to tackle the daily life situation of the children they should be given this kind of education and teachers should be trained in counselling and guidance. During the programme, Dr. Rambau Botcha Assistant Professor, RGNIYD welcomed the guests. Dr. S. Lalitha, HoD, Social Work, RGNIYD felicitated the workshop. Dr. S. Kumaravel, Assistant Professor, RGNIYD gave orientation and overview of the workshop. Mr. Noel Antony Dass, Programme Officer proposed the vote of thanks.

The Department of Social Work under Adolescent Resource Centre supported by UNICEF, RGNIYD organized three day workshop on “Training Module Development for Adolescents” involving the subject experts of academicians and practitioners from 12th - 14th October 2017 at its campus, Sriperumbudur. The objectives of the workshop are to design and develop a capacity building modules on identified five major challenging and current issues among adolescents in India and to disseminating the common training manual for the benefit of adolescents and all the stake holders to make use of the manuals to overcome the challenges in the present context. In this workshop the expert resource persons were given independent in-charge to develop training manuals on five different topics such as Suicide Prevention, Substance Abuse, Risk Taking Behavior, Interpersonal Relationship Issues, and Addiction on Social Media respectively. During the inauguration of the workshop Professor (Dr.) M.M. Goel, Director RGNIYD emphasised the need for sensitizing and building the capacity of adolescents on the current needs and issues through standardized manuscripts and guidelines. At the end of the workshop, the experts presented the draft manuals on the topics assigned to them. Dr. S. Kumaravel, facilitated the workshop.