Madhya Pradesh Plans ‘Year Of The Youth’ In 2027, But Youth Commission Has No Budget

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Gen Z is in the news. Youth are taking to the streets on various issues all over the country and governments are focusing on them. The Madhya Pradesh government, too, has decided to celebrate 2027 as the ‘Year of the Youth’ and has been organising different programmes to engage with them.

However, the state’s Sports and Youth Welfare Department is mainly about sports, with little focus on youth welfare. The State Youth Policy, announced in 2023, is yet to be implemented and the State Youth Commission has been functioning without any budget allocation.

The total budget of the Sports and Youth Welfare Department for the fiscal year 2025-26 is Rs 815 crore, with no separate allocation for youth welfare.

The department is mainly engaged in conducting and managing sports events and activities in the state.

Among the schemes administered by the department for youth welfare is Maa Tujhe Pranam, under which youth in the 15-25 years age group are taken to international borders on an all-expenses-paid visit. It is also running some employment-oriented courses in collaboration with VLCC (cosmetology and nutrition), Eicher Volvo (automobile repairs), ICICI Bank (repairs of refrigeration and air-conditioning equipment) and IndusInd Bank (banking skills). It also organises Yuva Utsav.

The Madhya Pradesh Youth Policy was announced on March 23, 2023, by then Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan during the Youth Mahapanchayat held at the Motilal Nehru Stadium in Bhopal.

However, the policy remained only on paper. It was never implemented. Now, another policy is being prepared for announcement in the ‘Year of the Youth’.

The State Youth Commission operating under the department is currently functioning from a room at TT Nagar Stadium sans any budget.

A senior officer of the department said that sports in itself is a youth welfare activity, adding that youth welfare is a wide issue and cannot be handled by any one department.

Three states have separate youth welfare departments

Uttar Pradesh operates a distinct Department of Youth Welfare and Prantiya Rakshak Dal (PRD), which functions separately from its Sports Department and receives an annual budgetary allocation of approximately Rs 265 crore to Rs 300 crore.

Similarly, Andhra Pradesh maintains an independent Department of Youth Services, distinct from the Sports Authority of Andhra Pradesh (SAAP), with an annual budget of around Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore.

The Assam state government announced the creation of a standalone Department of Youth Welfare and Empowerment recently, and is currently restructuring and pooling existing youth schemes into the newly formed department's budget allocations.