Memorandum submitted by Y Care International
Introduction
1. Y Care International (YCI) is the overseas
relief and development agency of the YMCA movement in UK and Ireland.
YCI focuses on international youth development, in particular
supporting vulnerable and marginalised young people in the developing
world. Y Care International develops and funds over 70 youth projects
in partnership with local YMCAs and YWCAs in 30 countries across
Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Eastern Europe.
2. Our current priority programmes
target young people at risk, working and street children, girls
and young women, young refugees and displaced people, and young
people with disabilities. Areas of programme work focus on six
key areas: skills development and employment, HIV/AIDS and health
awareness, citizenship and democracy, emergency and post-conflict
work, youth justice and rehabilitation and advocacy and youth
leadership. Y Care International offers support to YMCA and YWCA
projects, developed with local communities and youth groups, irrespective
of the race, colour, gender, nationality or religion of the participants.
3. YCI has worked in partnership
with the India YMCA movement since 1984. The India YMCA movement
consists of over 500 YMCAs, each of which represents a not-for-profit
autonomous NGO, working on behalf of the Indian communities throughout
the country. Part of the worldwide federation and regional federation
of YMCAs, the first YMCA was established in 1857. The YMCA movement
is based on Christian ideals but is equally an interfaith movement,
working with those of all faiths and none.
4. YCI currently works with YMCA
partners in Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Jharkand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh,
Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Orissa. We support pro-poor
development projects, with a specific focus on empowering marginalized
and disadvantaged young people. YCI currently supports projects
in the following areas: skills training, youth empowerment, capacity
building, education and HIV/AIDS awareness. YCI has also worked
with YMCAs and other international agencies in responding to natural
disasters, such as the Orissa cyclone in 1999 and the Gujarat
earthquake in 2001.
5. In response to the International
Development Select Committees inquiry into bilateral assistance
to India, YCI and our partners in the India YMCA movement will
be responding specifically to point three, 'Partnerships/ social
inclusion/ sector focus', paying particular attention to point
four, the extent to which DFIDI is focusing its
activities on the most vulnerable and marginalized groups, including
through engagement with civil society.
Partnerships/ social inclusion/ sector
focus
6. YCI welcomes the DFID India Country Plan, 2004
- 2008, and the priority that DFID has given to assisting India's
development over the next four years. YCI believe that it is essential
that DFID provide aid to India whilst huge disparities continue
to exist in poverty levels between and within states, and especially
amongst those from marginalised groups. We also believe that,
as the report outlines, there is a need for policy dialogue with
key line ministries and engagement with civil society.
7. However, YCI consider that insufficient attention
has been given in DFID's India Country Assistance Plan to the
importance of reducing poverty amongst young people. Almost a
fifth of the population are between the ages of 15 and 24 years
of age, and literacy levels of young people in India still remain
very low, with approximately 43 percent of young people aged 15
and over illiterate. (UN India Country Profile on the Situation
on Youth, 1998). In addition, unemployment amongst young people
remains high, at 40 to 50 percent of all rural unemployed and
58 to 60 percent of the urban unemployed (ILO Training and Employment
Paper 36, 1998). YCI are also concerned at the growing levels
of HIV infection amongst young people in India, with young people
making up an increasingly high proportion of those living with
HIV.
8. We appreciate that DFID recognise the challenges
around education and HIV/AIDS, as highlighted in the Country Assistance
Plan and Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), however, YCI believe
that DFID do not distinguish young people, and the specific contribution
and role they make in tackling poverty, as they do with other
marginalized groups e.g. scheduled caste/ tribes and women. YCI
believe that the only effective way to tackle these issues is
to mainstream youth in its strategy to tackle poverty in India.
8. YCI are particularly concerned about high levels
of poverty amongst marginalized and vulnerable young people in
India, in particular young people of scheduled tribes and young
people living with a disability.
9. Over the past ten years, YCI has been working
with local YMCA partners in northern Kerala, and central Madhya
Pradesh to try to address some of the problems faced by tribal
youth and their families. The areas are characterised by high
levels of illiteracy and unemployment, a lack of skills training
opportunities, a lack of primary health care, drinking water and
sanitation, poor housing, alcohol addiction and a lack of effective
leadership. The vast majority of the young people in employment,
work on plantations in exploitative environments for long hours
and extremely low pay. YCI are working to reduce the vulnerability
of tribal young people by providing them with access to skills
training and employment opportunities. However, there is an urgent
need for state level intervention to help overcome the problems
and causes of poverty amongst tribal people, especially tribal
youth.
10. In Tamil Nadu, YCI is working with the Madurai
YMCA Centre for the Hearing Impaired in providing education, skills
training and employment opportunities for hearing impaired children
and young people. The India Disability Act (1995) aimed to increase
the participation, education and employment of hearing impaired
people, however, there has been inconsistency in the implementation
of these policies at a state level.
11. YCI fully support DFID's commitment to broadening
engagement with civil society, in particular the groupings that
can link marginalized groups to their government at a state level.
In order to ensure that there is an integrated approach to tackling
youth poverty, discrimination, skills development and economic
needs, YCI believe that there is a need to strengthen existing
youth, education, health and labour ministries at state. As well
as a national level. At the same time, the impoverished youth
NGO sectors in India, whilst playing a vital role, needs funding,
co-ordination and political support from the youth ministry, in
order to enable them to deliver more effective youth programmes
that reach the poorest young people.
Conclusion
12. DFID's bilateral programme of
assistance to India rightly recognises the need for developing
a more integrated approach to tackling poverty, by meeting the
needs of the most marginalized groups and through policy dialogue
with key line ministries and support for civil society groups.
13. YCI believe that young people
represent a marginalized group that should be mainstreamed in
India's strategy to tackle poverty. DFID has a clear role, through
DFID's National Programme and its dialogue with line ministries
and partnerships with development agencies and civil society,
to support and help facilitate this process. YCI believe that
it is vital that strong linkages and partnerships are developed
between the youth ministry and youth agencies in order to ensure
that a co-ordinated and comprehensive strategy to tackling poverty
amongst marginalized young people is achieved.
May 2004
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