A Critical Exploration of National Youth Policy of India–2003 and 2014

The National Youth Policy was formulated in the year 1988; in 2003 and subsequently in 2014. The changes in the socio-economic and other conditions in the country call for a reformulation recurrently so that the contemporary situation is taken stock of and absorbed into the policy for the youth well-being. India is the world's highest youth densely populated country. The Census 2011 mentions youth population in the age group of 15-24 amounting to 231 million and the decadal growth is +22.1 % while the sex ratio is 908 (882) in 2011. It is an urgent call to all stakeholders interested in youth development to take a serious look into the policies, programmes and schemes crafted for the youth along with the pros and cons of the implementation and review them in accordance with the rising needs and demands of the youth population in the country. In it their participation, cooperation, contribution and inclusion should be the main approach. This paper shall primarily have a relook into the policies of 2003 and 2014 and present an analysis of them for better understanding of the same.