National Youth Parliament Scheme (NYPS) is a dedicated web portal developed by the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to promote the Youth Parliament Program. It aims at strengthening the roots of democracy, inculcating healthy habits of discipline, developing tolerance of others’ views, and enabling students to know more about the practices and procedures of the Indian Parliament. This was developed in coordination with the National Informatics Center(NIC) and aims to increase the coverage of the program to all recognized schools and colleges in India and bring all educational institutions of the country under the ambit of NYPS.
The Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs handles affairs related to the Parliament of India and works as a link between the two chambers, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. All recognized educational institutions are eligible to participate in this Portal Based Youth Parliament Programme. The web portal of the National Youth Parliament Scheme is at nyps.mpa.gov.in .
A Brief History
The Youth Parliament Programme has been running since 1966 in schools under the Directorate of Education, Government of NCT of Delhi, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Navodaya Vidyalayas, and universities and colleges.8000 educational institutions and more than 4 lakh students have participated in this program.
Kishore Sabha is for the students of classes 9 to 12 and Tarun Sabha school students of undergraduate and postgraduate levels.
Educational institutions can register on the web portal to participate and after successful registration, they can conduct youth parliament sittings in their respective institutions.
To facilitate online self-learning,e- training modules, videos, photographs, and scripts are available on the portal.
Each student taking part in a sitting receives a digital Certificate of Participation, and the teachers in charge and Head of the institution get a Certificate of Appreciation. The institution with its login credentials can print the certificate and distribute it to the participants.
All institutions have to submit a report regarding the conduct of the Youth Parliament sitting on the web portal, including details of the participants and photos and videos of the sitting.
What do they include?
Topics for discussion at the youth parliament session encompass contemporary and current issues of national importance, some specific themes, and government policies and programs like Swachata Abhiyan, Jan Dhan Yojana, Digital India, and more. The subject selected should be as far as possible non-controversial and related to the subject of welfare activities, social justice, economic development, education, defense, communal harmony, government welfare schemes, student discipline, health, etc. Every year a common theme on government policies and programs may be fixed. no remarks, direct or indirect, may be made to cast aspersion on political parties or leaders or persons.
Participants may speak in any scheduled languages, preferably Hindi and English. Each sitting may consist of about 50 to 55 students and should not exceed one hour. Each sitting is held on the institution’s premises.
The participating institutions may also invite an MP, ex-MP, MLA, ex- MLA, MLC, ex -MLC, or Person of Eminence as Chief Guest to oversee the performance of the youth parliament sitting at the institution for effective implementation of the scheme.