National Youth Festival which is to be held from 12th to 16th January 2024 at Huballi- Dharwad Karnataka.
Union Minister for youth and sports affairs Shri Anurag Singh Thakur at a media briefing in New Delhi announced that Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi will inaugurate this year’s National Youth Festival at Hubli Karnataka on 12th January, on the occasion of the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda.
This is the 26th National Youth Festival which will be held from 12th to 16th January 2024 at Huballi- Dharwad Karnataka and is being organized by the Union Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports in collaboration with the Government of Karnataka.
Viksit Yuva Viksit Bharat
Shri Anurag Singh Thakur said that through this festival, the ministry aims to set up the role of youth in nation-building during Amrit Kaal. Therefore, while we are celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, We are also trying to disseminate the message of ‘Panch Pran’ as espoused by the Prime Minister among the youth.
Talking further, Shri Anurag Singh said that this year India is also holding the G20 Presidency which is a matter of great pride for every Indian. Currently, the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is organizing ‘Y’ talks throughout the country for Y(Youth)- 20 activities of G-20.
This festival will set the grounds and pace for Y-20 engagement across the country by creating awareness amongst the youth about the themes of Y-20. Participants will take this same message and theme from the Y-20 event to every nook and corner of the country. Keeping in mind India’s aim to achieve ambitious targets of SDGs, the festival will be celebrated using only biodegradable materials. The focus will be put on the Prime Minister’s Mission LiFE and green energy, the Minister.
Youth Festival engagement and activities
Giving more details about the National Youth Festival, the secretary of the Department of Youth Affairs, Government of India Shrimati Meeta R Lochan said that more than 30,000 youth will be attending the inaugural function where Prime Minister Narendra Modi will share his vision with them. During this unique 5 days event, over 7500 youth delegates, recognized, and leaders in their own field of activity, from all over India are expected to attend. The theme decided for the festival this year is ‘Viksit Yuva Viksit Bharat’.
There are several activities lined up for the festival such as discussions on relevant themes like student-centric governance and digital India. Domain experts and leaders will engage in discussions with various elected representatives about how to facilitate student-centric governance. Then several adventures for activities like scuba diving are included, and exhibitions of Traditional Sports like Kalaripayatu (Kerala), Silambam(Tamilnadu), Gatka ( Punjab), and Mallakhamb (Maharashtra) are being organized.
Competitive cultural events like folk dance and folk songs are being organized, where troops from different states will participate. Interesting non-competitive events include the social development fair ‘Yuva Kriti’, ‘Adventure Festival’, ‘Suvichar’, and ‘Young artist camp’ among others.
There will be a two-way discussion in the Youth Summit on themes such as the Future of Work, Industry, Innovation and 21st Century Skills, Climate change and disaster risk reduction, Peace-building, and Reconciliation shared future youth in democracy and governance, Health and well-being.
Many of these events in the festival will be live-streamed across the nation so that crores of young people can also engage with the entire festival digitally. This year the festival is being celebrated as the ‘Green Youth Festival’ so only reusable cutlery napkins etc are being used. all the mementos medals stationery is of reusable material. Water refilling stations are being set up to reduce the use of disposable glasses.
On the 15th of January, between 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. 5 lakhs, people will be mobilized from across 31 districts of Karnataka. A large number of activities will be organized by engaging the youth, throughout the period of the festival across the country.
