Mandaviya Opens Three-Day Sports Ministers' Shivir in Srinagar, Calls for Youth-Led Policymaking

The three-day Chintan Shivir of Ministers of Youth Affairs and Sports from States and Union Territories opened Thursday at the Sher-i-Kashmir International Convention Centre in Srinagar, led by Union Minister Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya and Minister of State Raksha Nikhil Khadse.

The conclave brings together youth affairs ministers from across India's states and union territories to align policy priorities under the MY Bharat platform, the government's consolidated framework for youth engagement launched in recent years. The first day, themed "Samvaad Se Samadhaan," centred on institutional convergence between central and state youth schemes and on making programme delivery outcome-driven rather than purely procedural.

In his keynote address, Mandaviya framed the Shivir's purpose around participatory governance, saying the objective was to ensure individual involvement by bringing every youth voice into the decision-making process. He tied this directly to India's demographic profile, describing the country's youth population as its most powerful demographic dividend and arguing that achieving the Viksit Bharat 2047 target requires youth to actively shape the policies meant to benefit them.

Mandaviya has headed the Youth Affairs and Sports Ministry through a period of expansion for MY Bharat, which the government has positioned as a single-window mechanism replacing older, more fragmented youth schemes. His remarks in Srinagar built on that framing, pushing state ministers to treat youth as partners in implementation rather than passive recipients of central schemes.

The minister's comments extended to the machinery meant to carry this out at the district level. He pointed to District Youth Officers as the mechanism through which grassroots ideas could be properly nurtured and channelised upward into policy, and called for strengthening groundwork through vibrant youth clubs, which he described as the foundation of youth engagement at the local level.

The framing places pressure on states to build out functioning DYO networks and active youth club structures rather than treat MY Bharat as a central scheme administered from Delhi. With the Shivir bringing state ministers together in one venue for three days, the stated intent is convergence — aligning state-level youth programming with the centre's institutional priorities ahead of the 2047 milestone, rather than running parallel, disconnected schemes.

The Shivir continues through its second and third days at SKICC Srinagar, with Minister of State Raksha Nikhil Khadse jointly steering proceedings alongside Mandaviya.