1.3.9. In the field of international cultural relations, Cultural Agreements were entered into with 2 countries viz. Belize and Laos, covering important fields of interaction in the spheres of art, cul- ture, education including academic activities, sports, youth activi- ties, journalism, radio, television and cinema. During the year, a protocol was also signed at the conclusion of the first meeting of the Indo - Russion workshop Group on Culture on 3rd September, 1994.

1.3.10. Festival of India was also organised in May 1994 at Beijing, China which covered performing art events, film festivals, fashion show and exhibition etc.

Department of Youth Affairs & Sports

Youth Programmes

1.4.1 The Department of Youth Affairs and Sports is implementing a number of schemes of Youth development. The Schemes are designed keeping in view the fact that youth is the most vital human resource of the Nation on whom the present and future of the country depend. Many new initiatives taken during the year have given a new thrust to the youth programmes for channelising the abundant energy of the youth into a constructive activities. The important ones are enumerated below.

(i) It has been decided to set up Youth Development Centres for group of 10 villages each in order to give a fillip to participation of rural youth in development activities. These centres will have facilities for information, sports, training and youth programmes for rural youth. The land for the centre will be donated by the Panchayat. This scheme will be implemented through Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan, an autonomous Body under this Department.

(ii) Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan(NYKS) is the largest grass- root organisation in the country set up with the objectives of providing non-student rural youth with the opportunities to grow and achieve national goals. It has been decided to add a few more important areas of national priorities in the Action Plan of Nehru Yuva Kendra from the year 1994-95. The areas to be added are:Panchayati Raj Awareness, Health & Population Aware- ness, Vriksh Mitra Scheme for

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Environment Promotion, SEWAK (Self Employed Workers Association Kendra), Yuva Utsavs(Youth Festivals) at block, District, State and National Level, Yuva Vikas Kendram, (Youth Development Centres), Environment in Vocational Education. Beside this it has felt that this year the emphasis should also be given on making youth economically self- reliant. There is, therefore, a need for decentralisation of programme planning and to pro- vide more flexibility in the hands of Youth Co-ordina- tors at the time of preparation of the Action Plan. In order to make the NYKS presence felt among the masses and to fulfil its aims and objectives, it was decided to give each District NYK a set of Minimum Common Pro- grammes. Further, it was also decided that 50% of the beneficiaries would be the young women from rural/back- ward areas and there should be due participation of Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Minority Communi- ties.

Sports and Physcial Education

1.4.2 India has a long tradition for sports and physical fitness. High recognition to this subject was accorded when a separate Depart- ment of sports was created in 1982 prior to the commencement of the 9th Asian Games. Subsequently, the first ever National Sports Policy was announced in 1984. A fresh programme of Action for implementation of this Policy was laid before Parliament (in the monsoon session) in 1992.

1.4.3 During the year 1994-95, India participated in the XV Com- monwealth Games held in Victoria, Canada from 18th to 28th August, 1994. India also participated in the 12th Asian Games held in Hiro- shima from 2nd to 16th October, 1994. Our performance was better in these games than the earlier occasions. The schemes of SAI were got reviewed by the Department through Tata Consultancy to make them more meaningful.

1.4.4 The recommendations of the Sub Committee of Central Advisory Board of Education were accepted by the Government. State Govern- ments were requested to take follow up action on the recommendations.

1.4.5 The proposals received from various sports federations for inclusion in publiC Notice issued by Ministry of Commerce for the pur- pose of their import without import license were sent to Director General of Foreign Trade for inclusion of the same in the public Notice referred to above.

Department of Women & Child Development

1.5.1 Department of Women and Children is at the core of the nation's human resource development efforts. Therefore, special Department of Women and child Development was set up in the year 1985 as part of the Ministry of Human Resource Development to give the much needed impetus to the holistic development of women and children.

1.5.2 The Department in its nodal capacity, formulates plans, policies and programmes; enacts/amends legislation; guides and co- ordinates the efforts of both governmental and non-governmental organ- isations working in the field of Women & Child Development: Besides the Department also implements certains innovative programmes in the areas of welfare and support services; employment and income genera- tion; awareness generation and gender sensitization. These programmes play a supplementary and complementary role to the other general development programmes of health, education and rural development etc. All these planned efforts of the Government are directed to ensure that women are

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empowered both economically and socially and thus become equal partners in national development alongwith men.

1.5.3 Some of the note-worthy achievements under the Women and Child Development sector include - setting up of the National Commis- sion for Women; setting up of Rashtriya Mahila Kosh; adoption of National Plans of Actions - one for the Children and another one exclusively for the Girl Child; Accelerated Expansion of ICDS Pro- gramme; adoption of the National Nutrition Policy; laucnching of the scheme of `Mahila Samriddhi Yojana', setting up of National Creche Fund for Children.

1.5.4 In line with the Eighth Plan strategy of enhancing employ- ment opportunities for women, the Department of Women and Child Devel- opment has re-set its priorities and expanded the services under the women-specific employment programmes like Support to Training and Employment Projects for Women in the traditional sectors of agricul- ture, dairying, animal husbandry, handlooms, handicrafts, sericulture, fisheries, etc; Training-cum-Production Centres to extend sustainable employment to women and adolescent girls in the non-traditional up- coming trades like electronics, computer, radio engineering, beauty culture, fabric designing, catering, etc; Socio-economic Programme to provide `Work and Wage' to rural women; and Condensed Courses to extend continuing education and vocational training to school drop- outs. These programmes could benefit about 10 lakh women with train- ing and employment opportunities during the last developmental decade.

1.5.5 Simultaneously, the Department has also been taking care of the Credit and Marketing needs of the self-employed women as well as the Women in the Informal Sector. While the recently set up Rashtriya Mahila Kosh responds to the credit needs of poor and assetless women who have no access to formal banking systems, the Women's Development Corporations in various states are expected to provide both `forward' and `backward' linkages like supply of raw materials and marketing facilities. These services supplement the on-going employment and training programmes for women all over the country. The Mahila Kosh has, by January 1995, extended a total credit of worth Rs. 8.88 crores, to 59524 poor women through 47 NGOs working in the field of credit extension.

1.5.6 Further, it has also spread a wide net-work of support services for women and children belonging to lower economic strata through voluntary organisations. In order to promote greater mobili- ty for women in the employment market, the nodal Department launched a scheme called `Hostel for Working Women', as early as in 1973. It provides `safe' and `cheap' accommodation to single working women who come to the cities/towns insearch of employment. So far, there are 687 such hostels spread all over the country, benefitting about 45000 working women and their dependent children numbering about 8000. Similarly, to reduce the burden of child care of working mothers, the Department is also running a programme called Creches/Day Care Centres for the children of working/ailing mothers. At present, there exist more than 12470 creches benefitting 3.10 lakh children all over the country.

1.5.7 There has been overwhelming response to the Mahila Samriddhi Yojana launched in October 1993. Upto 31st December 1994, 72.04 lakh MSY Accounts with a total deposit of Rs. 65.90 crores were opened by rural adult women to save and improve their financial assets. This Scheme extends an opportunity for women to exercise greater control over their own household resources and gain greater confidence.

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1.5.8 For the holistic child development, the Department is imple- menting the programme of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS). The scheme which is described as country's gift to our children is today the world's largest and most widely acclaimed child development programme. As on 31.12.94 the programme is being implemented in 3787 ICDS blocks through about 3.99 lakh anganwadis covering 17.6 million children and 3.9 million mothers. Efforts have been intensified to substantially expand the coverage of the ICDS. Special ICDS projects in the pre-dominantly tribal/backward areas of Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh are being implemented with World Bank assist- ance; extending additional services like skill upgradation for income generation, etc. for women, schemes for adolescent girls and nutri- tional rehabilitation of the severely malnourished, etc.

1.5.9 A National Nutrition Policy has been adopted to combat the widespread malnutrition prevalent in the country. Sectoral Action Plans are being prepared. A National Nutrition Council under the Chairmanship of Prime Minister has been constituted to oversee the attainment of goals set under the National Nutrition Policy and to ensure adequate nutrition to one and all in the country.

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