Goa stands second in the national Youth Development Index, says a study, but that is only in the context of India, which has largely ignored the needs of its youth, reveals the country’s first youth development index (YDI).
Sponsored by the Rajiv Gandhi National Institute for Youth Development, Chennai, and conducted by the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, it shows that the average index for India is low (0.453), even though youth comprise the largest single section (41 per cent) of the Indian population.
Himachal Pradesh ranks first (0.590) in India’s YDI, followed closely by Goa (0.588) and Delhi (0.587). Neighbouring Maharashtra (0.555) ranks fifth. While 21 States have YDI greater than the national average, Bihar ranks the lowest (0.383) among 29 States for which the YDI was calculated.
“The aim was to assess the status of India’s youth and help identify the gaps that need policy intervention,” said Lata Narayan, who conducted the study along with Anil Kumar at TISS. The parameters included education, work, health and amenities. “A YDI of 0.453 is low. It indicates that the youth population needs greater attention from policy makers and programme planners,” Narayan said.
However, Goa fails to rank among the top three in the Education sub-index. The highest ranking States here are Himachal Pradesh (0.611), Delhi (0.603) and Kerala (0.575), while the lowest are Bihar (0.298), Jharkhand (0.315) and Rajasthan (0.325).
source: http://oheraldo.in/news/Local%20News/Goa-stands-second-in-Youth-Development/41142.html