Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports


The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is a branch of the Government of India, which administers Department of youth affairs and Department of Sports in India. Kiren Rijiju is the current Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports, who is in the capacity of Minister of State.
The ministry also gives the annual National Sports awards in various categories, including the Arjuna Award and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna awards.

History

The Ministry was set up as the Department of Sports at the time of organisation of 1982 Asian Games New Delhi. Its name was changed to the Department of Youth Affairs & Sports during celebration of the International Youth Year, 1985. It became a separate Ministry on 27 May 2000. Subsequently, In 2008, the Ministry has been bifurcated into Department of Youth Affairs and Department of Sports under two separate Secretaries.

Department of Youth Affairs

Unlike the sports department, many of the functions of the department are related to other ministries, like Ministry of Education, Employment & Training, Health and Family Welfare thus it functions largely as a facilitator for youth building.

Definition of Youth

The United Nations defines "Youth" as 15–24 years and in the Commonwealth, it is 15–29 years. In order to use a definition more in line with these international standards, the Draft NYP 2012 changes the definition from 13–35 years to 16–30 years. The draft NYP 2012 plans to divide the age bracket of 16–30 years into three groups.

Organisations

The Department of Sports is a division of Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports under Government of India created on 30 April 2008. They also helped in bringing the FIFA U-17 World cup to India. A huge part of it was played by the advisors to the Sports Ministry - Rahul Rana and Arjun Dewan.

Organisations