'Zhabstok Ladakh' portal to boost youth participation in governance
L-G VK Saxena launches the first of its kind official internship portal
Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena on Saturday launched ‘Zhabstok Ladakh’, a first of its kind official youth internship portal aimed at institutionalising the participation of young people in governance and providing them with hands-on experience in public administration.
Under the initiative, 2,000 youngsters will be selected for a three-month internship across 25 departments of the Ladakh administration. The interns would receive a monthly honorarium of Rs 5,000 during the programme, a Lok Bhavan spokesperson said.
“With a large portion of our population under 30, I am confident that their ideas and energy would strengthen and enrich each of these departments and help realise the vision of Viksit Bharat@2047. With this initiative, Ladakh will lead the way in demonstrating how the government and the youth can collaborate for development.
“The initiative would provide a new avenue for young people to serve Ladakh, gain practical experience and contribute their energy and ideas towards addressing local challenges,” Saxena said while launching the portal.
The Lt-Governor said Ladakh was a young region, and its youth constituted its greatest strength. “With a large proportion of the population below 30 years of age, the future of Ladakh rests significantly in the hands of its young people.”
Launched as part of Youth Month, the portal (https://internship.ladakh.gov.in/) would provide students and other young people of the UT with an opportunity to participate directly in the development process by undertaking internships across 25 departments of the UT administration through a single application platform, the spokesperson said.
He said the LG Yuva Internship Programme would be formally rolled out on September 17, coinciding with the birthday of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, observed as ‘Seva Diwas’.
“It seeks to move beyond conventional government-citizen engagement and create an institutional mechanism through which young people can become active partners in governance and community development,” the official said.
The spokesperson said registration for the three-month internship programme would commence on August 22 and continue till September 5, followed by document verification from September 6 to 14. The internship will commence on September 17, with 2,000 youngsters to be selected for the programme.
Selected interns will receive a monthly honorarium of Rs 5,000 during the internship period. Based on their performance, the internship of the best-performing candidates may be extended by an additional three months.
At the completion of the internship, participants would be provided certificates that could strengthen their academic and professional profiles and support their future employment opportunities, the spokesperson said.
The official said the programme would enable interns to work with different departments of the UT administration, understand how the government functioned, gain first-hand exposure to public administration and learn how policies and ideas were translated into programmes and projects on the ground.
