Assistance for YUVA Tourism (Uttar Pradesh Youth Tourism Club Grant)

What is Assistance for YUVA Tourism?

Assistance for YUVA Tourism is a small grant scheme of the Department of Tourism, Government of Uttar Pradesh, created under clause 7.9.7 of the Uttar Pradesh Tourism Policy 2022. The scheme pays a one-time grant of Rs 10,000 for one year to a youth club formed inside an eligible government educational institution, so that the club can run tourism activities: most commonly guided tour trips around Uttar Pradesh, and tourism awareness activities with children at school and district level.

YUVA tourism, sometimes written as Yuva tourism, is one of the niche tourism products the Tourism Policy 2022 names alongside eco-tourism, adventure tourism and rural tourism. Under the policy's youth tourism chapter, the state identifies youth tourism clubs as a means of "inculcating responsible" tourism behaviour among young people, and commits to engaging youth wings so that they become part of these clubs and promote youth tourism in the state.

The purpose is deliberately modest. Rs 10,000 does not fund a large trip; it funds transport, entry fees, printing and refreshments for a school-level activity, and it exists mainly to give a club official standing and a small working budget so that a teacher can organise something without collecting money from parents.

How much is the grant and what can it be spent on?

• The grant is Rs 10,000, paid once, for one year.
• The permitted use is tourism related activities, which the policy illustrates as conducting tour trips around the state and implementing tourism activities in schools or at district level with children.
• The grant is capped at a maximum of 10 such clubs in a division per year.
• One educational institution will receive this grant only once in a year.

Uttar Pradesh is divided into 18 administrative divisions. With a ceiling of 10 clubs per division, the theoretical statewide maximum is 180 grants a year, or Rs 18 lakh in total. That scale is worth stating plainly: this is a recognition-and-seed grant, not a funding stream a school can build a programme on.

Who is eligible for the YUVA tourism grant?

A club can be considered if it is constituted within one of these institutions, which the Tourism Policy 2022 names directly:

• Government Intermediate Colleges (GIC) and Government Girls Intermediate Colleges (GGIC)
• Rajkiya Degree Colleges (state government degree colleges)
• Navodaya Vidyalayas
• Kendriya Vidyalayas
• Shramik schools (Atal Awasiya Vidyalayas / Atal schools)
• Educational institutions such as Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas

Further conditions the club must meet:

• A youth club must actually be constituted in the institution, with named student members and a teacher in charge, before any proposal is made.
• The proposal must carry the recommendation of the District Magistrate.
• The institution must not have already drawn the grant in the same year.
• The division's quota of 10 clubs for that year must not be exhausted.

Who cannot apply or is not eligible:

• Individual students and teachers cannot apply. No part of the Rs 10,000 is a personal benefit, and it is not paid into a student's account.
• A club with no institutional backing. An informal group of young people not attached to an eligible institution, is not eligible, because the policy ties the grant to clubs constituted within the named institutions.
• Purely private schools and private colleges are not in the list of named institution types, so they are not eligible for this particular grant.
• The same institution twice in one year is not eligible; the second proposal will be returned.
• Clubs in divisions where the annual quota of 10 is already used must wait for the next year.
• Non-tourism activity — a proposal for sports equipment, library books or general school expenses does not fit the stated purpose and is not eligible.

What documents are required for the YUVA grant?

How to apply for the YUVA tourism grant

1. Constitute the youth tourism club in the school or college. Record the member list, appoint a teacher in charge, and pass a short resolution in the institution's register so that the club has a date of formation.
2. Write the activity plan. Set out the specific tour trips and tourism activities planned for the year, the destinations, the approximate number of students, and how the Rs 10,000 will be spent. A costed plan is what makes the proposal decidable.
3. Get the Principal's forwarding letter, on institution letterhead, confirming the club exists and that the institution has not drawn this grant during the current year.
4. Submit the proposal to the District Magistrate's office. The grant is payable on the DM's recommendation, so this step is not optional and cannot be bypassed by writing directly to Lucknow.
5. The DM forwards the recommended proposal to the Regional Tourist Officer of the division, who consolidates proposals against the division's ceiling of 10 clubs for the year.
6. The Directorate of Tourism sanctions the grant and releases Rs 10,000 to the institution or club account.
7. Conduct the activity and submit the utilisation account with bills, photographs and a short activity report to the Regional Tourist Officer.

How do I check the status of a YUVA grant proposal?

Follow the file, not a portal. There is no online status tracker published for this grant. Ask the District Magistrate's office for the dispatch number and date on which your proposal was forwarded, then quote that number to the Regional Tourist Officer of your division, who holds the divisional list of 10. Selections are typically consolidated within the financial year, so a proposal submitted late in the year competes against a quota that may already be committed.

Why a YUVA grant proposal gets rejected

• The divisional quota of 10 clubs is already full for that year. This is the most common reason and is not a comment on the proposal's quality.
• The institution already received the grant earlier in the same year.
• The institution type is not on the policy's list, a private school, a coaching institute or an unaided college.
• No District Magistrate recommendation, or the proposal was sent directly to the Directorate.
• The club was not formally constituted before the proposal, so there is no member list or formation record to verify.
• The activity plan is not tourism related, or reads as a general school expenditure request.
• No institution bank account given, or an individual's account given instead.

Where the reason is a full quota, resubmit at the start of the next financial year rather than appealing. Where the reason is a documentation gap, the DM's office will usually allow the club to complete the file and resubmit in the same cycle.

Key dates

The Uttar Pradesh Tourism Policy 2022 came into effect on 23 November 2022 and remains in force for 5 years or until substituted, so the YUVA grant runs to about 22 November 2027 unless a new tourism policy replaces it earlier. The divisional quota of 10 clubs resets each year, and proposals are best filed early in the financial year that begins on 1 April.

Grievance redressal and contact

• Regional Tourist Officer of your division, the officer who consolidates the divisional list of clubs.
• District Magistrate's office in your district, for the recommendation stage.
• Directorate of Tourism, Uttar Pradesh, Rajarshi Purushottam Das Tandon Paryatan Bhavan, C-13 Vipin Khand, Gomti Nagar, Lucknow: email dg-upt@up.gov.in.
• Jansunwai, the Uttar Pradesh integrated grievance portal at jansunwai.up.nic.in, for a written complaint with a tracking number.

The grant is a government transfer to an institution. No agent, tour operator or travel company can arrange it, and no fee is payable to anyone for getting a club selected.