Youth and Eco Club

What is the Youth and Eco Club scheme in Uttarakhand?

Youth and Eco Club is a school-level environment programme implemented under the Samagra Shiksha Programme by the Secondary Education Department, Government of Uttarakhand. The scheme's stated aim is to promote environmental awareness and sustainable practices among students through programmes, activities and competitions that involve them directly in protecting the environment.

Youth and Eco Club is the smallest kind of government scheme to explain, and one of the easiest to misread. There is no cash benefit, no application form and no selection process. The unit is the school, not the student, and every government primary, upper primary and secondary school in Uttarakhand is included as a matter of course.

The programme sits inside Samagra Shiksha, the integrated school education programme covering pre-school to Class 12, which in Uttarakhand is administered through the Samagra Shiksha state office at ssa.uk.gov.in and the Directorate of School Education at Nanoorkhera, Dehradun.

What does a Youth and Eco Club actually do?

According to the scheme description maintained for the Secondary Education Department, the club organises awareness programmes, competitions and activities covering plastic reduction, kitchen gardening, tree plantation, environmental protection, waste management, cleanliness and water conservation. The activities listed for the club are:

• Bagless Day and environment-friendly awareness events, using the no-schoolbag day for practical environment work instead of classroom teaching.
• Awareness through skits and plays performed by students.
• Poster making, painting and slogan writing competitions, together with "Say No to Single Use Plastic" campaigns.
• Cleaning drives of the school and its surroundings, including keeping school toilets usable, a small item on the list that does more for attendance, particularly of girls, than most of the rest.
• Composting of food waste generated in the school.
• Planting of trees in the school premises.
• Kitchen gardening, which in a hill school often doubles as a practical lesson in soil, water and seasonal crops.

The common thread is that each activity is something a class can physically do on the school premises with almost no equipment. That is what makes the programme workable in a single-teacher primary school in a remote block as well as in a large intermediate college.

Which schools and students are covered?

A school is covered if:

• It is a government primary, upper primary or secondary school in Uttarakhand. All such schools are eligible and included.
• It falls within the Samagra Shiksha framework administered by the state.

A school or student is not eligible if:

• The school is a private or unaided institution. The scheme covers government schools; a private school is not included in this programme and would have to run an environment club at its own cost.
• The applicant is an individual student or parent seeking money. There is no cash benefit for a student under Youth and Eco Club, and nobody should be asked to pay or promised a payment.
• The institution is outside Uttarakhand, or is a college or university rather than a school.

There is no income test, no caste category restriction and no merit condition. Participation inside a covered school is open to any student the school enrols in the club.

How to apply to join a Youth and Eco Club

1. Confirm the school is a government primary, upper primary or secondary school in Uttarakhand. If it is, it is already covered, there is no separate sanction to wait for.
2. Ask the head teacher to nominate a teacher in charge of the Youth and Eco Club, and to form the club with student members drawn from different classes.
3. Enrol as a student member with the teacher in charge. No form, fee or document is required from the student.
4. Plan the year's activities from the prescribed list, tree plantation, kitchen gardening, cleaning drives, composting, water conservation, anti-plastic campaigns — and fix them against the school calendar, including Bagless Days.
5. Hold the competitions, poster making, painting, slogan writing, skits and plays, and record participation.
6. Maintain the club register and activity record so the school can show what was done when the block or district education office asks.

How is the programme funded and monitored?

Youth and Eco Club runs on the Samagra Shiksha budget rather than on a standalone scheme allocation, which is why no per-student or per-school amount is published in the scheme description. Support reaches the school through the regular Samagra Shiksha channel, and the school accounts for it in the same way as its other Samagra Shiksha activities.

Monitoring is equally light. There is no separate online portal for the club. The school's own activity record, the block and district education officers, and the Samagra Shiksha state office at ssa.uk.gov.in form the chain.

What the scheme does not do

Because Youth and Eco Club is so often confused with scholarship or grant schemes, it is worth being blunt about the limits:

• It does not pay students any scholarship, stipend or prize money as a matter of entitlement.
• It does not fund school construction, boundary walls or laboratories. Those come from other Samagra Shiksha components.
• It does not enrol schools by application. Coverage is automatic for government schools and unavailable to private ones.
• It does not issue certificates that carry weight for admission or employment, though schools commonly recognise student participation internally.

Where to ask questions

• Samagra Shiksha, Uttarakhand at ssa.uk.gov.in, the state office administering the programme under which the club runs.
• Directorate General of School Education, Uttarakhand, Nanoorkhera, Dehradun 248001, and the department portal at schooleducation.uk.gov.in.
• Block Education Officer and District Education Officer, for questions about activities and records in a particular school.
• The head teacher of the school, who is the first and usually the only person a parent or student needs to speak to.

Joining a Youth and Eco Club is free. No school, teacher or agent may charge a student for membership, for a competition entry or for a certificate under this programme.