The ninth All-India conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India concluded here on Saturday, with over 850 delegates from eight countries — Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Syria, South Africa, Lebanon and Cuba — participating.
The five-day conference ended with the youth body electing 71 members to its central executive committee, and other key office-bearers for the next three years.
M.B. Rajesh, CPI (M) MP for Palakkad, was elected the new national president; he takes over from P. Sreeramakrishnan, MLA. Abhay Mukherjee is the new general secretary, succeeding Tapas Sinha.
Nationwide, the DYFI currently has a membership of 1.62 crores — primarily in Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Tripura — up from 1.34 crores in 2011. Since the last conference, held in 2007 in Chennai, membership of the youth organisation had declined. However, over the same period, membership numbers in States such as Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Tripura increased.
A key amendment to the DYFI’s constitution made during this conference is the provision for affiliating “like-minded” youth organisations to the federation. This decision was made in order to be able to reach out to more youth population, including tribal communities, minorities and young professionals, Mr. Rajesh told The Hindu. Other key decisions include increasing annual membership fee from Re. 1 to Rs. 2.
Over the next three years, DYFI will focus its struggles on unemployment, fighting communal forces and moral policing, and intensifying struggles on social issues such as honour killing and caste discrimination.
“We have also come up with a structured and scientific way to use new-age media for our political and social programme, and reclaiming this key space from rightwing elements that have been misusing it to further divisive agendas,” he said.
On unemployment, the focus would be on countering neoliberal policies, demanding that the freeze in public sector hiring be lifted, and job reservation for SCs and STs in the private sector.
Five national vice-presidents (Preethi Shekar, Abhas Rai Chowdhury, M. Swaraj, Tapas Datta, and Murugan) and joint secretaries (T.V. Rajesh, Zameer Mohalla, Amal Chakraborthy, B. Rajashekaramurthy and Dinesh) were also elected.
