Delhi’s youth want affordable housing for students, institutions to provide employment, community amenities like libraries and better accessibility to educational institutions among other facilities in the upcoming master plan for the city.
A ‘Youth Sabha’ held by the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) saw young citizens aged 18-30 raise pertinent issues concerning their education and career. The meeting was part of a series of consultations being held by the urban body with respect to the preparation of the Master Plan for Delhi (MPD) – 2041. Two more ‘Youth Sabhas’ are lined up for October 1 and 3.
A senior DDA official said, “The objective of this consultation was to take the views of Delhi’s youth on what more could be provided to ensure quality education. The dialogue aimed to focus on the access to associated amenities like housing, connectivity to these institutions and so on.”
According to the DDA, over 800 people had registered for the event and around 450 participated in it.
Skill enhancement
The official further said, “A need was felt for equitably distributed skill enhancement institutions that would help them [students] hone their employability skills and make them ready for the job market. The gap between jobseekers and actual available jobs is vast and some concrete steps need to be taken to bridge it.”
The urban body also said that students residing on the Capital’s periphery complained of longer travelling time. “A youth from Najafgarh mentioned that the nearest college is 25 km away and it takes him one hour to traverse that distance one way. This is not only time consuming but also unsafe for young women as they do not always get to travel thro-ugh appropriate means of commute,” the official said.
Several civil service aspirants residing in Mukherjee Nagar raised issues pertaining to their safety and unaffordable housing facilities for students in the area.
