Youth for Governance Fellowship – Mysuru

The Youth for Governance Fellowship Mysuru 2022 implemented by GRAAM and Participatory Research in Asia (PRIA) with the support of the Hanns Seidel Foundation is a program that aims to empower youth of Mysuru to become active participants in the governance process. Through a combination of capacity building, exposure visits, and mentoring, the fellowship equips selected youth of Mysuru with the necessary skills, knowledge, and experience to become effective change-makers in their respective communities.

The nine-month long fellowship, offers a blended theoretical and practical learning with group research on finding burning issues in the city.  Through this process, the youth understand community dynamics, democratic structures, and the tools used for effective governance.  The Fellows will present their findings and recommendations to officials of Mysuru city corporation and to the community leaders at the end of the fellowship.

Presently, GRAAM is running the second Cohort of this fellowship. The first cohort was successfully culminated in 2022. In 2023, interactive exposure visits like one to the Vidhana Soudha, the Karnataka State Legislature, were also added to make the fellowship a more holistic experience for the youth.

Eligibility: Graduates/ pursuing Bachelor’s degree, between the age of 18-28 years and residents of Mysuru are eligible to apply

For more information about GRAAM and its Youth for Governance (Y4G) program, please contact Mr. Bhagavan Bidarakote at +91 9620207879.

·       Help youth understand the Panchayat to Parliament governance structure

·       Make them recognise their individual and collective strength as agents of change

·       Enable them to learn community-based tools to hold governance institutions accountable

·       Help them network with development sector practitioners

·       Provide youth with a certificate for career advancement opportunities

·       Collaboration & MOU with leading educational Institutions in Mysuru for active participation of youth for youth for Governance (Y4G) fellowship program.

·       MOU with Mysuru City corporation for active engagement of youth with MCC through the fellowship.

·       Institutional Heads sensitization meeting for youth enrolment for Y4G.

·       Engaging his Majesty Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wadiyar with his appealing video to the youth of Mysuru to join the fellowship and their learning and to be the change makers.

·       Recruitment of 25 Youth for Governance fellows among the wide range of applicants.

·       Nine training modules with several Interactive training sessions targeted to ‘Understanding Mental Self,’ ‘Understanding Physical Self’ and ‘Diversity of Self’ in both offline and online mode.

·       An International Youth Day a youth extravaganza to engage youth in large numbers towards inspiring them to change makers was conducted in partnership with Social work department of University of Mysore, at Vijnana Bhavana of the UoM campus.  Several attractive events being hosted including Street theatre, poster-making, and quiz competitions to commemorate the day. Distinguished political leaders such as Ms. Aiyshwarya Mahadev (Youth Indian National Congress leader and AICC Spokesperson), Mr. Kaveesh Gowda (Educationist and Young Politician, Mysuru), Mr. Darshan Puttannaiah (MLA, Melukote Assembly Constituency) interacted with our fellows

·       One of the distinguished accomplishments of our Cohort in 2022 is impacting the life of our fellow Hemanth Kumara (pursuing MSW) who, after attending our session on gender sensitivity, persuaded his father to let his sister complete her education

·       Our fellow Dhanalakshmi S Gowda took India to the World Stage by participating in UNESCO International Youth Exchange Bootcamp in Pollica- Italy, where she's unlocking the secrets to building inclusive and sustainable cities

·       As a part of our exposure visits, the fellows got an opportunity to visit and have an exclusive first-hand exposure of governance right from the State Legislature of Karnataka-VidhanaSoudha, and interact with esteemed senior bureaucrats on governance issues

·       The Y4G last year had concluded with the solutions presented by fellows based on the group research they have conducted as part of the fellowship. The final presentation ceremony was held at JSS medical college, and several experts have heard the presentation and given their feedback. The same is planned for this Second Cohort in 2023