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Uttar Pradesh plans to link universities and colleges with its ‘Zero Poverty Campaign’ by having institutions adopt 10–15 gram panchayats each. Students from NSS, NCC, MSW, and other courses will volunteer to promote skill development, employment, entrepreneurship, and social empowerment for identified poor families.

Lucknow: The Yogi government in Uttar Pradesh is set to take another significant step towards making the state poverty-free. As part of this effort, the government is considering linking universities and colleges across the state with its ‘Zero Poverty Campaign’. To formalise the initiative, MoUs will be signed with higher educational institutions, which will adopt 10-to-15-gram panchayats each to ensure the holistic development of identified poor families.

Under the campaign, students from NSS, NCC, MSW and other academic programmes will work as volunteers to connect members of Zero Poverty families with livelihood opportunities, skill development, employment support, and social empowerment initiatives. The initiative will begin as a pilot project in the state capital, Lucknow, and based on its results, it will be implemented phase-wise across Uttar Pradesh.

Principal Secretary, Planning and Nodal Officer of the Zero Poverty Campaign, Alok Kumar, said that students associated with universities and colleges will conduct surveys of identified families in each gram panchayat to promote livelihood enhancement, skill development, employment generation and entrepreneurship. To ensure effective implementation, nodal teachers will be appointed at the institutional level to monitor the campaign and guide activities being carried out in the adopted gram panchayats.

To ensure active youth participation, students enrolled in NSS, NCC, MSW, along with students from other courses, will be involved in the initiative. These volunteers will visit villages to assess the needs of members of Zero Poverty families and assist them accordingly.

Alok Kumar further stated that micro-planning will be undertaken to promote skill training, employment and entrepreneurship. Youth will be linked with skilling programmes, apprenticeships and placement opportunities. In addition, eligible families will be supported in application processes so that they are not deprived of the benefits of any government scheme.

Regular mentoring and progress tracking of beneficiaries will also be ensured. The initiative will focus on achieving 100 percent coverage of all eligible government schemes. To make the campaign more effective, coordination will be established between the district administration and universities/colleges. For this purpose, MoUs will be signed at the district magistrate level, and quarterly review meetings will be held to assess progress and introduce required improvements.