Young India Foundation

The Young India Foundation consists of a team of entrepreneurs and activists, from Columbia University, Stanford University, Lady Shri Ram College, and University of Oxford among others, who have been actively involved in youth-oriented development programs, policies and mobilisation.[12]

While YIF deals with all issues affecting youth in India on a national, regional, and local level, its primary motive is to help young people get elected in local and regional electoral positions in municipality and positions in the panchayati raj system.[13]

YIF organizes events in India to raise awareness for their age of candidacy campaign which focuses to lower the age when an MP or MLA can run for elections.[14] The campaign highlights how India has the youngest and largest demographic yet the oldest age of candidacy.[15]

As of October 2018, YIF is running a campaign to lower the age of candidacy in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha elections from 25 years.[8] The campaign to lower the minimum age for candidacy to be an MP or MLA from 25 years was also recognised by Shashi Tharoor, a Member of Parliament serving Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala.[16]

1. YIF will file a Public Interest Litigation in the Supreme Court to recommend a legislation to lower the age of candidacy for MPs and MLAs from 25.
2. After the Supreme Court of India’s recommendation, YIF plans to lobby the elected parliamentarians for amendment of three bills:  Article 84, Article 173 (b) and Section 35 (2) of the Representation of the People’s Act 1950.[17]
3. To bring more young people into the movement, it has engaged in social media campaigns,aimed at creating awareness to make the young vote bank more relevant, and give youth a fair share in electoral representation

In April 2018, YIF supported 23-year old Jagbir in his campaign for the position of Panch in his ward. To increase the reach of the youngest candidate fighting elections, YIF’s campaign worked to encourage voters in his constituency to vote for him, and he won the Panch’s seat in rural Haryana.[18]

YIF selects candidates using the following parameters:

• Progressiveness (assessed on whatever "progressiveness" by definition fits their community)
• Network, connections and understanding of the ground level problems
• Knowledge about campaigning and duties as a leader
• Willingness to work
• Personality, the potential to exploit and perspective about volunteers working for them, on a scale of 1–10, how excited would they be?[3]

The YIF community support program is extended to those with the inclination for volunteering and public service. It operates an active Slack community where candidates can network with other people who are considering running for office or for volunteering for YIF. This community has been structured based on specialty and demographics , and helps the  candidates and volunteers in self-organizing, setting up in-person meetings, and commiserating when they encounter challenges.

YIF candidates are given mentorship by experts from a range of domains, such as digital media and political communication. YIF shares links to training and other informational programs by partner organizations with its staff and volunteers.

YIF has conducted boot camps to effectively prepare young people to run for elections.[19] These bootcamps take place in a variety of cities and cover topics ranging from nomination paperwork to social media profiles.[19]

As of October 2018, YIF has over 100 volunteers in a variety of capacities, including YIF representatives, Regional Wishers and college and high school ambassadors. There are three ways to participate: Central YIF, State YIF, and university branches.[20]

The Central Core Committee is the main statutory decision-making body of YIF that governs the state, university and other programs. The university branches function and recruit people from universities all over India. Volunteers can apply to a campus ambassadorship program, to become the focal point of the youth rights movement in their respective university or college campuses. The primary objective of the team is campaign management, undertaking research, daily administration, recruitment of candidates and chart the roadmap for better reach. In addition, the organisation has State and city branches in Delhi, Bangalore, Gujarat. Haryana, and Kolkata[9]

• Official site
• YIF Facebook