The Centre plans to launch Model Youth Gram Sabha (MYGS), an initiative based on the Model UN – an educational simulation of the United Nations – in schools across the country, an official said. As part of the initiative, a mock Gram Sabha will be conducted in identified schools, where students from classes 9-12 will play the roles of sarpanch, ward members, and village-level officials, including village secretary, Anganwadi worker, auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), and junior engineers. They will hold mock meetings of the Gram Sabha, discuss various issues, and prepare the village budget and development plans. Gram Sabhas are the local assemblies comprising all adults in a rural area. As per the official, the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, in collaboration with the ministries of Education and Tribal Affairs will launch this initiative in over 600 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) and 200 Eklavya Model Residential Schools (EMRS) across the country in the first phase beginning from October 2025. The initiative will also be rolled out in selected Zilla Parishad schools in Maharashtra and Karnataka. In the second phase, the initiative will be launched in schools run by the state government. “The overarching vision of the MYGS initiative is to cultivate a new generation of informed, responsible, and actively engaged citizens who view local governance as the fundamental mechanism for development and social justice,” the official said. In all, the initiative will cover about 1,100 schools in the first phase and training sessions have already been organised for two teachers from each of these schools, the official said. Giving reasons for launching the initiative, the official said that presently there is a chapter on Panchayati Raj in the school syllabus but this new initiative will provide practical knowledge of the functioning of panchayats at the grassroots level. Regional, national-level competitions The exercise of holding the mock Gram Sabha will be followed by two separate regional and national-level competitions for Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas and Eklavya Model Residential Schools, the official said. In both school categories, the winning schools will receive a prize money of Rs 1 crore each, while runner-up schools will get Rs 75 lakh, and schools getting the third place will receive Rs 50 lakh. Apart from the prize money, the participating schools will be provided with certificates, the official added. The Panchayati Raj Ministry will also provide a support of Rs 20,000 to each school for holding the mock Gram Sabha, said the official. Before launching the initiative, the ministry held a series of meetings with various stakeholders, including the Tribal Affairs Ministry on July 14 and Education Ministry on August 11, the official said, adding that two separate pilots were also conducted at JNV Baghpat in Uttar Pradesh and EMRS Alwar in Rajasthan.
