India

Nilesh is an enthusiastic youth activist engaged in working with rural communities and youth for the last seven years. His area of focus had been the organisation of rural folks and encouraging them for taking up the issues that concern them on local level.

He was an active volunteer of National Service Scheme, a student youth network run by the Government of India, from 2003 to 2008 during his college days. Currently, he is associated with Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangthan, a national level youth network under the Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Govt of India. NYKS operates through village youth clubs throughout India with more than 5 million young activists working across the country.

Creating durable community assets while working with rural young women and men with keeping sharp focus on sustainable development has been the work strategy of Nilesh. After finishing a course in Water Engineering, he has worked in constructing more than 300 water reservoirs in rain fed areas in Maharashtra. When with NSS he took part in creating Continuous Countour Trenches which help arresting the rain water from draining and helps recharge the ground water level resulting in the creation of green belts in dry areas. 

Having an active role for the youth in policy making processes of the nation, higher education with the right kind of employability, access to adequate healthcare facilities are some of the basic issues that concern the youth of India as Nilesh perceives it.

Pallak Jagga

Pallak Jagga is the DRYC to India for the CYP. She majored in Economics from Jesus and Mary College,Delhi University and graduated in 2011. During her college life, she was actively involved in a number of social initiatives. These initiatives were primarily undertaken under the aegis of National Service Scheme, a proactive society of which Pallak served as an office bearer. She also served as the president of the Economics Association of her college where she took a number of dynamic initiatives to establish the Economics Department at the fore of all the departments in college.

She is driven by a keen sense of purpose and loves to be a part of projects which lead to larger good of the community-whether it is the students' community or the society at large. After having successfully organised various workshops, seminars, blood donation drives and NGO visits, she, right now, is committed to working extensively in the area of 'Health and HIV' as a member of the CYP.