Tamilnadu & Pondicherry State Parliament of Youth

Tamilnadu - Pondicherry State Parliament of Youth (TNPSPY)  emerged out of Tamilnadu - Pondicherry  State  Parliament of Children which won the  global UNICEF- San Marino Alexander Bodini award 2009. This runs thousands of neighbourhood parliaments of children/youth and their federations at various levels of civil governance with “ministers” and departments for multi-focussed action.

 The children/youth come together in the  “parliament” at various  levels,  sociocratically elect

 “ministers” for various concerns like  health, environment, human rights, child rights, education, women's empowerment, economic development etc; do  Participatory Learning Action(PLA) processs like resource- mapping,  social mapping, venn-diagram to prioritize problems and needs; they take them to the  governance  structures of the  grown-ups. They also take up various issues for advocacy at  various levels.

The   child/youth parliaments are territorial based, begining as  neighbourhood parliaments of  child/youth and  getting federated at  various levels to form  village parliaments of  children/youth, panchayath parliaments of youth, block parliaments of youth, district parliaments of youth. Prompted  by NCN the parliaments of  children/youth are initiated in  23  States of India and  in countries of Malawi and  Tanzania

The have liberated  bonded  children, brought    drop outs to school,  brought in new roads, new  bus routes, new street lights, new  facilities at day care  centres, new  bridges, new  crematorium etc.  The children/youth thus  have  a  lot of  success  stories   to  narrate