Youth Development Centre in Thimphu

Objectives

• To establish a multi-purpose facility to encourage youth involvement in social and sports activities.
• To develop a safe environment for the youth during leisure time to keep them away from unhealthy habits such as drug abuse and alcoholism.
• To provide facilities to urban youth for a healthy lifestyle.
• To enhance social skills and awareness through youth development programmes.
• Organize at the centre such as:
• Scouting.
• health programmes for adolescents.
• Sports activities.
• Leadership camps.
• Youth forums.
• To promote and preserve traditional values, local culture and arts through cultural activities.
• To provide resources for information gathering and enhancing knowledge through a library and internet cafe.

Among its priorities, the YDF is giving special attention to creating a good environment for the youth that would provide favourable settings for growth and positive development and discourage risky behaviour. The number of youth is growing, particularly in Thimphu, the capital city. There is a need to provide opportunities for constructive social, recreational and educational pursuit as youth make the transition to responsible adulthood and citizenship. The continuance of life-long learning is paramount to this development. Unfortunately, there is an important lack of recreational facilities and places where they can undertake further learning in an informal setting. Many of the existing facilities were built over 30 years ago and can no longer meet the needs and demands of such a growing and diverse group of potential clients. School facilities are mainly for in-school use and existing community facilities are servicing mainly adults, while the post school youth group are mainly left to their own devices. This post-school group is difficult to identify with any certainty as is likely to be heterogeneous in nature.

A feasibility study carried out in 2001 determined the need for a recreational centre with sports facilities, auditorium, recreational facilities and an environment conducive to supervised youth gatherings and leisure time. Without further delay, a consultant was hired to prepare the designs and drawings at the cost of Nu. 1.8 m and the land was leased from the City Corporation in a prime location.

The majority of youth in Thimphu do not have access to facilities where they can spend their leisure time constructively. The Thimphu public library, the one and only library that is open to all throughout the year, is in a dilapidated condition. It is poorly furnished and does not encourage youth to spend time in its premises. Other places of interest to the youth include internet cafes, indoor games facilities such as snooker and gym. However, these are all run on a commercial basis and only a segment of the youth population can afford to spend time there. Many snooker facilities are found in bars. In addition, there is also an increasing emergence of discotheques with bars. Although the law prohibits sale of alcohol to minors, enforcement of the law is constrained by shortage of manpower and financial resources.

It was, therefore, a matter of great concern that there were very limited recreational facilities for a large youth population in the capital city. Many felt that the growing incidences of drug abuse, violence, delinquency, alcoholism and unemployment among youth were caused by the lack of such facilities. Youth were growing up in a risky environment and if this development was not addressed soon, all efforts to improve the economic and social conditions of the Bhutanese people would be in vain.

Thus, in 2006 the Government of India agreed to finance this important project which will be completed by December 2007. The Centre will have sports, internet and library facilities.