Ministry of Tribal Affairs hosted a Webinar along with Facebook India here today for sensitization of Members of Parliament (MPs) from Scheduled Tribe (ST) Constituencies of India on “Going Online As Leaders (GOAL) Project”. Union Minister for Tribal Affairs Shri Arjun Munda, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs Smt. Renuka Singh Saruta, many Members of Parliament and senior officers from M/o Tribal Affairs, MyGov and Facebook India participated in the Webinar.      

Speaking at the Webinar, Shri Arjun Munda said that Going Online As Leaders (GOAL) is a digital skilling and mentorship initiative that will engage renowned leaders and experts in their respective domains—from business, education, health, politics, arts and entrepreneurship among others, to personally mentor scheduled tribe youths across India through digital mechanisms. This program will empower and enable scheduled tribe youths to become change makers of tomorrow. The initiative primarily targets at capacity building of youths living in tribal areas which will inspire, guide and encourage them to boost their confidence level and ignite higher aspirations among them. The acquired skills and abilities will help them gain leadership skills, identify problems in their society, find solutions to fight the challenges and use their knowledge to support their livelihood as well as the society’s socio-economic status. The core areas of mentorship program are Digital Literacy, life Skills and Leadership & Entrepreneurship.

He called upon tribal youths to use their Mobile phone as a tool to achieve their goals in life. He said that they should link Social Media like Facebook with the aims of their lives. He hoped that GOAL will be a bridge between Mentor and Mentee for the exchange of their creative ideas as the aim of GOAL is to create opportunities for them. Now a days, Digital Medium has become a part of our life.

Smt Renuka Singh Sauta in her speech said that the tribals despite their creative potentials, used to get isolated in our country but now, through Digital medium like GOAL, they will also get an opportunity to come on front stage by showcasing their creative potential. Tribal people need to come on Digital platforms. She called upon tribal women to get associated with GOAL in large numbers as it will transform their lives.

Members of Parliament from ST Constituencies also expressed their opinions and gave valuable suggestions on GOAL.

GOAL (Going Online as Leaders) is an initiative launched by Ministry of Tribal Affairs (MoTA) in partnership with Facebook India to digitally skill and empower5000 youth from tribal communities to become leaders of tomorrow by leveraging the power of digital technology. GOAL Project is aimed at identifying and mobilizing 2500 renowned people from industry (policy makers and influencers), teachers, artists, entrepreneurs, social workers etc.  known for their achievements in their domain areas, to personally mentor tribal youths across India. The initiative has been designed to allocate two mentees to a mentor. 

The program targets to work in structured phases including preparatory and design phase; selection of mentors and mentees; execution that includes mentoring, training, internships; and follow-up youth economic and leadership activities. The program also seeks to provide handholding support to the youth even after they graduate out for upcoming jobs or self-employment / entrepreneurial initiatives through government schemes. The program seeks to have a strong component of quality assurance, monitoring, concurrent evaluation protocols and uses analytics and technology for continuous improvement, decision making and sustainability.

It is targeted to have a 1:2 ratio of mentors and mentees. Each engagement with mentee will be of nine months or 36 weeks:

• Month 1 to Month 7 (28 weeks): Mentees from tribal communities will be connected to mentors.
• Month 8 and Month 9 (8 weeks): Shortlisted mentees will get internship opportunities in reputed organizations.

Applicants for Mentee and Mentor can register on the portal goal.tribal.gov.in by providing basic information about themselves. No financial remuneration will be provided to any mentor or mentee. The interested tribal youth, can write to facebook-goal@tribal.gov.in if they have any queries related to GOAL program or through ‘Contact Us’ section on GOAL portal.

Youth from tribal communities between 18-35 years of age can apply to become mentee. It is open for all youth from tribal communities irrespective of whether they are part of any educational institute or not or in any kind of profession or even undertaking any training.

Experts in the field of business, education, health, politics, arts and entrepreneurship among others and can inspire, guide and encourage the tribal youth to become village-level digital young leaders for their communitiescan apply to become a mentor. The program requires time commitment from mentor for whole program duration. It is not necessary for the mentor to be from tribal or ST background as a condition to apply.

Ministry of Tribal Affairs has partnered with the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology for leveraging strong network of its Common Service Centres (CSCs). Youths from tribal communities can visit their nearest CSC to apply under this program. Once tribal youth is selected in program, they will be provided smart phones with internet access for one year. The project will be delivered digitally using video-based mechanisms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Mentors and mentees will interact through these apps, and all material will be provided in digital format only.

Mentees will get following benefits: Smartphone with one-year internet access; Joint certificate of participation by MoTA and Facebook; Letter of recognition by Mentor; Opportunity to intern in a reputed private / government organization; Strong visibility and recognition at local/ state/ national level; Opportunity to interact with industry leaders; and Priority access to Facebook and M/o Tribal Affairs events at State/ National level.

Mentees will the following recognition under this programme: Joint Certificate of participation by MoTA and Facebook; Opportunity to interact with like-minded peer group including industry professionals, influencers etc; Priority access to state level events organized by MoTA or Facebook; Profile will be showcased on Portal as Mentor; and Opportunity to meet business and political leaders.

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NB/SK/MoTA/10.07.2020