The President of India, Smt. Droupadi Murmu presented the National Service Scheme Awards for the year 2020-2021 at Rashtrapati Bhavan today.Union Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports Shri Anurag Thakur and Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports Shri Nisith Pramanik attended the awards ceremony. Secretary, Youth Affairs, Shri Sanjay Kumar and Secretary, Sports, Smt. Sujata Chaturvedi and senior officers of the Ministry and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports, Department of Youth Affairs confers every year the National Service Scheme Award to recognize and reward outstanding contributions towards voluntary community service made by the Universities/ +2 Council, Programme Officers/NSS Units and NSS Volunteers, with a view to further promote NSS in the country. At Present, NSS has about 40 lakh volunteers on its rolls spread over the country.The details of National Service Scheme (NSS) Award for the year 2020-21 in 3 different categories are as under:
| S. No. | Categories | No. of Awards | Value of Award |
| 1 | University/ +2 Council | 2 | First Award: Rs.5,00,000/- (for NSS Programme Development) with a Trophy to the University/ +2 Council.
A Certificate and a Silver Medal to the Programme Coordinator.
Second Award: Rs.3,00,000 lakh (for NSS Programme Development) with a Trophy to the University/ +2 Council. A Certificate and a Silver Medal to the Programme Coordinator. |
| 2 | NSS Units and their Programme Officers | 10+10 | Rs.2,00,000/- to each NSS Unit (For NSS Programme Development), with a Trophy.
Rs. 1,50,000/- to each Programme Officer with a Certificate and a Silver Medal. |
| 3 | NSS Volunteers | 30 | Rs. 1,00,000/- to each Volunteer, with a Certificate and a Silver Medal. |
NSS is a Centrally Sector Scheme which was launched in the year 1969 with the primary objective of developing the personality and character of the student youth through voluntary community service. The ideological orientation of the NSS is inspired by the ideals of Mahatma
Gandhi. Very appropriately, the motto of NSS is “NOT ME, BUT YOU”(‘स्वयं से पहले आप’).
Briefly, the NSS volunteers work on issues of social relevance, which keep evolving in response to the needs of the community, through regular and special camping activities. Such issues include (i) literacy and education, (ii) health, family welfare and nutrition, (iii) environment conservation, (iv) social service programmes, (v) programmes for empowerment of women, (vi) programmes connected with economic development activities, (vii) rescue and relief during calamities, (viii) Swachhata activities, etc.
