KATHMANDU: The International Youth Day is being celebrated this year for a week.

At the initiative of the National Youth Council, the week-long celebration is being held with the main slogan “Healthy, hard-working and enterprising youth for a prosperous Nepal”.

Executive vice president of the council Surendra Basnet shared that the day is being celebrated from August 5 by organizing programs aimed at youth. The main day is celebrated on 12th of August.

The week-long celebrations include leadership development, entrepreneurship skills enhancement of the youth. a youth-friendly governance discussion program with people’s representatives represented at the local level, a morning procession of the youth of the army, police, youths and student organizations and non-governmental organizations on the main day etc.

The main celebration committee has been formed under the leadership of Minister for Youth and Sports Maheshwar Gahatraj.

Since 1999, the United Nations has decided to celebrate the 12th of August every year as the International Youth Day in order to address the issues of the youth.

In Nepal, the day was celebrated for the first time in 2004 under the leadership of organizations working with youth.

Even though the government has brought many programs with the youth as a top priority, the youth have not been able to benefit due to the lack of effective implementation of those programs.

The government has been working on the leadership development of the youth by forming the National Youth Council in 2015.

Since its establishment the Council has been leading the celebrations of the International Youth Day in the country.