Scaling up with Strategy in India
The Bharat Scouts and Guides in India are on a mission to increase the number of young people involved in Scouting. Despite the challenges of the global health crisis, they are working to engage even more young people and volunteers by establishing a clear and actionable growth strategy for the whole organisation.
India is currently home to a fifth of the world’s youth, and more than half of the country’s 1.3 billion people are under 25, representing a sizeable opportunity to equip the next generation of young women and men with the skills needed to be active global citizens.
This growth effort is already underway thanks to a project implemented by the Bharat Scouts and Guides with the generous and ongoing support from Alwaleed Philanthropies, a key partner of the World Scout Foundation and World Organization of the Scout Movement.
The project is rolling out in 12 States to expand the number of young people involved in Scouting from 3.7 million to more than 6 million over the next five years.
The key to achieving membership growth for the Bharat Scouts and Guides is having a clear, actionable strategy with achievable targets that can be measured.
We need to work hard to reach all corners of the country with Scouting. Scouting can only change our nation positively; we have defined a realistic goal and developed our action plan for growth. We hope, after a few years, to further expand Scouting in schools and communities.” Arup Sarkar, Project Manager for the Bharat Scouts and Guides.
With support for growth and development via the WOSM Services Platform — developed with support from the World Scout Foundation — the Scouts have transformed their national growth strategy into a collective call to action with buy-in from leadership and Scouts.
The first phase in 2020 saw the strategy rollout, with a focus on coordination efforts, including the establishment of State growth coordinators in eight focal States across India — Assam, Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh — and the development of a national growth unit to provide day-to-day monitoring and support.
While the global COVID-19 pandemic stalled in-person Scout training and activities at various times last year, Scouting in India has continued to grow. Four more States have been included in the growth project — Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Rajasthan, and West Bengal — and work is ongoing to sustain and support the growth of Scouting and engagement of new Scouts.
Even with the challenges of the pandemic, the numbers have continued to climb. We can’t wait to see the result from the next census and 2021 successes included:
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65 facilitators trained
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13,744 Scout leaders trained
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Over 200,000 new Scouts and Guides
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1,533,080 + Hours of service delivered (as of mid-2021)
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100 growth coordinator training courses delivered involving 5,000 new Scout Leaders
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Action on SDGs 4, 10, 16
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6 online Scout webinars on skills development delivered for young people
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A review of the Youth Programme and existing volunteer engagement and membership management training system.
The coordination training enabled me to see the opportunity that we can create for many more young people in my State. It was important to understand that membership growth is directly linked with our mission and the reason Scouting exists. Thanks to the training, we understand the diverse areas that contribute to growth and how we can create more outreach. Now with our new State growth plans we will make sure we provide possibilities for many more young people to benefit from Scouting.” Kaushik Chatterjee, State Growth Coordinator in West Bengal, India.
The growth agenda has also positioned Scouting in India as an ideal partner to contribute to the national government’s efforts to extend education for all and expand Skill India as a key initiative to provide more young people with 21st-century skills for the future.
To discover more impactful Scout projects, visit our 2021 Annual Report.
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Photo credits: Bharat Scouts and Guides