HARNESSING LIFE SKILLS FOR ENHANCING LIFE COMPETENCIES OF SLUM YOUTH

The Indian National Youth Policy (2014) emphasizes the need to empower the youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and become change agents contributing to full participation and progress in life. Youth are crucial stakeholders and they must be endowed with skills and competencies to thrive in the 21st century. Research evidences prove that life skills training (LST) is an important tool fostering healthy developmental transitions into adulthood. Life Skills enables an individual to adapt to situations and people and helps to lead a healthy and positive life. The main objective of this study was to assess the level of life skills before and after intervention among youth (women) who are coming from slums, are first generation learners and possess the zest to be successful in life. The current study is a quasi-experimental one, with pre-test and post-test design without control group, on a sample of (n=42) women youth. A four day life skills training of 6 hours per day, totaling to 24 hours was carried out, adopting the 10 core Life Skills as laid down by World Health Organisation. Appropriate learner centric training methods were used. The results confirm that Life Skills Training has a significant impact on enhancing their global Life Skill levels and also the categories of Life Skills namely, their social, thinking and coping skill levels, before and after training intervention, thereby enhancing their life competencies. More number of studies may be carried out among youth, especially those disadvantaged who have fewer choices.