Introduction :

The involvement of students of universities and colleges in national or social service has been engaging the attention of the Government since independence. In the beginning, the emphasis was on generating among the students a sense of dignity of labour through shramdan. The National Service Committee (1959-60), under the Chairmanship of Dr.C.D. Deshmukh, had recommended that national service for a period of nine months to a year should be made compulsory before a student enters the university or employment. The Saiyidain Committee (1961), appointed by the Ministry of Education, did not favour compulsion and recommended national or social service for a minimum period of 12 weeks on a voluntary basis. The Education Committee (1964-66) recommended that some form of social or national service should be made obligatory for all students and should form an integral part of education at all levels. In the National Policy on Education (1968) it was stated that work experience and national service, including participation in meaningful and challenging programmes of community service and national reconstruction, should become an integral part of education, emphasis being laid on self help, character formation and on developing a sense of social commitment. While there has been a general agreement that students should be involved in programmes of national or social service with a view to providing them opportunity of participating in national development programmes and thus exposing them to the realities of the social environment in which they live, the introduction of compulsion has not been favoured.

The National Service Scheme was launched in 1969. It aims at the involvement mainly of under-graduate students on a voluntary basis in various activities of social service and national development, which, while making a contribution to socio-economic progress would also provided opportunities to the students to understand and appreciate the problems of the community, awaken social consciousness and inculcate in them a sense of dignity of labour. There has been a great deal of enthusiasm among the students in the various programmes taken up under the scheme. At the same time, there has been a demand from several quarters that opportunities should be provided to the youth going out of the universities and colleges to engage themselves on a whole time basis for a specific period in activities of social and national service. Some attempts in this direction have been made in some States during the last few years.

Youth have to play catalytic role in accelerating the process of national development. Their boundless energy and innate idealism could introduce into the various development activities a direction which could bring about the social transformation needed to make it suitable for their own future. Involvement of youth is particularly relevant because of the resolve of the country to progress in the direction of building up an egalitarian society, emphasising not only economic and technological development but also improvements in the quality of life of the common man. The bias, therefore, has been towards improvement of the lot of the weaker sections of society. In organising opportunities to enable youth to make their many-sided contribution to national development, it must not be forgotten that this involvement is essentially a process of completion of their education.

National Service Volunteer Scheme (NSVS), launched with effect from 1977-78, aims at providing opportunities to students, generally speaking those who have completed their first degree, to involve themselves on a voluntary basis, in national building activities for a specific period on a whole-time basis. The requirement regarding completion of the first degree course may be relaxed in the case of students who discontinued their education after completion of Intermediate/Higher Secondary Education to participate in mass movement for a better political and social order, in case of students belonging to Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes who have passed intermediate/Higher Secondary Examination and in case of women students if in a particular district/area graduate women students are not available. The National Service Volunteer is envisaged as a social engineer, one who is striving to discover his creative potential and to gain a deep and critical insight into the issues involved in the process of development, and who is willing to commit all his energy in the service of the community and the country.