What is Inventure Academy Youth Parliament (INYP)?

INYP is Inventure Academy’s national inter-school Mock Youth Parliament for high school children. INYP chooses an issue critical to children and provides a platform for simulations for debate, discussion and resolution, mirroring India’s Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha along with relevant stakeholders such as civic society, media, international organizations, political organizations etc. Inventure’s education philosophy believes in empowering learners to be positive changemakers in the world they have inherited. INYP is a product of this philosophy and Inventure Academy’s Vision and Core Purpose, for all learners.

INYP provides an experiential learning opportunity for critical thinking, change and teamwork - instilling in every participant the desire and ability to be ‘socially responsible’ (part of our Core Purpose) and ‘be fit for life’ (part of our Vision)

Why is participation in INYP important?

For over 30 years, children have had a legally recognised right to participate, in accordance with age and maturity in all matters that affect them. As per Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child:

“Children are members of society. They may be small in size but they fully have the right to freely express their thoughts, views and opinions, and participate in society particularly in the areas affecting them. Their voices must be seriously taken into account in line with their age and maturity. Every child and youth has unfathomable potentials. While the government has to facilitate and support the participation of children and youth, everyone also needs to take action to support children and youth to participate and exercise their agency as they are also the main driving force in bringing about positive change to society.”
Yet, the right to participate remains an underutilized right. INYP offers a platform that teaches children how to participate, effectively engage, contemplate and contribute to matters affecting them. The students have an opportunity to learn primary and secondary research Design Thinking, data analysis, critical thinking, problem-solving & communication and policy drafting skills through a series of pre-conference workshops. Students will learn from the best in the field, mentored by people with extensive experience in the fields mentioned above.

The students will achieve this while simulating the real seats of power in India: the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha, Media and Civic Society over three days of intense, enjoyable and engaging participation

Success Stories

Here are some examples of how students have participated to affect real change:

The Our Voice platform was born in 2014 when we had great success, partnering with UNICEF, on a project called Our Safety Our Voice (OSOV) to tackle the physical security and abuse of school-going children. OSOV brought together the voices of 1000+ children on their concerns and recommendations about their safety. A student charter produced from OSOV was shared with the committee working on the Karnataka Government’s child protection policy. This helped shape the Karnataka Child Safety & Protection Law implemented in January 2018.

The OSOV experience was so enriching that we have created a permanent platform for children’s children's perspectives and participation on matters that impact them called Our Voice. Importantly, Our Voice empowers the learning community to develop and utilize our expertise to collaboratively solve some of our world’s most ‘wicked problems.'

In 2019, Inventure Academy in partnership with schools associations from various boards in Karnataka organised the Our Future Our Voice symposium aimed at giving students and teachers, amongst those most directly impacted by the National Education Policy (NEP), an opportunity to share their views and perspectives on the Draft NEP 2019. Based on the feedback received, Inventure students and faculty worked on a charter that was presented to the Government for input into the National Education Policy. This was followed by a face to face meeting with Mr Tarun Bajaj, the then in-charge of education at the PMO’s office. We were happy to see some of our key recommendations being incorporated in the final NEP.

For more information you can refer to our initiatives linked below

INYP 2025

Theme: "Life, Learning, and Work in the Age of AI & Automation"

Objective

On national platform, bring together high school students from across the country, to tackle one of the most relevant challenges facing the country today. Using the overall theme seven Committees will deliberate over three days on issues such as addressing COVID dropout rates, bridging the gaps in learning that have emerged during the pandemic, and addressing the mental health wellbeing of students.

Format

With a combination of the practices of Model Parliament (a simulation of the parliamentary bodies in India), and Model United Nations (a simulation of various UN committees), the conference will explore obstacles and solutions from both a national and a global perspective. Seven committees will deliberate different aspects of this theme to draft and design an implementation toolkit that will help the government address the gaps in Post Pandemic Education.

INYP 2025 Committees and Primary Agenda:

1. Lok Sabha: Urban Infrastructure Development Bill (Enhancing public transport, connectivity & smart city initiatives for rapidly growing metro cities)
2. Rajya Sabha: Addressing the Use of AI in City Planning and Urban Problem Solving
3. Greater Bengaluru Authority: Addressing Bangalore’s Traffic Congestion and Assessing the Applications of AI and Technology in Bangalore's Mobility Infrastructure
4. Vidhan Sabha: Boosting Citizen Participation & Ward-Level Governance
5. UNSC: Addressing the use of AI in modern conflicts
6. Continuous Crisis Committee: Israel-Palestine war (2023-present)
7. NHA: Infrastructure development in healthcare to reduce the proliferation of Antimicrobial resitant bacteria
8. UNHCR: Mitigating the Humanitarian Crisis in the Sahel Region (Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger)
9. IPC: Analyzing the Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Social Media
10. DISEC: Addressing the Use of AI in Governmental Surveillance

In the same way that children’s voices have contributed to law-making in Karnataka and India through Inventure’s Our Safety Our Voice (OSOV) initiative, we envision the outcomes of the Inventure Academy Youth Parliament to include the presentation of student resolutions and charters to relevant stakeholders. ​

Students will develop and apply the following life skills over the course of the conference:
• Learn how to identify problems and think critically;
• Apply design thinking and data science to solve problems and come up with solutions;
• Understand how law and policy are created and implemented, engage in dialogue, appreciate different perspectives and work in teams to create actionable resolutions.

Explore our previous initiatives: