Journey of CYSD

For more than four and a half decades, the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD) has remained a humble yet determined journey of learning, action, and collective hope. What began in the early 1980s as a small youth initiative inspired by the spirit of social commitment gradually evolved into a people-centred institution responding to the changing realities and emerging challenges of Odisha through grassroots action, documentation, policy engagement, and collaborative partnerships.

The journey started with a youth camp organized on the eve of the International Youth Year, where young volunteers came together to construct a small check dam for water conservation. That simple act symbolized a larger belief, that young people, when inspired with purpose and values, can become powerful agents of social transformation. Over the years, this belief shaped CYSD’s continuous efforts to nurture young community leaders, grassroots volunteers, women leaders, and active citizens across Odisha.

The Odisha of the 1980s was marked by widespread poverty, recurrent droughts and floods, educational exclusion, distress migration, and deep social inequalities, especially among tribal and marginalized communities. CYSD responded by engaging closely with communities in need and evolving programmes that addressed both immediate concerns and long-term development challenges. From launching statewide campaigns for non-formal education for school dropouts and non-starter children in partnership with over 100 voluntary organizations and the government, to implementing integrated rural development programmes in forest fringe villages and integrated urban development initiatives in migrant settlements of slums, the organization continuously adapted itself to the changing needs of the state and its people.

The expansion into remote tribal regions brought deeper engagement with issues of livelihoods, natural resource management, food security, and local governance. Working with small and marginal farmers, especially women farmers, became both a learning experience and a meaningful pathway to address distress migration and strengthen resilient local economies.

The devastating 1999 Odisha Cyclone marked another turning point in our journey. CYSD responded intensively in the worst-affected coastal regions through humanitarian response and rehabilitation initiatives while helping build collective platforms for disaster mitigation and long-term resilience. Over time, our understanding evolved from disaster response to climate resilience, ecological restoration, and sustainable development planning.

The organization also recognized that sustainable development requires accountable governance and informed citizenship. This led to pioneering efforts around public finance accountability, social audits, citizen report cards, Right to Information, and the promotion of responsive public services. Building partnerships with community-based organizations, local governments, civil society networks, academic institutions, and policymakers has been central to CYSD’s philosophy of multi-stakeholder engagement and collective action.

Today, as Odisha prepares itself for the centenary celebration of the state in 2036, we stand at another defining moment in history. The demographic transition unfolding before us requires deeper engagement with the aspirations of our youth, who seek meaningful livelihoods, and opportunities to shape the future. Simultaneously, climate change, migration, urbanization, and growing inequalities call for transformative and future-ready development pathways.

The vision for a transformative Odisha must therefore be rooted in climate resilience, active citizenship, women’s leadership, community institutions and social entrepreneurship. It must combine ecological sustainability with social justice and economic opportunity.

For me, this journey has never been about building an organization alone. It has been about nurturing a collective dream, a dream where communities become confident architects of their own future, where young people emerge as compassionate leaders, and where development is guided by dignity, justice, inclusion, and hope. Looking back at the last 45 years, it has indeed been an amazing and deeply fulfilling journey of collective transformation