With two days left to apply for the Joy Bangla Youth Award (JBYA), youth organisations working for religious and ethnic minorities, transgenders, dalits, and other disadvantaged communities have been encouraged to apply for the award.

The award is designed to recognise young changemakers across the country, help them network among themselves and enhance the services they are already providing to their communities.

Since its inception in 2014, Young Bangla has been conferring Joy Bangla Youth Award to youths and youth organisations successfully involved in changing the social paradigm in their respective areas.

Youths across the country reached out with assistance to distressed Hindus who had become victims of communal attacks following the Holy Quran desecration staged by some fanatics, Young Bangla said in a media release today.

Such youth organisations, among others, are encouraged to apply for the award, the release read.

Youths both from the majority Muslim and minority communities registered their protests on social media and the streets against communal violence and reached out to the victims with assistance.

Like the previous year, the fifth installment of JBYA, an award celebrating youths and youth organisations for transforming communities through social initiatives, has included this criterion.

JBYA's invitation for applications commenced on September 24 and will wrap up within two days, said the award's organiser Young Bangla, the youth Secretariat of the Centre for Research and Information (CRI).

Speaking on the impact of the award, 2018-JBYA winner Sadat Rahman, who later received International Children's Peace Prize-2020 for his initiatives to stop cyberbullying and violence against children, said Joy Bangla Youth Award helped him build a network with other young changemakers and get in touch with the country's policymakers. 

"It helped me groom for more impactful service to my community that earned me the international award that I received from Nobel Peace Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai."

The JBYA 2021, named after -- Joy Bangla -- the most iconic slogan behind the Liberation War of Bangladesh in 1971, features two new additions: an award conferring ceremony and lifetime achievement awards. 

Young Bangla will present Lifetime Achievement Awards to individuals who have significant contributions to the post-independent nation-building process through their leadership, service, initiatives, and research.

There will be 10 awards under two broad categories: Social Inclusion and Integrated Community Development.

Youth organisations working to improve the ability, opportunity, and dignity of marginalised and disadvantaged people through different initiatives can apply under 'Social Inclusion', which is split into six sub-categories: Women Empowerment, Child Rights, Empowering People with Disabilities, Empowering Marginalised People, Youth Development, Empowering Extreme Poor. 

Youth organisations making significant contributions to their community through their time, actions, talents, and dedication can apply under 'Integrated Community Development', which is divided into another six sub-categories: Anti-Drug Awareness Campaign, Environment and Climate Change Activity, Disaster Risk Reduction and  Emergency Response, Health Care and Awareness, Education, Sociocultural Initiatives.

Young Bangla will also encourage university-based clubs working for the youth community within the university through community service, campaigns, and activities to apply for this award.

Lifetime Achievement Awards will be conferred based on four criteria: Development Programmes and Projects, Public Policy, Research and Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Creativity.