Yuva Sathi camps double as poll outreach, 'Trinamul yoddhas' in good samaritan role
Telegraph | 20 February 2026
Camps set up across the city to enroll unemployed young people for the state government’s ₹1,500 monthly assistance scheme have also become hubs of voter outreach, particularly for the Trinamool.
Thousands of jobless youth are queueing up at the Yuva Sathi camps, many of them frustrated and anxious. In these spaces, party cadres are spending hours as volunteers, helping applicants fill out forms, attach documents and clear doubts. Several volunteers have been deployed at each camp, often working in shifts.
Opposition parties, the BJP and the CPM, have allegedly not been as vocal about unemployment in Bengal as they could have been. Trinamool leaders believe they have read the public mood more accurately.
For unemployed youth — a demographic likely to play a crucial role in the upcoming Assembly elections — the camps offer a helping hand.
On the ground
At Park Circus Maidan, about a dozen volunteers remain present through the day. A similar number are at the help desks at Southern Avenue and Chakraberia Road. Armed with laptops, pens, gum and staplers, they assist applicants with form-filling and documentation. Some also check the status of applications for other welfare schemes.
A volunteer at the Chakraberia Road camp identified himself as a “Trinamool yoddha”. At Park Circus Maidan, Sharique Ahmed, who said he is the president of Trinamool’s Block 64 unit, was on the microphone, announcing queue arrangements, required documents and other instructions from the dais where government officials were distributing and collecting forms.
At the Chakraberia Road camp, copies of Unnayaner Panchali — a booklet detailing the Trinamool government’s achievements over the past 15 years — were placed on the desk where party volunteers had assembled.
Ashim Basu, Trinamool councillor of Ward 70 of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, which falls under the Bhowanipore Assembly constituency represented by chief minister Mamata Banerjee, said volunteers were doing more than just assisting with paperwork.
“Besides helping them fill out forms, our volunteers are sharing the latest information on other welfare schemes. Some applicants have family members who applied for Lakshmir Bhandar or the old-age pension. The volunteers are checking websites to find out the status of those applications,” Basu said. He added that he has been visiting the Chakraberia camp “almost every day”.
“I am asking people to avail themselves of the scheme because their chief minister wants to extend a helping hand to them. It is not a dole, but a form of support from the state government,” he said.
A councillor from a ward in the Jadavpur Assembly constituency said senior party leaders had asked all councillors in the segment to keep volunteers ready for deployment at the camps. “No one can stay through the day. So more volunteers mean they can work in shifts,” the councillor said.
Welfare pitch
Yuva Sathi, a scheme aimed at assisting unemployed youths in poll-bound Bengal, will commence on April 1. Under the scheme, those aged between 21 and 40 years who have passed the Madhyamik (secondary) exam will receive ₹1,500 per month for five years or until they secure employment.
The state government had announced in this year’s vote-on-account that the scheme would be rolled out from August 15, but the date was later brought forward.
Calcutta has 11 Assembly seats and 35 Yuva Sathi camps. According to an official of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation — which is running the city’s camps — more than 1,00,000 forms were distributed between Sunday, the first day, and Thursday, with 51,000 forms filled out and submitted. The camps will continue until February 26.
Although an online application window opened on Monday, footfall at the camps has remained high. KMC officials said over 28,000 forms were distributed on Wednesday, the highest in a single day, and more than 22,000 on Thursday. Forms to apply for Lakshmir Bhandar are also being distributed at the camps.
“More people coming to the camps is good for us. We get to interact with a greater number of young people,” said a Trinamool leader.
The camps, coming on the heels of SIR hearings and the distribution and collection of enumeration forms for electoral roll revision, have kept ground-level workers active.
“The ground-level party workers are excited. They are motivated and at the right age to work for elections. The more they remain active and interact with common people, the better for us,” the Trinamool leader said.
Applicants
Visitors to the camps expressed mixed feelings about the scheme. Most said the government should focus on creating more job opportunities. At the same time, many acknowledged that the monthly assistance would offer some relief.
Ayesha Afzal, 22, who completed her BCom last year, visited the Park Circus Maidan camp earlier this week. She said she had tried for several private-sector jobs but had not succeeded.
“Because of financial difficulties in my family, I cannot study further. I need a job. This monthly assistance will help because I plan to save some money and study further so I can get a good job later,” she said.