With two days left to apply for the Joy Bangla Youth Award (JBYA), youth organizations promoting religious harmony and working for religious and ethnic minorities, transgenders, dalits, and backward communities have been encouraged to apply for the award. The award is designed to recognize countrywide young changemakers, help them network among themselves and enhance the services they are already providing to their communities. Read: 'Joy Bangla Youth Award' set for Nov 17 Since its inception in 2014, Young Bangla has been conferring Joy Bangla Youth Award to the youths and youth organizations successfully involved in changing the social paradigm in their respective areas. Youths across the country reached out with assistance to the distressed Hindu people who had become victims of the communal attacks following the Holy Quran desecration staged by some fanatics, said a media release on Saturday.    Such youth organizations, among others, are encouraged to apply for the award, said the Young Bangla. Youths both from the majority Muslim and minority communities registered their protests on social media and the streets against religious violence and reached out to the victims with assistance. Like the previous year, the fifth installment of JBYA, an award celebrating youths and youth organizations for transforming communities through social initiatives, has included this criterion. JBYA’s invitation for applications has commenced on September 24 and will wrap up within two days, said the award's organizer Young Bangla, the youth Secretariat of Centre for Research & 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, 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 the most iconic slogan behind the 1971-Liberation War of Bangladesh, Joy Bangla, 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 organizations working to improve the ability, opportunity, and dignity of marginalized 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 Marginalized People, Youth Development, Empowering Extreme Poor.   Youth organizations 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 & 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 & Innovation, Entrepreneurship, and Creativity.

International Children’s Peace Prize 2020 winner Sadat Rahman credited Joy Bangla Youth Award (JBYA) for setting the stepping stones leading him from a boy addressing social issues in a remote area to the countrywide recognition and networking that eventually catapulted him to this global exposure.

The fourth edition of Joy Bangla Youth Award (JBYA), organized by Young Bangla, one of the largest youth platforms of the country, is set for November 17.