The Award Programme was first introduced in India in 1962 with a view to encouraging young people in the country to achieve their full growth potential within the framework of Indian society, to improve their moral, social and intellectual well-being.

In 1966 it was taken up by the Indian Public Schools Conference, when a number of well-known residential schools made a start with the Programme. Most of these continue with the Award to the present day. Several other schools adopted the Award Programme soon thereafter.

In 1985 there was an agreement on the formation of four separate Zonal Councils: North, South, West and East with headquarters at Delhi, Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata (East Zone was only formed in 1991)

The Award Programme Foundation, a Public Charitable Trust registered in Bombay, was established in 1989 to function as the umbrella organization for the Programme.

A National Constitution was adopted on 1st March 1994. This led to the formation of a single National Award Authority (NAA) of India and the appointment of the first National Director, Vice Admiral Suren P Govil (Retd.) A year later, a 15 member Governing Council of the NAA was formed and Mr. Vikram Mehta (India’s first Gold Award Holder) elected as its first Chairman. The present National Director is Mr. Sandeep Dutt.

The Current Situation

Having made a modest beginning in 1962 with only 500 participants per year, today this number has grown to nearly 20,000. Almost 90% of the delivery of the Award is through the schools in urban India. The Indian Award, now known as the International Award for Young People–India (IAYP) is a Non-Government Organisation (NGO) with marginal support from corporate sector. It is a full member of the International Award Association.

The Hon’ble Vice President of India Mr M Hamid Ansari has become the Patron of the IAYP, India, with effect from 27 March 2008.

The Award Programme will grow and reach out to an additional 1,00,000 young people as per the Strategic Plan 2010-13

1. Work for YES (youth engaging society)– to facilitate build up of Volunteers and encourage the participation of youth in the 14 - 25 age groups.

2. Programme inclusion by enrolling more students from vernacular / government schools, from the current near 400 largely private sector schools. 

3. In 2010, 18,000 participants, will grow to 100,000 in 3 years.

The Award Programme Foundation partners with other NGOs, Volunteer groups and the business community and work on our CSR of Cherish, Service and Relationship.