Fifty-seven years after it was born, the National Service Scheme's founding ideal — 'Not Me, But You' — still moves tens of thousands of young Indians to set aside personal comfort and work for their communities. On NSS Day, Thursday 24 September 2026, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma marked the occasion with a salute to those volunteers, linking their grassroots work directly to India's larger ambition of becoming a developed nation by 2047.

A scheme that turns 57 — and what it stands for

The National Service Scheme was formally launched on 24 September 1969 — exactly 57 years ago today — to draw higher-education students into structured community service. The date was chosen to coincide with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy of selfless service. Over five decades, millions of college students have passed through its camps, health drives, literacy programmes, and disaster-relief efforts.

CM Sarma's post honours that continuity. 'Their compassion, responsibility and willingness to serve are helping build stronger communities and taking us closer to a Viksit Bharat,' he wrote, threading the scheme's founding ethos into the central government's headline vision for India's centenary of independence.

Volunteerism as a building block of Viksit Bharat

Viksit Bharat — the government's framework for making India a fully developed economy and society by 2047 — is increasingly cited as a unifying frame across policy domains, from infrastructure to skilling. NSS Day observances have become a regular moment for leaders across party lines to anchor student volunteerism within that national narrative.

For a state like Assam, where NSS camps often reach remote and flood-prone communities, the connection between young volunteers and tangible development outcomes is more than rhetorical. Student-led health camps, river-bank clean-up drives, and digital-literacy initiatives in rural districts are among the activities NSS units in the Northeast have consistently undertaken.

Northeast youth and the service tradition

As convenor of the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), CM Sarma's voice carries weight across eight northeastern states. His acknowledgement of NSS volunteers on a national day signals continued political attention to youth-engagement programmes in a region where student bodies have historically played an outsized civic role.

State-level NSS camps in the coming academic year — and any integration with other youth-skilling or community programmes — will be the concrete test of how that political messaging translates into programme funding and reach.

The 'Not Me, But You' generation is already at work. The question is whether the institutions around them keep pace.