The selection of youths including girls was made at the 158th Battalion camp of the CRPF here.
Flagging off the first batch from Jharkhand, Commandant of the battalion Manoj Kumar Gupta told reporters that the batch would visit Baroda as part of a tribal cultural exchange programme to interact with people there, understand their culture, development process and also visit tourist spots.
Altogether 70 tribal girls and boys selected from the state have been divided into four groups, he said adding, while the first batch left for Baroda today, the second batch would leave for Pune on January 4, third batch to Chennai on January 24 and fourth batch to Bangalore on February 4.
This would encourage the youths to play a role in the development process in their villages affected by Maoist activities, Gupta said.
Gupta expressed confidence that the youths would play a role in the development process in and around their villages on return.