In 1994, Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong announced through his National Day Rally Address on the formation of an Inter-Ministry Committee on Dysfunctional Families, Juvenile Delinquency and Drug Abuse(IMC) to study the problems of broken families, juvenile delinquency and drug abuse, and to recommend solutions. The IMC was chaired by Mr Abdullah Tarmugi, then Acting Minister for Community Development and Senior Minister of State for Home Affairs. The Committee comprised of Members of Parliament, representatives from academia, Voluntary Welfare Organisations (VWOs), self-help groups as well as government agencies. Three sub-committees, formed to assist the main Committee, were assigned to study one of the three major social concerns of broken family, juvenile delinquency and drug abuse.

Following the recommendations of the IMC, the Inter-Ministry Committee on Juvenile Delinquency (IMJD), now known as the National Committee on Youth Guidance and Rehabilitation (NYGR), was formed in 1995 and chaired by Associate Professor Ho Peng Kee, currently Senior Minister of State (Law and Home Affairs). Dr Mohamad Maliki Osman, Parliamentary Secretary for National Development, is the Vice Chairman.The NYGR comprises of organisations with a stake in reducing juvenile delinquency and youth crime.

They include representatives from the Ministry of Community Development, Youth and Sports (MCYS), Ministry of Education (MOE), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), National Council of Social Service (NCSS), Prisons Department, Singapore Police Force(SPF), and resource persons from National Crime Prevention Council (NCPC), Surbodinate Courts and the academic field, with the National Youth Council (NYC) acting as secretariat.
For a list of the current NYGR members, please click here

Through the years, the NYGR has played an instrumental role in monitoring and steering the implementation of many new measures related to the problem of juvenile delinquency. The NYGR continues to address the various problems and issues that face youth and determine appropriate measures with the support of the community to control and eliminate youth crime.
The "1994 Report" of the IMC highlighted the following issues:
Need for closer collaborations amongst different agencies dealing with juvenile delinquency in formulating mutually supportive strategies ie a multi-agency approach
Need for closer co-ordination amongst these agencies in implementing measures on the ground
Need to galvanise parents, to alert them as they were in contact with their children; that they are best placed to detect early tell-tale signs of their children sliding into juvenile delinquency
Need to reach out to early school leavers or out-of-school youths (OSYs) who are at a higher risk of becoming young offenders
Need for effective measures in tackling crimes which had a high incidence rate amongst youths and juveniles such as shoplifting, vandalism, group fights and theft
Need to equip schools to play a larger supporting role in imparting values to the young
NYGR- supported events include a wide range of activities,
from youth camps to seminars. The preventive and rehabilitative approach of programmes has extended outreach to at-risk youth.
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