Empowerment of Indian Youth: Introspection on World Youth Day

Professor M.M .Goel*

(Samajweekly) For commemorating world youth day on August 12, 2020 more than an annual ritual, the multifaceted challenges faced by the Indian youth calls for the motivation . We can certainly transform Indian youth as leaders in all walks of life including politics. The theme of International Youth Day 2020, “Youth Engagement for Global Action” seeks to highlight the ways in which the engagement of young people at the local, national and global levels is enriching national and multilateral institutions and processes, as well as draw lessons on how their representation and engagement in formal institutional politics can be significantly enhanced.

To avoid bemoaning the low standards of politicians including history sheeters with criminal records, we need to be motivated for encouraging political morality with honest and law abiding youth to become politicians. Indian democracy needs empowerment of youth as a national issue in tune with the implementation of National Youth Policy 2014. Time has come when politics cannot be treated as an art and science of making excuses and doing wrong things. India needs ethical politicians in power and opposition who knows to debate and discuss the issues in and out of parliament and state assemblies without blame game. The middle class intelligent youth need to be motivated for accepting politics as a career instead of the rat race for becoming an engineer, doctor or a bureaucrat. Let politics be accepted as a profession with a changed mind-set,

Youth have a special role to play for the sustainable development of Indian economy. They are the harbingers of change. It is they who have to lay the foundations of a new and just social order. Their vast energies have to be tapped and channelled for the task of national building.

India is in a unique phase of demographic revolution, with its shift in age structure, resulting in the largest cohort of working age population with the opportunity for demographic dividend. The youth population in the age group 15-29 years constitute 27.5 per cent of the total population of India.  The population under the age of 35 constituting about 65 per cent of the total population contributes 34 per cent of the Gross National Income. According to one of the estimates one million youth are expected to enter labour market every year peaking at 653 million in 2030. The youth as a huge human potential as well trained productive human resource can be used as a catalyst force for sustainable human development and economic growth.

To make Indian youth as a vibrant constructive force to be useful and careful manpower, we require right policies with multi-dimensional approach with strategic investments in human capital. This calls for understanding, analysing, interpreting the data on youth which justifies Youth Development Index (YDI) in India. It is pertinent to mention that Human Development Index (HDI) could not help the review the status of youth as youth specific indices were ignored therein. Youth Development Index (YDI) is a composite measure of the status of youth, designed to enable the users to gain better insights in a single snapshot. YDI’s rank of India at the global level in 2016 was 133 and it has gone up from 98 in 2013 among161 countries. Its position is 25 among the 51 commonwealth countries. India Global YDI score remains at 0.548 which posits India in Medium category.

At the national level, the Youth Development Index (YDI 2017) value is 0.569 with wide variation ranging from 0.466 (Bihar) to 0.689 (Himachal Pradesh) among the major states. For stopping conversion of  the so called demographic dividend in to demographic disaster, we need to learn walking before running in the rat race of competition ( healthy as well as unhealthy) where in survival of the fittest is the mantra but weak can also survive, exist and excel  by becoming unique.

We need to follow the teachings of the great Indian personalities for all times to come. There is a strong  case for proper utilization of time by saying that an hour spent in worthwhile actions there can be a gain of 1000 times and a waste of one hour in useless actions there is a loss of 1000 times.

Do good and have good is the best policy for all of us not only on  social, moral and political grounds but economic considerations as it is the most rational behaviour not only for the self but is altruistic in nature.

To cultivate patience as dynamic form among youth, we need to understand ‘haste makes waste’. The quickness and hurry leads to delay most of the time with the exception of getting up early in the morning which is necessary and sufficient to enhance working time for one self..

There is strong case for enhancing defense expenditure in the forthcoming Union Budget 2021-22 which is justified to face the multifaceted challenges caused by internal threats and terrorism of various kinds including unemployment, suicides by farmers and above all crimes on women. The only practical solution of these problems is to make military services compulsory for five years for the youth which will bring discipline to Indian economy in one sense or the other. The domain of military activities will have to be increased to include agricultural industry, National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme which can ensure proper, productive and practical ( 3P)use of hands, head and heart (3H) of the unemployed youth of India .

We have to create conducive environment for 3P utilization of positive potential of youth who are called the demographic dividend by some if not many countries. Indian youth have to be really educated to use 3H with a positive mind-set. Indian youth have to understand sex as poise, sacred and secret allowed in a married life only.

For employability of youth, we need to increase return on training investment (ROTI) with communication skills, time management and spiritual input along with abilities of head and heart, skills and knowledge. We need change in the mind-set at all levels with accountability, transparency and morality. We have to promote gender budgeting for women empowerment and create gender neutral literature and books for Indian youth to say no to gender inequalities. Training and equipping youth with necessary acumen for effectively dealing with political and governance issues in tune with NYP 2014 is the need of the hour for creating a structure of political institutions at various levels. Politics as a career for youth deserve to be explored.

An Indian youth has to be street smart with the attributes including simple, moral, and action oriented, responsive and transparent (SMART).  Sadly, some if not many of us are over smart and stupid smart. Many are careless and useless as unemployable being half-baked human resources produced in the educational institutions.  They have to be made careful and useful as street smart persons with capabilities and capacities to contribute in the process of sustainable development in India in post covid era.

* Former Vice Chancellor and Director Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD) Sriperumbudur (Govt. of India).  Enjoy surfing the website www.needonomics,com

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