A Kashmiri Craft Research student opines why Youth in India needs to be empowered. Read on to know why India’s Youth is the Nation’s most valuable resource.
Written by Javed Dar, Reported by Team RK
The term ‘Youth’ as defined by the UNESCO – is “the period of transition from the dependence to independence and awareness of our independence as members of a community.
India comes across a young nation with nearly 65 percent of its population falling under 35, thus making it a largely young nation.
*Youth as a potential power to help India on the global scale has to be backed by a substantial policy oriental support
“When you wish upon a star,
Makes no difference who you are”
Youth of a nation are trustees of prosperity. while most of the developed nation is moving towards a nation of ageing population, India is poised to be the youngest country in the world by 2020. This young force which also constitutes nearly 40% of the total population of India, is the most vibrant and dynamic segment and also the country’s most valuable resource.
Youth are pillers of nation building.it is in their hands lies the power to change their destiny .Any country that strives to change its destiny ,must have ways and means to tap the energy and ambitions of this wonderful resource. Franklin Roosevelt had once said,”We can’t always build the future for our youth ,bt we can build our youth for the future.”
India is one of the youngest nations in the World, with about 65% of the population under 35 years of age. The youth in the age group of 15-29 years comprise 27.5% of the population. India is expected to become the 4th largest economy by 2025, only after the United States, China and Japan, contributing about 5.5%-6% to the world GDP. While most of these developed countries face the risk of an ageing workforce, India is expected to have a very favourable demographic profile. It is estimated that by the year 2020, the population of India would have a median age of 28 years only as against 38 years for US, 42 years for China and 48 years for Japan. This ‘demographic dividend’ offers a great opportunity. In order to capture this demographic dividend, it is essential that the economy has the ability to support the increase in the labour force and the youth have the appropriate education, skills, health awareness and other enablers to productively contribute to the economy(NYP annual report 2016_17).
According to the annual report 2016-17, “The National Youth Policy, 2014 (NYP-2014) reiterates the commitment of the entire nation to all-round development of the youth of India, so that they can realise their full potential and contribute productively to the nation-building process.
“The National Youth Policy, 2014 VISION, OBJECTIVES AND PRIORITY AREAS:
The NYP-2014 proposes a holistic ‘vision’ for the youth of India, which is “To empower youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations”. In order to realise this Vision, the NYP-2014 identifies 5 clearly defined ‘Objectives’ which need to be pursued and the ‘Priority Areas’ under each of the Objectives. The objectives and priority areas identified under the NYP2014 are summarised below:
Create a productive workforce that can make a sustainable contribution to India’s economic development
The priority areas for this are
Education
Entreprrneurship
Employement and skill development
Develop a strong and healthy generation equipped to take on future challenges
Health _Healthy lifestyle
Sports
Instil social values and promote community service to build national ownership
Promotion of social values
Community engagements.
Facilitate participation and civic engagement at all levels of governance to be operated through
Participation in politics and governance *Youth engagement
Support youth at risk and create equitable opportunity for all dis-advantaged and marginalised youth
inclusion and social justice.
The current Govt.has undertaken multifarious programes for upliftment of youth the schemes uplifted are as under
Names of Schemes (Before Restructuring)
1.Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan NYKS)
2.National Youth Corps (NYC)
3.National Programme for Youth & Adolescent Development (NPYAD) 4.International Cooperation
5.Youth Hostels (YH)
6.Assistance to Scouting & Guiding Organisations
7 National Discipline Scheme (NDS)
Name of schemes (After Restructuring)
Merged into a new ‘umbrella’ Scheme called “Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram (RYSK)”.
8.National Young Leaders Programme (NYLP)
9.National Service Scheme (NSS)
10.Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development (RGNIYD).
Some of the important initiatives of the government are mentioned below –
Skill up gradation training program. It aims to develop vocational training skill with the help of trained masters to help generate extra income and boost self confidence.
This programme also aims to recognize the local need and thus imparts vocational training.
Promotion of Flok Art Culture and Yuva Kriti : with the generation x obsessed about the west – this programme comes as the much needed task master to provide opportunity to the rural youth to showcase and promote their culture and talent.Mahatma Gandhi yuva swachta abhiyaan and shramdaan Karyakram to alert and engage the youth in contributing to the cleanliness drive and water conservation.
Following the disparity across the nation and inadequate participation, few inclusive programmes have highlighted the government’s good intention and emphasis on social inclusion and inclusive growth policy.important among them are:
4.Life skill training for adolescents (Empowerment for adolescents):
This is very important and major initiative for it highlights the psychological derailment of youth.
The objective of the Programmes is to develop among adolescents the behaviour which will empower them to make healthy choices, to strengthen their Life Skills to cope up with the risky situations that they encounter in their lives, to enhance knowledge to protect them from HIV, to manage adolescent reproductive sexual health issues and concerns and to mobilise their collective potential to solve their issues. During 2016-17, 5 programmes, involving 231 adolescents, have been organised upto 31-12-16.
Tribal Youth Exchange Programme (TYEP):
The Programme is being organised every year in collaboration with and funding from the Ministry of Home Affairs. In this Programme, tribal youth drawn from areas affected by Leftwing Extremism (LWE) activities, are taken to other parts of the country to sensitize them to rich cultural heritage of the Country and to enable them to appreciate the concept of unity in diversity, to expose them to development activities and technological/ industrial advancement in other parts of the country, to enable them to develop emotional linkage with the people in other parts of the country and to develop their personality by enhancing their understanding of the core life skills, identifying their skill development needs and providing them necessary career counselling.
To conclude on the importance of the youth and its indomitable spirit Swami Vivekananda’s words shall shine bright and true___”Arise! Awake!And stop not until the goal is achieved”.
[Javed Dar is a Craft management design graduate ,and can be contacted at dar javeed305@gmail.com]
