Uplifting the Young Pedestal of Change-Making | National Youth Day | truCSR
Written by: Samreen Saify
Compiled and Edited by: Rebecca Shibu
Youth comprise the stage of life, involving transition into adulthood. It’s a period of both growth and stagnation in a way that much of it is spent in discovering and making sense of the world around us and ourselves. It is often said that young people are both the future of the country and the drivers of change. Therefore, their voices and adequate representation in socio-political, economic, and cultural spheres are as important as those of an adult. In recent years, young people are increasingly being seen as the most valuable human resource for fostering economic, cultural and political development. They are considered the makers, drivers, and implementers of change as they, in many ways, add value to the processes through enthusiasm and vitality, which, most often than not, leads to new discoveries and developments, benefiting society and countries at large.
National Youth Day
On January 12th every year, India celebrates the National Youth Day to commemorate the life and teachings of Swami Vivekananda, one of its greatest spiritual and social leaders, who ardently believed in the potential of young people and considered them the enablers of social change. Swami Vivekananda always focused immensely on harnessing and mobilizing the potential of the youth. Celebrated since 1985, the Government of India (GOI), while officially declaring it, had observed that the philosophy of Swamiji and the ideals for which he lived and worked could be a great source of inspiration for the Indian Youth Day. The main objective of this observance is to promote and encourage rational thinking among the youth. In the entire country, young people are expected to rise to the occasion, fight for the right, and channel their inner energies by keeping Swami Vivekananda’s life as a rallying and teaching point.
The Indian Context
Today, India has a relative advantage over all the other countries globally as it is home to the world's largest youth population. Around 50% of its population is under the age of 25, contributing 34% to the national income. This unique population composition provides a great opportunity for the country to leverage its demographic dividend for making rapid economic growth. To harness their strengths, in February 2014, India launched the National Youth Policy, which sets forth the holistic vision for the youth of the country. The aim of this policy is to empower the youth of the country to achieve their full potential, and through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations. The National Youth Policy defines 'youth' as persons in the age-group of 15-29 years and lays out five objectives to be pursued relentlessly, having specific priority areas.
To leverage its unique population composition, the GOI also formulated the National Skill Development Policy in 2009. The main objective of this is to meet the challenge of skilling at scale with speed, standard, and sustainability. It also endeavors to empower the youth through a process of lifelong learning where competencies are harnessed via instruments such as credible certifications, credit accumulation, and transfer, etc. Apart from these major policies, youth has always been a major concern for the Indian Government. Various youth development initiatives have been undertaken by the Union Government over the past few decades, like National Cadet Corps (NCC), National Service Scheme (NSS), Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana (PMKVY), etc. to harness their potentials.
National Youth Policy, 2014 and Youth Development
Education, employment, skill development, and active community engagement have always been certain areas through which the possibility and the probability of positive change are ascertained or gauged. Under the National Youth Policy 2014, all have been identified as priority areas. In India, though there has been significant progress in reaching universal primary education and an expansion of equitable access to education, the efforts to ensure quality have been flaccid, resulting in minimal impact on learners' lives and decreased opportunities. Similarly, the majority of the youth who pass out remain unemployed due to skill deficiency and lack of opportunities. The absence of these denies young people the agency to improve their lives due to which inequalities get reinforced, and they remain in the vicious cycle of intergenerational poverty. However, due to growing consciousness in regards to youth's unique position in society, several country-level initiatives have been taken to ensure sustainable policy outcomes that engage and prepare the youths for opportunities that enable access opportunities.
Youth engagement is now considered both an end in itself and a means to achieve other objectives. As they are often a force to be reckoned with, their potentials and unique position in society are being increasingly recognized in making communities resilient, proposing innovative solutions, driving social progress, and inspiring political change.
What lies ahead for young changemakers in an ongoing pandemic?
According to a joint report titled "Tackling the COVID-19 Youth Employment Crisis in Asia and the Pacific" by the Asian Development Bank and the International Labor Organization, due to COVID-19 induced crisis, youth are among the hardest-hit group. They are more likely to bear the brunt of immediate crisis and the longer-term economic and social costs that will unfold in the coming months and years. Before the pandemic, young people were already facing numerous challenges in the labor market due to the stagnant economy and reduced opportunities. Now with closed educational institutions, severe disruptions, ever-widening disparities, unprecedented job losses, and an unsteady market, they are bogged down, even more, with several overlapping crises at the same time.
In recent years, several non-profit organizations have come forward to harness and further build upon young people's strength by building their capacities and providing skill-based training. To stimulate young people's participation in activities related to personal and social development activities, the Government and civil society need to adopt more mitigating measures to make resilient, sustainable, and equitable communities. It is often said that the COVID-19 crisis has undone years of progress. Therefore, to address the myriad crisis involving young people, there is an urgent need to adopt large-scale and targeted responses centered on:
- Comprehensive labor market policies; and
- Minimizing the impacts of disruptions in education and training posed by COVID-19.
Only effective COVID-19 mitigation measures will ensure that the poorest and most vulnerable are reached while simultaneously creating conditions for young people to engage meaningfully in policy and social dialogue. As the recovery efforts entail the mobilization of considerable resources, we must realize that to "build back better," recovery plans ought to address not only the fallouts of the crisis but also take into account the well-being of the current and future generations.
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