“Om asato ma sad gamayah, Tamso ma jyotir gamayah”, (O Lord lead us from untruth to truth, lead us from darkness to light). I invoke these lines with a specific purpose. In our nation, we discuss, debate and enact a lot of laws, but do precious little by means of action. I sincerely hope that the discussions today will lead to some concrete and practical action – or at the very least, some action plan that leads us to light and leaves us enlightened, at the same time.

On the “Role of youth in peace and development”, the words of Rachel Jackson, wife of former US President Andrew Jackson, ring true in our ears. She said, “Our youth are not failing the system; the system is failing our youth. Ironically, the very youth who are being treated the worst are the young people who are going to lead us out of this nightmare.” Today, at a time when the ancient Indian concept of ‘Vasudhaiv Kutumbkam” is being reflected in Marshal McLuhan’s conception of the world being a ‘Global Village’, the role of the juniors of the ‘Kutumb’ is bound to hold centre-stage.

Indeed, just as the economic health of a nation is known by the state of its infrastructure and the level of civility of any country, is known by its music, so is the health of a nation known by the state of its youth. Youth is called the trustee of posterity and the future, as also the hope and development of any country. Given the materialistic times we are living in, youth can be likened to a recurring, savings bank account. But as in a bank account, we need to save and invest.

Similarly, the success of a nation can be measured by the investments made in opportunities for skill development for the youth for a better living and for avenues of creativity, innovation and enterprise to enable the youth to realize its fullest potential. Sadly however, that does not seem to be happening with us in a substantive measure. Often, youth is also reduced to mere slogan-mongering lot and used as a ruse to feel good about ourselves and our nation.

Unfortunately, our growth as a nation in terms of development of youth has been quite haphazard and unsteady. India has moved from a traditionally agrarian society to a highly developed, industrial and space society. There is a marked change from rural to urban living, with diverse cultures, religions, economic status, languages, lifestyles. With the changing times, the youth of this country is experiencing difficulty in adapting to the changing role and value systems.

At the risk of indulgence, may I ask the distinguished gathering present here the definition of youth? The responses may vary from individual to individual. While most may settle for the biological age, others may feel that it is a mindset and has got nothing to do with the biological age. The exact definition of youth may lie in the realm of abstract, but for practical purposes it would be prudent to go with the definition of the United Nations of ‘youth’, as persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years, without prejudice to other definitions by Member States. This definition was coined in the run-up to the International Youth Year in 1985.

Even by UN parameters, youth population constituted 41.05% of the total population, according to the 2001 Census. Presently, over 58 per cent population of India is below the age of 24 years. That means the number of persons below the age of 24 years stands at 564 million. In effect, it means that the number of unemployed people by 2012 in India would be double the population of USA.!! During the present decade alone, India would add 130 million workers to the global market in this decade. The working population of India is going be approximately 800 million people by the year 2016, posing an enormous challenge for providing adequate education and employment.

India is home to the largest youth population on earth: 600 million people are under the age of 25. Some experts refer to this as “Demographic Dividend”, while skeptics say it is a ‘demographic disaster.’ This predominance of youth in our population is likely to last until 2050. By then, it will be “advantage” India, even in comparison to the most populated country – China. While the average age of an Indian in 2020 is expected to be 29 years, the average age for China is expected to be 37. But the question remains – what do we propose do with this advantage?

As of today, we seem to be frittering away this advantage. On the one hand, we take pride in the fact that we have the highest youth force in the world. There is no doubt that our youth is the brain behind the tremendous IT software boom and that India is leader in BPO and KPO sectors. Our progress in higher education and science and technology has been truly phenomenal. Yet, we have not been able to take 350 million Indians out of illiteracy. We also have the largest number of young and unemployed too. It is also true that the Indian youth has made a significant contribution in management, finance, banking, retail, telecommunications and entertainment sectors. In overall terms however, it does not even reach 29 per cent in terms of the employment generation scenario.

Our education system needs a sea-change. The universities have failed to arouse a sense of national fervour or purpose in life and ignite the young minds. Instead of igniting their minds and soul to do something spectacular, they have been reduce to mere agencies for distributing degrees which, in most cases are not even worth the paper they are printed on. By and large, there is a gross mismatch between the system of education and the job requirements of any given sphere. Institutes seldom teach what industries require. Industries do not require all that Institutes teach. There is very little interface between the educational institutions and industries. That is the reason many big industries have set up their own training programmes to suit their specific job profile.

The present system of education is providing an ever-increasing Army of ill-educated and frustrated youth. A radical change in the syllabus, regular interaction between the government and the All India Committee on technical Education and private institutions to draw up the exact future needs of the employment matrix and a futuristic roadmap is the only way to solve the problem of unemployment and increase qualitative productivity.

The health care indices for youth too present a dismal picture. More than 35 million youth, even today, do not have ready access to health care. More than that, there has been an alarming decline in the male-female ratio. There are only 927 women against 1000 men in at least 5 states including UP, ,Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Bihar and the ratio is tilting more against the girl child. Misuse of advanced pre natal diagnostic techniques has led to sex selection with the widespread termination of female fetuses, contributing to a rapidly declining girl to boy child ratio. Every 7 minutes a woman dies due to complications arising from pregnancy and child birth in our country. This translates to 301 deaths for every 10000 deliveries.

Due to a host of socio-economic and political reasons, there have been an increasing number of health problems among the youth. Unemployment, suicide alcoholism, sex related offences and social adjustment problems have been on the rise. Today, the youth in India forms one of the most vulnerable groups who, on the one hand, are expected to be the leaders to determine the destiny of India and on the other hand, .are a confused and an exploited lot. Frustration and anger against the system has forced many youth to form, or join anti-social groups and become terrorists.

The Naxal problem is one of the ugliest manifestations of such a phenomenon. It has been identified as one of single largest problems facing the nation today. Naxal ideology owes its origin to abject penury and stems from the all-pervasive poverty in the Indian hinterland. The insurgency is fuelled by the exploitation of the peasants and poor tribals by the landlords and different kinds of mafia, as well as corruption and neglect by government officials. The lack of social economic development is an issue that Naxalites frequently exploit in their call for a violent revolution.

No wonder then, that the disgruntled youth are easily getting lured into anti-national, or subversive activities. Many young men have unfortunately allowed themselves to become willing tools in the hands of certain misguided elements with nefarious elements. The script of the story is more or less the same in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, North East and even Pakistan, Sri Lanka and even in Nepal.

As with most challenges, the solution lies within – in this case, with the youth themselves. The youth has to play a major role in furthering peace, eliminating social customs and evils, contributing to India’s overall economic development, participating in political life and protecting the environment. Youth is the most precious strategic resource of any country and it needs to be harnessed though investment in their gainful employment and education. As Maria Montessori, the pioneering educationist once said, “Establishing lasting peace is the work of education; all politics can do is – keep us out of war.” The youth of India really has a big task to prepare itself for the challenges and responsibilities that lie ahead in realizing the dream of Late Rajiv Gandhi and Dr APJ Kalam’s vision of 2020.

For that, the youth force has to inculcate a sense of discipline, a spirit of tolerance, a quest for knowledge, a positive mind and respect for fellow human beings. Swami Vivekananda said – ‘What the world today needs is character.” Our youth must be made to realize that the true purpose of human life is to realize one’s inner strength and channelise it effectively.

It is said that children always learn from the example of the senior family members at home. The same holds true for the younger generation in diverse spheres of life. One of the major challenges before the youth today is to look up to an inspiring “role model”. Most of them have been searching for core value systems of the Indian culture are and for the prominent role models in different spheres of life. A major chunk of today’s youth is stressed, distressed and even confused in choosing the right path. The younger lot is revolting against the oldies because it finds them out of date and even hypocritical.

There is an ever-widening chasm between the young and the old in terms of perceptions, as well as in practical terms. The youth no longer find oldies worthy of emulation. We must not try to pin down the blame on ‘generation gap’. Corruption, poor governance, political instability at various levels and the malevolent impact of modern media have also played their respective parts in making our youth a frustrated lot and this problem needs to be addressed on an urgent basis.

In the pre-Independence period, youth was in the forefront of our freedom movement. The national scene was flooded with role models, who led by personal example. There is no better example than the Father of the Nation. We have to do serious introspection, whether or not we have imparted to the modern-day generation, the right ‘Sanskar’. Have the youth failed us, or have we failed our youth?

To understand any issue comprehensively, it is always convenient to adopt a ‘bottoms-up approach’ and start from the smallest unit of society – the family. The break-up of the joint family and the emergence of nuclear family is the single biggest factor in the stunted upbringing of our children and youth and development of their lop-sided personality. The first lessons in forging relationships and social behaviour are best learnt in a family with harmonious relationships. Most of the modern-day parents seldom spend quality time with their children and do not try to gauge their dreams, hopes, aspirations and frustrations. It is then that the youth tries to answer these issues outside the family confines – with peer group and these days – by surfing the internet. Lack of authentic and reliable information thus, leaves the youth more confused and frustrated, without realizing the evils and pitfalls of technology. Youth power thus has to be harnessed first at the family level – then on to the society and the nation. Educational institutions and work places come next. Concepts of peace, harmony, brotherhood and peaceful coexistence ingrained in the family can be cemented in schools and colleges. Peace, tolerance, harmony and co-existence must become an integral part of the curriculum in universities across the nation – and indeed the world over.

Violence is the by-product of an insecure mind and insecurity stems from poverty. Poverty is truly one of the biggest impediments to youth empowerment. When I talk of poverty, it is not just in the financial sense of the term – but poverty of the spirit and the mind. India, which had once been a ‘spiritual leader’ for centuries, has today become ‘spiritually poor, if not bankrupt.’ Youth empowerment can be best brought about by rooting out poverty – particularly the spiritual aspect. We have to invest ‘spiritual capital’ in our youth to insulate them from social evils plaguing the society. Youth must be involved more and more in community participation, mobilizing the society and collectively handling the bad impact of mass media and modern technology.

Formulation of strategies for youth has to begin with youth and be prepared by youth themselves. Youth at various levels – starting from village level, to block, district, state, national and international level must be actively involved in social, cultural, economic and political activities. Peace and development can only be ensured when the youth at various levels have stakes in it. Elders can at best be a ‘guiding hand’. Governments, civic organizations, civil society, NGOs and communities must collectively share the onus of youth development.

Our youth must develop a catholicity of temperament, discipline that comes from within, but at the same time, be open-minded. As Gandhi ji used to say – “I would let the winds of the world blow through the doors and windows of my house but I will not be blown away.” Our youth needs to harness the energy and vigour and combine with it patience and perseverance. Youth should be encouraged to be peaceful and non-violent. They should be made to realize the virtues of an environment of peace, tolerance and non-violence. Peace and non-violence must be in-built into our systems of elementary education, training and work ethics. Our education systems must concentrate on spiritual growth and development, instill sensitivities and aim to churn out good human beings and citizens, rather than well-read snobs. Peace ought to be cultivated from within and not be super-imposed from the outside.

The youth of our country should aim to become ‘peace builders’, irrespective of their professional field, or workplace. The youth must work tirelessly to erase all differences based on region, religion, caste, ethnicity, language et al. India has always been a votary of secularism, but care should be taken to ensure that secularism is not reduced to a political gimmick – which it normally is and it is here that the youth can play a leading role.

Youth have to take the lead in the conceptualization, planning and implementation stages of any policy, programme, or initiative launched by the government. Young people must indulge in community activity starting with their families, homes, schools and colleges – particularly in rural areas.

It is often said that 21st century will be the century of Asia – and India. However, effective communication with and by the youth holds the key to this idea becoming a reality. It is in this context that the role of media assumes a critical importance than never before. Our youth has more than a ‘working’ fascination with the modern means of mass media. Media and mediapersons should both collectively, as well as individually, shun any form of violence, intolerance and disharmony. Technology should not be allowed to become the proverbial knife that kills, instead of cutting!! It is indeed high time that we do not ‘fail’ our youth and still, accuse it of failing the nation. !!