Role of youth in Nation Building

India is a nation with large demographic dividend which has potential to contribute towards nation building, but realizing this potential requires overcoming prevalent challenges and creating an ecosystem to channelize this potential.

What is Nation Building?

• Economic Prosperity: standard of living and availability of critical goods and services
• Political stability: at national, regional as well as local level is robustness of the democratic processes of the nation. Democratic processes in turn strengthen the institutional capital and governmental stability in a nation.
• Human Development: encompasses education as well the collective health of people. Development of citizens of a nation directly correlates to development of the nation itself.
• Social cohesion: society plays a key role aligning individual energies.
• Environmental Sustainability: direct bearing on all of nation’s entities.

Need to strength Role of youth in Nation Building

• Energy and vitality that they bring: From construction workers to IT professionals to entrepreneurs, all vital areas of growth and development driven by young working population.
• Torchbearer of change and reforms: new ideas, goals and processes to achieve them, thus acting as the driving force for reforms. For example, the emergence of gig economy bringing positive disruption in work culture.
• Present as well as future of the nation: shape the economy and society of the present as the well as the future.
• Provide direction to the nation: emotions and ambitions collectively provide a direction to the nation. For example, the dream for a corruption free society is driving actions like e- governance, Right to Information etc.

Role in Nation Building

• Being the workforce of the nation: contributes to generation of goods and services
• Creating culture of innovation and entrepreneurship: committed to find solutions to the problems of the nation.
• Providing leadership in thought and action: in bureaucracy, industry, social service, politics etc. affects policies and debates over critical issues affecting the nation.
• Shaping the nation through their choices: consumption patterns, lifestyle etc. For instance, increasing awareness about environmental degradation has encouraged conscious consumption patterns etc.

Challenges

• Lacking pre-requisites of health and education: problem of poverty, malnutrition, poor enrolment in higher education culminate to poor human resource development and consequently limits their contribution to nation building.
• Scarce skills and even more scarce opportunities: large scale unemployment and poor quality of jobs.
• Have to bear disproportionate risk: due to large competition & risk-averse culture prevailing in the society which penalizes the risk-taking behaviour.
• Absence of a nurturing ecosystem

Way Forward

• Moving towards a healthier society: translates to better productivity.
• Strengthening the education systems: by effective implementation of National Education Policy 2020 alongside augmenting the infrastructural, financial and human resources
• Providing education-skill development-industry-education linkage
• Generating more opportunities: by encouraging entrepreneurship, providing conducive business climate among others.
• Creating a supportive and vibrant culture: from their parents, teachers, schooling systems and up till the point they interact with society, market and government.