INDIA is squandering , one of the best opportunity, to galvanise its youths for nation building and emerging one of the best global power because of indifferent approaches of successive union governments and state governments towards health, education, employment etc India is expected to witness one of the best youth power in the cosmos by 2040 !. The average age of Indian population will be 29 years by the end of the decade. By comparing other developed and developing power, such scenario in China and United States of America will be youths under age of average 37 years, Japan- 48 years and western European countries-45 years. According to a report of the International Monetary Fund (IMF); India's youth power has the potentiality to produce additional two percent per capita GDP growth each year for the next two decades. Reacting to a detailed report, headlined, " Has India lost the 21st Century? " in TEHELKA, the Editor of the OUTLOOK INDIA UTTAM SENGUPTA, comments on the FACEBOOK , " Political discourse and debate in the Parliament and on TV channels focus on the subjects ? What need to be done ? Political bloodletting and campaigns of oneupmanship do not address bread and butter issues. Time people demand answers from all political parties, not just the government."
But what is exactly happening in India? Indian youths are being misguided due to lack of proper education, human approaches etc. Large number of youths are being misguided in recent years and they are being trained and being utilised by non-ideological forces , mainly for extortion in the name of Naxal activities and other social activities. Their 'non-ideological mentors' pay them a small share of what they extort from businessmen and industrialists. Such practises have become attractive for unemployed youths in naxal-infested villages and crime-prone areas of the country. Another instances are unemployed and directionless youths, indulging in crimes besides, we see, million of angry youths and women taking to streets for some reasons or others to vent their frustration as Indian's growth story is gradually slipping away. They have their right perceptions that they have been let down by the government. In this game of venting their anger and frustration, they are again being misguided by many organisations , particularly political parties-whether they may be Swami Ramdev or Anna Hazare or anybody-they are not being trained to change the society and its system through ballot papers but by arson, loots and invasion on sheets of power like, Parliament !Bubbling youth power and its emerging trend in India must be utilised for the reconstruction and development of the country right from the days of being them in their mothers' womb to their health and education.
Ravi Venkatesan , former chairman of the Microsoft India ,who has written a book " Conquering the Chaos:Win in India, Win Everywhere" to be published in mid-June in the United States by Harvard Business Review Press, has said in a recent interview to India Ink , " India is important not just because it is a big market. India is important because it is litmus test for the companies' success in emerging market. Most emerging markets look like India-they have uncertainty, corruption, poor infrastructures and chaos. It could be Brazil, Indonesia or Nigeria. But few have the same potential, so India is in many ways a lead case for emerging markets. Right now, multinational companies or corporations have two choices. They can either not grow, or they can embrace the chaos of emerging markets. Europe is not going to sort itself out anytime soon-they need to learn to deal with these situations. If you think you can escape chaos, you are sadly mistaken."
But the ground realities of India are multi-dimensional. India and its young men are" growing mass of largely undernourished, undereducated, unemployable, who aspire for a better life but do not have means to get their because they are not qualified for job market and even if they are, jobs do not exist," says Tehelka essay. India's present workforce (the 15-64 age group) comprises 430 million people. Of them, only a few have received formal vocational training. Our organised sector, home to the jobs connected to aspiration, money and India's growth story, employs only 30 million people. This leaves 400 million people in the unorganised sector, feeding for themselves. Over 60 percent of our work force is engaged in agriculture, which contributes only 18 percent of GDP, indicative of the widespread disguised unemployment and low productivity.
As I have earlier said problem story of Indian people start in mothers' womb ! Forty percent of children in India are malnourished. Forty-three percent in the age group of 12-23 months receive full immunisation, forty-eight percent are underweight. Fifty percent of all deaths under age of five are related to malnutrition. Forty-five percent children are stunted. Seventy percent of children under age five are anaemic. Thirty percent of adults have chronic nutrition deficiency. Fifty -five percent women are anaemic. (Source: Cry Foundation). While detailing the impact of all these things, the World Bank (WB) has said the effect of undernourishment during first eight years after birth can be devastating and enduring. Its impact the individual health as well as the ability to learn, communicate, think analytically, socialise effectively and adapt a new environment and people. While more than half the deaths before the age of five are caused by malnutrition, for those who do survive past five and find their way into schools, shouldering the hopes of their parents, life does not get much better and the system sets them up for failure."
Thee are many strange things in India despite the tall claims of the successive union and state governments. According to the recent Annual Status of Education Report (ASER); 60 percent of the children in Class fifth cannot read at a Class second level and 75 percent cannot complete simple division sums. The government claims success on " Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan" by 96 enrolment in primary education, there is in fact an eighty percent dropout by Class twelve. Thus 27 million children who annually enrol in primary schools across the country, only 5.4 million make it to Class twelve. Shockingly, the quality of education is worse throughout the country. There are seldom quality teachers.
Ninety percent gross enrolment ratio in primary education with 27 million children entering primary education; two-one ratio of primary schools to senior primary schools; forty percent the dropout rates by class eight; eighty percent dropout rate by class twelve, 15 percent in college; fifty percent of children in rural India will go to private schools, i.e pay for education by 2020; main reasons of female dropouts is lack of toilets and seventy-five percent, proportion of all children enrolled in class fifth who could not do simple divisions (Sourse:- ASER).. India needs a huge number of teachers, numbering over 6.3 million to cater the need of children in the 6-14 age group. Not only that there are need of brightest teachers from brightest five percent to ten percent of graduates like Singapore and Finland !
More over, another burning problem in India is employment. India needs to create 20 million jobs yearly. In the next 20 years, India will add 480 million people to labour market. India's formal sector comprises only 30 million jobs, which is only seven percent of total labour forces of 430 million. In the meantime, based on the figures provided in the Annual Survey of Industry report of 2010-11, there were 1,61,458 factories operating in the manufacturing sector, which employed around 12.3 million people and had a total investment capital of about 22 lakh crore.. There is urgent need to create 20 million jobs a year. If emerging economy of India do not take concerns of these factors, social unrest is bound to loom large over the country !
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