Today we are living in a world of breathtaking change. The pace of this change is threatening and uncomfortable, essentially because it is so difficult to keep up. Yet change is an inevitable part of life, affecting every fibre of our being and education is a vital area, which cannot escape change. Our entire education system is undeniably in need of an urgent and sweeping change.
Today’s generation is influenced by the media that arrest and sustain their attention and interest. Information Technology has converted the fast changing world into a global village. Therefore, we see our youth under tremendous psychological stress because of an urgent need to excel in this competitive world. In order to combat this we have to change our approach, interactions, teaching
methods and techniques.
Even the curriculum should be geared to the tempo of this radical and rapid change. Therefore, through total quality education we prepare our youth to the challenges of the modern age and bring out the all round development in them. Youths are the powerful weapons of a nation; if used in a proper manner, they will make a smooth & letter society. Addressing the youth, Swami Vivekananda said, “Youths are the power of any nation. All power is within you.”
Youths are nation -builders, only if they are guided in a proper way. They have both the qualities of making and marring the nation. There will be no exaggeration if we say that youths are the backbone of our society. In ‘Economics’ we call it ‘Valuable resource’ or ‘assets’. The unhealthy state of affairs, here, is that youths have often been misunderstood by elders. The elders feel that, being immature and inexperienced, the youth usually indulge in thoughtless activities. The youth have the real power to initiate revolutions. To go back history, Mao Tse Tung of China realised this latest power and dedication of the youth of his country. He entrusted them with the responsibility of bringing about the cultural revolution, a change in the attitude of the society. The youth of our country also played a significant role in the freedom struggle.
It is seen that after independence, the youth of our country have remained more or less inactive. The youth today are enveloped by several problems which they have to overcome by hook or crook in order to make a better society. The growing population, nepotism and favouritism have aggravated their chances of securing good jobs. As a result, they get frustrated a lot with a sense of directionlessness. They become unwilling victims of negative and destructive thinking.
On the other side, rampant corruption, burgeoning population, social evils like child labour, dowry, drug addiction, deteriorating status of women, high illiteracy rate etc. have become the part and parcel of our country which needs to be abolished by the energing force of youth. The modern youth should try to overcome the hurdles that have delayed the progress of the country. They should initiate the struggle and not shrink their responsibilities.
It is worthy to note here that the Department of Youth Affairs and sports is implementing a number of schemes for youth development. Our five year plans have also laid emphasis on the importance of youth in national development, the needs of youth and training of youth leadership and to harness their vast potential for creative causes. A National Youth Policy was framed in the Seventh Plan and a Plan of action formulated in 1992. The National Youth Policy seeks to provide the youth with new opportunities to participate in national building. To improve the employment opportunities of the youth, the Government has introduced several other schemes like ‘Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yojana’ (SGSY) and ‘Jawahar Gram Samridhi Yojana’ (JGSY) in 1999. Programmes like employment assurance scheme (EAS), Swarnajayanti Sahari Yojana (SGSRY) and Prime Minister’s Rozgar Yojana (PMRY) are also significant in this regard. The Tenth Five Year Plan aims at providing gainful high quality employment to the youth. Therefore, the youth should possess a positive mindset to build a healthy society to live in.
The need of the hour is that the youth have to work with the government, with NGO activists, they have to support social activists in order to ginger up constructive activities for making a better nation for which each and every person of this Mother India will be proud. The youth should suppress frustration and lack of will power among them and work positively with a positive mind for a constructive nation.
By Badal Bhuyan
The Writer is a Founder Editor of ‘Singhbhum’
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