Some key areas of concern for today’s youth

Education

First and the foremost concern of today’s youth in India is education. Indian youth demands for better education, employment driven training and brighter future. Youth also want that skill based education and job placement should be a part of every higher institution. More emphasis should be laid down on career oriented courses and there should be a connection with real life scenario rather than just bookish. Youth from non-urban setting generally lacks good communication skills. This is also one of the major concerns because it acts as an obstacle on the way to get job and progress.

Job

Youth unemployment in India is on rise. According to the World Development Report 2013, 9% of males and 11% females aged between 15 to 24 years are unemployed. As per data of 2009-10, 9.7% of young men and 18.7% of young women in India were unemployed. At global level, chances of youth being unemployed is three times more than adults. Global financial crisis hit youth first then adult. Also as per NSSO survey, youth unemployment among illiterate is less as compared to educated youth. Because illiterate youth is willing to do all sorts of work whereas educated ones look for jobs in their respective field only. Young graduates suffer the most as far as getting job is concerned.

Corruption

Today’s youth is concerned with the issue of corruption more than anything else and that is why most of the protestors in the recent Anna Hazare’s campaign against corruption were the Indian youth. Mr Ratan Tata once said, “The youth of today will need to recognise that they shoulder a great responsibility. They will need to fight for rooting out corruption, for ensuring that no one is above the law and uniting the citizens of India as ‘India first’ instead of communal or geographic factions”. Though fighting against corruption is the responsibility of every citizen but youth by virtue of their nature and energy participate more in this cause. Corruption should be rooted out of country. Youth in India must know what they want and how they want because good and bad co-exist in the society. Today we relate everything related to success in terms of money. But success is more than this. Youth must derive inspiration from their role model and live life with proud. Youth have to speak out from the very beginning of their career and life that they won’t compromise and will adhere to ethical values. Display honesty even if you are not questioned or watched. Show fairness and transparency in whatsoever you do. This will bring change in you and your surroundings.

Values

In the past, age-old ethical values played a crucial role in the life of people of India. Feeding of poor people in the houses of wealthy persons in villages was a common scene. Rich people met at least apart of marriage expenses of poor households. Wealthy people considered that the wealth possessed by them as wealth of the society and that they were mere trustee of the wealth of the society. It appears that even kings took up the construction of huge temple complexes to encourage the skills of sculptors and provide employment to unskilled workers and thereby ensure food security Due to the influence of western civilization and too much commercialization there is erosion in Indian value system. Recently, a successful garment businessman by name Pankaj Parekh from Maharashtra celebrated his 45th birth day by wearing a shirt made of gold weighing four kilos and worth about Rs. 1.30 Crores. It is interesting to note that he happened to be a school drop-out (Indo- Asian News Service). Exhibition of wealth in such a manner sends wrong signals to highly principled and hard-working youth. They become impatient to earn huge money within a short span of time. They do not bother about the means of achieving their goals.