PROBLEMS IN OUR MODERN YOUTH

July 10, 2021  

The most common and costly problems of human behavior include aggressive social behavior, risky sexual behavior, depression, substance abuse, academic failure, school dropout, and crime. Each of these problems affects millions of people and causes pain and suffering both to the person with the problem and those around them. Youth is the valuable human resource of every country. The young people constitute about forty percent of the total population of India. During the freedom struggle, the youth of our country played a significant role. There is a generation gap between the young and the old. The youth should be guided and their energies should be utilized for the progress of the nation. Today India is burdened with many social, political and economic problems. The youth can come forward and check them, and work for the betterment of the nation. The youth can also provide relief to the afflicted persons during natural calamities. By performing a constructive role, the youth can make India prosperous in every field.

Differences in class and social background contribute to the disparities among youth. It leads to the accumulation of tensions, which have an explosive potential. Youths belonging to the lower class of society, after attaining good academic and technical efficiency became angrier as they join the army of job-seekers and are no more prepared to adapt the level of their aspirations to the prevailing realities. They usually get frustrated as their aspirations are not fulfilled. They want to earn the fruits of their toil they have put in to get their degrees through educational and technical institutions. They do not find people with whom they want to work, as friendly as they expect, so they turn rebellions to their society and their anger finds outlet through a behavior which turns to be anti-social, at times. 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 recognize 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’s first instead of communal or geographic factions”.

One of the big failures of the Indian models of development and the State has been an inability to realize that we are dealing with a very different kind of society comprising many linguistic and ethnic groups craving for recognition of their rights to preserve their ethnic identity and linguistic entity. Having been exploited and neglected for long, the young blood among these groups took up the cause of their communities and thus came in direct conflict and confrontation with the state authority. In recent times, many movements led by the youth, have been going on in different parts of the country and the only problem that the youth have highlighted is their assertion and reiteration that their separate identity and cultural entity be respected and restored back to its pristine glory and grandeur. The failure in doing this, alongside the deliberate provocations coming from interested quarters has resulted in the growth of both communal conflicts and sub-national assertions and movements that are greatly straining the authority and legitimacy of the Indian State. In the West, the dilemma of the modern youth is born out of factors that are alien to the youth in the developing countries. If poverty, ignorance and unemployment are our curses, affluence and permissiveness are the bane of their homes, most of which are shattered as well as broken. The cult of Hippism, Drug addiction, violence, aimless murders etc. proves beyond doubt that mere material prosperity is not the end of all problems. The largest number of psychologists and psychiatrists flourishing in America point to the widespread enigma of neurosis-cum-mental sickness most prevalent among the youth there. In the countries of Eastern Europe, the problems of youth are that of transition from a “Closed Society” to the “Open One”.

The youth of our country played a very important role during our freedom struggle. The political leaders gave a lead to the students and they joined the struggle in large numbers. However, since the attainment of Independence, the youth have remained more or less inactive. They have stayed away from contemporary national politics. The youth should work for national integration. They should fight against communalism, casteism, linguism, regionalism etc. Sometimes natural calamities like earthquake, flood, cyclone, drought, etc. afflict one part or other of our country resulting in the loss of life and property. Students can provide relief to the affected people by raising funds for them and organizing relief works.

Sanjit Bakshi: Director at the “Oriental Infrastructure Engineers”. Well-known for exceptionally unique and the visionary insights for conceptualizing, idealizing, and analyzing the business models and projects.