The global situation of the youth is a striking paradox; there are extreme disparities in terms of economic, technological, social and cultural resources. Most of the rural youth are either employed (self employed or wage earners) or underemployed in a low productive system. Potential entrepreneurs cannot go into business on their own for lack of knowledge, training as also financial limitations. On the other hand, urban youth are studying harder and longer to grab better job opportunities in the competitive market. Further, getting a job in the industrial or any technical sector is not easy. Hence, there is a trend to opt for the BPO sector and land a job with a good salary. As a consequence, today’s youth are not getting the proper exposure that they should and are wasting their knowledge.

Some other areas that come under the societal transformation include sectors like education, health care, agriculture, and governance. Some of the youth who are not opting for the BPO industry to generate money are looking into these sectors. As a consequence, the rural sector is benefiting, either indirectly or directly.

Going to developed countries for further education and employment is also a trend in urban youth, who are migrating abroad for higher education and to earn more money. Ultimately, the nation is losing its own talent and the youth.

In terms of health issues, youth today are being recognised as a unique group due to many aspects of vulnerability; one-third of the 20 million people throughout the world who have already died as a result of HIV/AIDS-related illnesses are the youth and another 6,000 are infected every day. Young people continue to lose their lives to acute respiratory infections, vaccination-preventable diseases and malnutrition.

The empowerment of youth ought to be an integrated approach. This empowerment can be done through knowledge management and capacity building. There are two types of knowledge: one is explicit, while the other is implicit. Explicit knowledge comes from published books, written materials, proceedings, presentations, etc., whereas implicit knowledge is derived through systematic observation and capturing of data from the tacit knowledge available among the individuals in the organisation. On the other hand, capacity building can be done through entrepreneurship, creative innovation, research, capacity to use technology, moral leadership, etc.

A clear distinction should be made between social and economic policies that are not specifically targeted at the youth, but nonetheless benefit them, either directly or indirectly, and youth-specific policies that do target the youth as a whole. It is widely alleged that youth development is at the periphery of the development agenda in most countries. The youth need to take active part in framing a country’s national policy.

A wide range of livelihood-improvement interventions should be undertaken with respect to physical, natural and financial assets through skills training.

Despite their sheer numbers, rural youth have limited social and political power. The subordinate position of youth has been further compounded by the ‘traditional welfare approach’, where youth are viewed as ‘problem elevators’, and crises generated by them need to be solved through the intervention of older people. It is now widely accepted, however, that youth can play a major role in improving governance at both the national and local levels.

Great efforts are needed to make sure that children stay in school until they are at least functionally literate. Most of the rural youth classified as illiterate still cannot read because they cannot avail of basic competencies. Therefore, making primary education available in rural areas is not enough; we need to develop a proper standard of education that is more user friendly.

The youth themselves have to come forward for the sake of their own improvement. But some barriers still exist in their efforts at empowerment.

• Lack of training; poor economic conditions in the country

• Lack of knowledge and resources

• Lack of educational opportunities

• Lack of employment policies; poor social conditions

• Lack of cooperation between private sector/government/NGOs/grassroots organisations

The youth are going to take this world in their own stride by continuous progress. Education in its real sense is the real pursuit of truth. It transforms a human being. Availability of resources is necessary for the betterment of youth but it is also their responsibility to find out the resources for their own betterment. Youth have to be proactive. They need to support the society in order to create a better platform for showing their skills.

Youth have always been in the forefront. Be it our struggle for freedom or our quest for development, youth have always played a vital role. Schemes should be framed that are aimed not only on the personality and skill development of youth, but also endeavoured to involve them in community based nation-building activities so that they can become catalysts of change and development.

Today’s youth should be involved in various nation-building activities, such as inculcating the values of secularism and national integration; youth empowerment and gender justice; providing special attention to sports, education, training and employment; and developing the interest of youth in development-oriented programmes by strengthening and continuing with the existing youth programmes as well as initiating new ones. The youth power will be harnessed through a nation-wide campaign by involving young people in development and democracy at the grassroots. The vast network should be strengthened and expanded in their activities to cover districts, universities, colleges and schools. q