How the youth feel about the development agenda of INDIA

Everything comes with an expiry date

India is set to become the youngest country by the end of this decade. The epicenter of the youth today is ‘I’; their own needs, wants and desires. The Indian youth is changing its attitudes and concerns. They are transforming to stand for issue of greater purpose. It is their beliefs and actions that will demarcate social eras. In a research carried out in the year 2012 three strong trends were seen among the Indian youth.

1.      Rigidity is coming under scrutiny

2.     Reality is prized over an 'ideal'

3.     Everything comes with an expiry date

Having said that, why is important to talk about the youth now? It has become ever more important to talk about them than ever before as the world’s largest democracy is witnessing its largest ever national election.  While we continuously hear the ‘Abki baar modi sarkar’, ‘Haar haath Shakti haar haath tarraki’ and the blooming ‘Ab, 'AAP' ki shakti se chalega desh’; are these slogans reaching out to the youth at all? There has been an awakening wave about first time voters and their likely impact on the candidature of the Lok Sabha 2014. Each of these political giants is talking about issues like development, reducing poverty, better reforms, zero tolerance to terrorism and corruption in their manifestoes. The entire country is rambling and rattling about how the other political giant is not offering the right options and how they have not capitalized on the right opportunity keeping in mind our economic structure.

For a country like India, which is the verge of another economic leap, political control plays a major role. Everyone is chanting the mantra of development, be it by hook or crook. The youth today find the word development, very minimalistic. What they expect from the Lok Sabha 2014 is the creation of a bigger pie rather than the redistribution of the existing pie. They don’t want the long lasting promises about development; rather they have executable plans with targets. Going back to the trends enlisted above, they believe a system needs to flexible with its regime and practices. Section 377 and the legalization of the ‘third gender’ are some benchmarks they have created. Taking a look at this from an economic perspective, the ministry formed in June 2014, needs to bring in work into the economy in the true form. Though, the politicians are claiming the reduction in unemployment, do they realize that India has the highest rate of disguised employment. Two men doing the job of one.

The government needs to create opportunities for the youth, which will increase their purchasing power, this is the ignition fuel to more buying, thus more trade, which creates even more jobs – this is the mantra to development. But how do they execute it? Quoting an example by Mr. Narendra Modi, BJP’s prime ministerial nominee he said - ‘We export the raw iron core extracted from Earth to developed nations and then buy highly priced steel in return.’ There is a need to create the iron mill within the geography. In simpler words, bring in technology, management tools and techniques that fit in with the available skill base of our country. We must not make the mistake other countries have made. Africa imported diamond manufacturing technology; only to find out they weren't capable and skilful enough of working on.

Other sectors of the nation might disagree and comment - this is too good to be true for a country which has 28% of its population below the poverty line. They might say redistribution and social equality are the way to development. That is rather a money eating concept, where the government subsidized food, gas and water for the needy and in order to do so they borrow from the international money market. Thus, compromises on other fronts like bring in new technology. So our economy doesn't grow. In other words, for these political giants who are trying to bag the candidature at Lok Sabha 2014 on the terms of the so called ‘development’; they need India to be a relentlessly enterprising hub on the run for its economic growth. With growth will come development.  To run this relentless hub, India has the skill source, its highly talented  Indian Youth . That’s why the youth of India are ever so important in this Lok Sabha elections 2014.

On a personal note, the political agenda for a nation like India doesn't start and end with just development. There are other major issues like corruption, the poverty and international politics and upheaval. But this article is a mere discussion about how the youth feel about the development agenda and its political nature of Lok Sabha elections 2014.
Article written by: Bhavika Veeramachaneni