Youth and Development

 

With India having the largest ever youth population, we have a chance more than ever to contribute in the socio-economic development of the country. India has for centuries seen the rise of young people like Bhagat Singh and so many others who have come forward for the freedom of this nation.

Now after 73 years of independence, with the highest youth population in the world, we have young people coming up in the process of nation building. They are the agents of change in the society. Often we fail to recognize the choices that the youth of the country make to be active agents of change. Sometimes this comes at a great cost for them which go unnoticed.

On the National Youth Day this year, it becomes essential to acknowledge the role of youth in the socio-economic development of the country. Not only they are young minds with a passion to drive change in the society, they also infuse their enthusiasm to uphold greater causes. More and more the youth of our country have begun to make conscious decisions to be vocal in the socio-economic and political field and to become an example that the next generation will look forward to. In Tamil Nadu, with Sandhiya Rani to become the youngest village Panchayat President in 2020 in Krishnagiri district , the role of youth in rural development does not need a detailed description. Also not locally but globally with several movements being led by the youth, for example, Greta Thunberg, Malala Yousafzai, we again witness rise of youth in issues core to developmental processes.

This brings us to the following passage by Sri Aurobindo from Savitri Book III Canto IV-

"Out of the paths of the morning star they came

Into the little room of mortal life.

I saw them cross the twilight of an age,

The sun-eyed children of a marvellous dawn,

The great creators with wide brows of calm,

The massive barrier-breakers of the world

And wrestlers with destiny in her lists of will,

The labourers in the quarries of the gods,

The messengers of the Incommunicable,

The architects of immortality.

Into the fallen human sphere they came,

Faces that wore the Immortal's glory still,

Voices that communed still with the thoughts of God,

Bodies made beautiful by the spirit's light,

Carrying the magic word, the mystic fire,

Carrying the Dionysian cup of joy,

Approaching eyes of a diviner man,

Lips chanting an unknown anthem of the soul,

Feet echoing in the corridors of Time.

High priests of wisdom, sweetness, might and bliss,

Discoverers of beauty's sunlit ways

And swimmers of Love's laughing fiery floods

And dancers within rapture's golden doors,

Their tread one day shall change the suffering earth

And justify the light on Nature's face."

With this, on the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda, our organization wishes every youth, committed to be changemakers, a very happy National Youth Day.