All it takes to be an empowered youth is to use your knowledge for the development of society and people — with this aim in mind, many schools have revised their curricula to include a lecture on empowerment. Sangeeta Yadav tells you how this course is catching up
More than half the global population consists of people under the age of 25 years. We have to hear their voices,” UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon said recently at the Youth Assembly on Malala Day, in New York. like Malala Yousafzai, who has become a role model for all those who believe in the value of education, in equal opportunities for all, and for those young girls who simply want to go to school, there are many others who aim to empower the society and make a difference.
India is among the youngest countries in the world, with a steadily increasing proportion of the workforce in the age group of 15-59 years. However, there are still some drawbacks that are hugely hampering the development of society. Sample these staggering statistics: Around 69 per cent of the population lives in rural areas as compared to 31 per cent who thrive in urban cities. Around 80 per cent of the energy is consumed by 31 per cent of the urban population. 90 per cent of the wealth in India is concentrated amongst 2 per cent of its population.
Fortyone per cent earn below Rs50 daily. 66 per cent of our population does not have access to proper sanitation. 70 per cent of what they earn is spent at hospitals. 39 million people are pushed to poverty every year. Around 35 million children in age group of 7 to 14 are school dropouts. We have 17 million child labourers.
According to Hriitu Rana, managing trustee, Mind Genius Charitable Trust and Anant Vikas, the only solution to all these problems lies in igniting, uniting and bringing about a change.
“It’s time that we ignite, unite and change. We can make a difference through associating with United Nation’s MDG email campaign, village volleyball grounds, gram panchayat sharing village plans, hunger banquet drives, constructing a house for those below the poverty line and many other small initiatives. There are other ways to contribute towards the uplift of the people as well.
“Donating a book or a solar lamp to a village library, introducing steps to reduce, reuse and recycle, organising fund raisers where the entire village can participate are some other ways in which a person can help society. Empowering women through vocational skills, conducting health camps, street plays, connecting village to the direct market, educating for development and giving affordable new technologies can better the life of the people and do good to the society as well,” Rana says.
The best use of education is to promote and empower the spirit of the services. “The soul of education is to serve the society. In an aim to bridging the gap between rural and urban areas, we can create a modern village,” Rev Fr Valson Thampu, principal, St Stephen’s college says, adding that he believes that “real education” takes place outside the classroom.
To empower or empowered is to be enabled to express one’s best for the betterment of the world. “Being educated doesn’t mean that you have been empowered. You need to give back to the society through your social service. We need to tap into the potential of young India and chanelise their energy into creating a better place to live in and empower others,” Thampu adds.
Anant Vikas, an NGO founded by Rana and managed by students of St Stephens college aims at empowering the youth on social responsibility. Among other things, the NGO encourages urban volunteerism among the youth. “Our agenda is simply to promote youth empowerment mission and to motivate the urban youth to adopt villages in their vicinity and help out with their over-all development. The Gomla project which kickstarted on August 20, 2011 with volunteers from St Stephen’s college, has been a huge success. We have installed IT centres and conducted medical camps there. Now, our target is to cover 6,38,592 such villages. We are encouraging the schools to let the children participate in this programme,” Rana says.
The rustic Science Dhaba within the premises of the college is now the most sort after places. It is here that undergraduates participants brainstorm on ideas about how to bring about a change in the society.
VIDYA School is another NGO in Gurgaon that aims to educate and empower the less privileged through integrated methods and to initiate and implement progressive social change.
It offers a holistic all -round development programme that covers pre-schools, primary schools from Classes V to senior secondary. The NGO also provides education for school drop-outs and prepares them for further study in the best universities like the IIT’s. VIDYA conducts several programmes in rehabilitated communities that empower an integrated development in education, skill training, micro-enterprise, to generation programmes and vocational training.
It is not just the Government and private organisations but international bodies too are promoting the spirit of empowerment in children and youth. “The UN information Centre has joined hands with several youth groups and organisations that aspire to change the world. Some have chosen to focus on education and awareness through the arts, others on social entrepreneurship. But all have understood that there are too many people who have not had the privileges and opportunities that they themselves have,” Kiran Mehra, director, UN Information Centre for India and Bhutan (UNIC), says.
Grace Pinto, MD, Ryan Group of Schools believes that teaching the children at the early stage to empower and be empowered is the key to all the solutions.
“By bringing an empowerment mission to schoolchildren would help them not only progress in life practically but they would also get to know the actual situation of the country. This would motivate them to come out with a solution and make them want to bring about changes in the society,” Pinto says.
Some schools have embedded the junior and senior youth empowerment programmes within their curriculum. “Every school should make the youth empowerment mission a compulsory section and should give an opportunity to the students to do something for the development of the society especially, in the rural regions,” Pinto adds.