Inspiring the young: Most urgent national mission.
With over 65 per cent of its population below the age of 35, India possesses one of the largest and youngest workforces in the world. A UN report titled The Power of 1.8 Billion notes that countries with significant youth populations can accelerate development — but only if they invest deeply in education, health, and the protection of young people’s rights. This promise, however, stands in stark contrast to how youth energy has historically been channelled.
For more than two millennia, societies across the world have drawn upon the courage and stamina of the young largely to strengthen military might. Millions of bright, spirited young people have been used as fuel for wars. Outside the battlefield, too, institutions have often failed to use youth power constructively. Political parties deploy their youth wings not for nation-building but for electoral muscle-breaking up rival meetings, intimidating opponents, and showcasing strength. In the world of business and industry, labour unions frequently rely on young workers to raise fiery slogans, pressure management, or threaten loyal employees to extract concessions.
Even campuses are not immune. Student unions often mobilise large groups to force administrative decisions, and when negotiations fail, vandalism follows ransacking offices, smashing windowpanes, burning buses, and publicly torching effigies of authorities. These repeated cycles of impulsive, unfocused aggression demand serious introspection. Youthful dissent is essential to a democracy, but when passion is misdirected, it becomes a tool of destruction rather than a catalyst for progress.
This raises uncomfortable yet important questions: Are we giving our youth a purpose worth striving for? Are we guiding their energy towards nation-building rather than chaos? Is there truly no alternative to the misuse of youth power? Mahatma Gandhi envisioned young people as catalysts of moral and social transformation-individuals shaped by courage, conviction, discipline, and service. His belief remains profoundly relevant. In today’s digital era, the youth are not just foot soldiers; they are innovators, entrepreneurs, coders, creators, climate warriors, and social reformers. Across India, young people are building start-ups that solve real-world problems, leading movements on mental health, gender equality, and environmental protection, and reshaping the civic landscape through creativity and activism. What they require is not suspicion or surveillance, but support, trust, and principled guidance. History shows that when a nation allows its youth to wander down a path marked by indiscipline, violence, and disrespect, it invites social decay. Youth are like a double-edged sword: capable of dismantling enemies-but equally capable of destabilising their own homeland if provoked, misguided, or misused. If we continue to encourage strikes, vandalism, aggression, and hostility towards teachers and institutions, we risk nurturing a generation that may, unintentionally, help erode the very foundations of the nation they are meant to uplift.
Today, India stands at a critical intersection of opportunity and responsibility. Parents, educators, leaders, and communities must work together to cultivate not just ambition but character; not just skills but compassion; not just energy but ethical purpose. The task is immense, but the reward is immeasurable: strengthening the nation’s soul. Let us recognise that our youth are partners of today and builders of a more resilient India.