Friday morning, the city was greeted by school children on bicycles with orange banners with the motto, ‘Stop overpopulating the planet’. Leading the brood on his cycle was District Collector M.G. Rajamanickam, who said the scales have to go up in qualitative terms at the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan’s rally on the occasion of World Population Day. Though there were a large number of youth who were educated, the employability needs to be enhanced, he said.
The State had already achieved the standard population growth and now the investment had to go into meeting the higher socio-economic and health indicators among the youth, said Mr. Rajamanickam.
Commenting on the relevance of the day for the urban young, Hibi Eden, MLA, said our education system should be revamped to offer more space for innovation. The government should prioritise the support provided to start up villages, which he said would be a major boost for youthful aspirations.
He also rued that human resources were not being properly utilised. “We have an edge over the world population and even China in having maximum number of young people in the population. Such a vast resource needs to be closely supervised and capitalised,” he added.
Largely, today’s youth lacked self confidence and motivation, said R. Nishanthini, Deputy Commissioner of Police. There were some golden values like sharing and respecting others that will always hold good in the youth’s overall development, said Ms. Nishanthini.
Noted paediatrician M. K.C. Nair, who had spent a major part of his professional life studying the problems of youth and adolescent, said that youth was always in transition. “With more global aspirations and changing philosophy of life today’s generation is not ready for a life-long struggle for achievement. It is quick money, quick appreciation, quick possessions, quick relationships and quick gratifications that probably underline the aspirations of the youth,” he said.
The government had to provide opportunities for the youth to meet their aspirations, he said. It is in the absence of such avenues that the youth turn to other means. If the government and society does not invest in the youth, they too would fail to find their bearings and fail to invest for a future in family. Such disgruntled and unhealthy living would bring about a mine of lifestyle diseases to deal with, he said.
