CHILD + YOUTH

33
 1.1) CHILD & YOUTH – Content & Dimensions
CHILD
Challenges for Children in India
• Hunger and Malnutrition: India ranks 101st in Global hunger Index. There is a
paradoxical situation in India. At one hand, over a third (40%) of the food produced in India
is wasted according UNDP and on other hand, one third of the children are malnourished.
• Declining Child Sex Ratio: Child sex ratio is India declined from 927 in 2001 to 919 in
2011 [Census].
• Infant Mortality: India’s infant mortality rate is 28. While it has significantly declined
over the years, it is much higher than other countries.
• Access to education: Though right to education to all children between 6 to 14 years and
additional incentives like scholarship to underprivileged children are guaranteed by
Constitution, still 32 million Indian children have never been to schools, according to an
official report.
• Child labour: India has around 10.1 million child laborers [Census 2011].
• Sexual assault: Despite of legal measures to protect children from sexual offences, one out
of three girls is facing some sort of sexual offense in form of physical, emotional or verbal
in nature in India.
• Child pornography:India Child Protection Fund (ICPF) has come out with a report which
indicates a sharp rise in demand for online child pornography during the lockdown.
• Child Marriages: India is home to 223 million or one in three of these child brides. Just
under half that number, 102 million were married before they turned 15 [UNICEF]
• Child Trafficking: Trafficked children are subjected to prostitution, forced into marriage
or illegally adopted; they provide cheap or unpaid labour, are forced to work as house
servants or beggars and may be recruited into armed groups.
• Impact of the Pandemic: Various studies show that school closures have a serious impact
on the learning, lives and mental well-being of children.
o For example:A survey by the International Labour Organization (ILO) reveals that
65% of adolescents worldwide reported having learnt less during the pandemic.
• Digital challenges:
o Online Privacy:Too often, children do not know what rights they have over their own
data and do not understand the implications of their data use, and how vulnerable it can
leave them.
o Online Misinformation:Studies indicate that many children and young people today
have a hard time distinguishing fact from fiction online and as a consequence, the
generation is finding it more difficult to know who and what to trust.

Measures
1. Constitutional Provisions
• Fundamental Rights
o Article 14: The State shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the
equal protection of laws with in the territory of India.
o Article 15: The State shall not discriminate against any citizen. Nothing in this
Article shall prevent the State from making any special provisions for women and
children.

34
 o Article 21: No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except
according to procedure established by law.
o Article 21 A: The State shall provide free and compulsory education to all children
of the age of 6-14 years in such manner as the State may, by law, determine.
o Article 23: Traffic in human beings and beggary and other forms of forced labour
are prohibited and any contravention of this provision shall be an offence
punishable in accordance with the law.
o Article 24: No child below the age of 14 years shall be employed to work in any
factory or mine or engaged in any other hazardous employment.
o 86th Amendment:The Constitution (86th Amendment) Act was notified on 13th
December 2002, making free and compulsory education a Fundamental Right for
all children in the age group of 6-14 years.
• Directive Principles
o Article 39(e) & (f): It direct that the state policies are directed towards securing the
tender age of children.
o Article 45:States that the state shall endeavor to provide early childhood care and
education for all children until they complete the age of six years.
o Article 47: The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the
standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its
primary duties
• Fundamental Duties
o Article 51A:Mentions that it shall be the fundamental duty of the parent and
guardian to provide opportunities for education to his child or as the case may be,
ward between the age of six and fourteen.
• Other
o Article 243G read with Schedule 11: It provide for institutionalization of child
care by seeking to entrust programmes of Women and Child Development to
Panchayat (Item 25 of Schedule 11), apart from education (item 17), family welfare
(item 25), health and sanitation (item 23) and other items with a bearing on the
welfare of children.
2. Legal Provisions
• Guardians and Wards Act, 1890: The act supersedes all the laws regarding
guardianship of a child. It is a universal code specifically designed for Muslims, Parsis,
Christians and Jews as their personal laws don’t allow full adoption but only
guardianship.
• Child Marriage Restraint Act, 1929 (Amended in 1979):It restraints child marriage
until the minimum age, i.e. 21 for male and 18 for female, has been attained by them.
It applies to the people of all the religions.
• Immoral Traffic (Prevention) Act (Amended in 1986), 1956: This act with respect
to children deals with person(s) who procure or attempt to procure any child for
prostitution or person(s) who are found with a child in a brothel (it is presumed child
has been detained for the purpose of prostitution) and punishes them. It also provides
for the due care of rescued children.
• The Women’s and Children’s (Licensing) Act, 1956: The Act was enacted with an
object to protect women and children from exploitation and inhuman activities going
on in institutions. It mandates the institutions for women and children to get a license
from the licensing authority before establishing or maintaining the institution.

35
 • Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976: The act aims at eradicating the bonded
labour system in India which exploits the weaker sections of society, especially
children.
• Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986: This act regulates the
working conditions for children in employment and prohibits working of children in
certain kinds of employments.
• Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act, 2000: This act is one of the
important acts in India for the children in need of care and protection and also children
in conflict with the law. It requires that the state provides free legal support to the
juveniles, and proper care and protection is provided to those in need. It also calls for a
child-friendly approach in adjudication and disposition of matters involving children.
• The Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Regulation and Prevention of Misuse)
Amendment Act, 2000: The main objective of the Act is to regulate and prevent the
pre-natal sex determination in order to prevent female foeticide.
• Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, 2012: The act aims at punishing
the offenders who are guilty of sexual offences against children below the age of 18
years of age. It also lays down procedures for the trial, such as, the name of child victim
shall not be disclosed, proceedings of the case are to be conducted in court with cameras
recording the trial, accused is not to be kept in-front of the child victim during
examination or cross examination, etc.
3. Institutional
• National Commission for Protection of Child Rights: It is a statutory body under the
Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005 under the administrative
control of the MoW&CD. The Commission's Mandate is to ensure that all Laws,
Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the
Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN
Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18
years age group.
• Central Adoption Resource Authority: CARA is an autonomous and statutory body
of Ministry of Women and Child Development set up in 2015. It functions as the nodal
body for the adoption of Indian children and is mandated to monitor and regulate in-
country and inter-country adoptions.
4. Policies
• National Policy for Children, 1974: It is the first written policy for the children in
India. It aims at providing better enforcement of constitutional rights of the children
along with those granted by the CRC. Some of the provisions include free education,
comprehensive health and nutritious plans, etc.
• National Policy on Child Labour, 1987: The act endeavours to eradicate child labour
from Indian society wherever necessary.
• National Plan of Action for Children 2016: Policy aims for Reducing Infant Mortality
Rate and Reducing Maternal Mortality Rate and also Reducing Malnutrition among
children.
5. Schemes
• Child Protection Services (CPS): It supports the children in difficult circumstances
including child beggars and destitute children. Under the scheme, institutional care is
provided through Child Care Institutions (CCIs), as a rehabilitative measure.

36
 • National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Scheme: It seeks to eliminate all forms of
child labour through Identification and withdrawal of all children in the Project Area
from child labour.
• Integrated Child Development Scheme: To prevent and reduce young child under-
nutrition (% underweight children 0-3 years) by 10 percentage points, enhance early
development and learning outcomes in all children 0-6 years of age, improve care and
nutrition of girls and women and reduce Anaemia prevalence in young children, girls
and women by one fifth by the end of 12th five year plan.
• Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana: It is a small deposit scheme for girl child to motivate
parents to open an account in the name of a girl child and for her welfare to deposit
maximum of their savings.
• ICDS – Integrated Child Development Services:This program came into effect in
1975. Also, it is aimed at enhancing the nutrition, health, and learning opportunities of
infants and young children (O-6 years) along with their mothers.
• Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya: This scheme came into effect in 2004. Also, the
main was to ensure the access of quality education to the girls that belonged to
disadvantaged groups of society. So, it was done by setting up residential schools along
with boarding facilities at the elementary level.
• Mid-day Meal Scheme: This scheme came into effect in 1995. Here the main idea was
to improve the nutritional status of children in classes 1 to 8 in Government,
Government aided schools, Local Body and, AIE and EGS centers. Also, it encouraged
poor children that belonged to disadvantaged sections.
• Integrated program for Street Children: This scheme came into effect in 1993. the
aim was to provide provisions for nutrition, shelter, sanitation, health care, and hygiene.
Additionally, they were also provided education, safe drinking water, and recreational
facilities and protection against exploitation and abuse to neglected and destitute street
children.
6. Initiatives
• POCSO e-Box for children: Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO)
e-Box is an online complaint box for reporting child sexual abuse.
• PENCIL Portal: was launched for effective implementation of NCLP.
• CiSS Application: The CiSS application is used for receiving data of children in street
situations from all the states and union territories, tracking their rescue and
rehabilitation process. The initiative is taken under the direction of the Supreme Court
of India.
7. International
• Convention on the Rights of the Child
o It is a treaty adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1989.
o It recognises a child as every human being under 18 years old.
o It sets out the civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights of every child,
regardless of their race, religion or abilities.
o It includes rights such as Right to Education, Right to Rest and Leisure, Right to
Protection from Mental or Physical Abuse including Rape and Sexual Exploitation.
o It is the world’s most widely ratified human rights treaty.
• Goal 8 of the SDGs:Eliminating child labour
• Convention No. 182 on Worst Forms of Child Labour: Ratified by India, it aims to
protect children from the worst forms of child labour, which include slavery,

37
 prostitution, trafficking, deployment of children in armed conflict and other conditions
that compromise their overall well-being.
• ILO Convention No.138: The aim of ILO Convention No.138 on the minimum age is
the effective abolition of child labour by requiring countries to: 1) establish a minimum
age for entry into work or employment; and 2) establish national policies for the
elimination of child labour.
• UNICEF in India:Works on include strengthening child protection systems, child
marriage, children on the move, strengthening family-based care, child Labour,
violence against children and gender-based violence, adolescent participation and
engagement, and mental health and psychosocial support
• IPEC+ Flagship Programme: The International Programme on the Elimination of
Child Labour (IPEC) and the Special Action Programme to combat Forced Labour
(SAP/FL) – to establish a major new force in the fight against child labour, forced
labour and human trafficking.
• Hague Convention on Inter-country Adoption, 1993: It provides formal
international and intergovernmental recognition of intercountry adoption to ensure that
adoptions under the Convention will generally be recognized and given effect in other
party countries.
• The WeProtect Global Alliance Model National Response: WeProtect Global
Alliance is a global movement of more than 200 governments, private sector companies
and civil society organisations working together to transform the global response to
child sexual exploitation and abuse online.
• United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF): It is a special program of the United
Nations (UN) devoted to aiding national efforts to improve the health, nutrition,
education, and general welfare of children.
• UNICEF’s Draft Policy Guidance on Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Children: The
guidance is designed to promote children’s rights in government and private sector AI
(artificial intelligence) policies and practices, and to raise awareness of how AI systems
can uphold or undermine these rights.

38
 YOUTH

In India over 62% of the population is aged between 15 and 59 years, and the median age of
the population is less than 30 years. This means India is going through the stage of
‘demographic dividend’ representing the potential for economic growth based on the age
structure of the population.

Status of Youth in India

• Definition: The 2014 National Youth Policy (NYP) defined youth as persons between
15 and 29 years.
1. Population
• Major Proportion in Total Population: This segment of the society accounted for
27.5% of the population as per NYP, 2014.
• Decline in Youth Population: The youth population is expected to increase initially
but will start to decline in the latter half of 2011-2036 period.
o The total youth population increased from 222.7 million in 1991 to 333.4 million in
2011 and is projected to reach 371.4 million by 2021 and, thereafter, decrease to
345.5 million by 2036.
• Proportion of Youth and Elderly Population: Proportion of youth to the total
population had increased from 26.6% in 1991 to 27.9% in 2016 and then projected to
start a downward trend and to reach 22.7 % by year 2036.
o On the contrary, the proportion of elderly population to the total population has
increased from 6.8% in 1991 to 9.2% in 2016 and is projected to reach 14.9% in
2036.
• Scenario in the States: States such as Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh are
projected to see a higher elderly population than the youth by 2036.
o Bihar and Uttar Pradesh experienced a rise in proportion of youth population to total
population till 2021 and then it is expected to start declining.
o These two states, along with Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, are
projected to have over half (52%) of the country’s youth.
3. Economy
• Government Expenditure on Youth: According to the NYP report, the Central
government spends about Rs. 2,710 per youth on education, skill development,
employment, healthcare and food subsidies.
• Investment as percentage of GDP: The total amount of Union government
expenditure is pegged at more than Rs.90,000 crore. Assuming that States spend an
equal amount, the total investment in our youth would be under 1% of the GDP.
• Opportunity Cost of investing in Youth: A World Bank report pegged the projected
cost (read: loss) of not investing in children and youth at 4% of the GDP every year. Of
this, the costs of unemployment account for 0.6%
• Labour Force Contribution: As of 2017-18, youth participation in India’s labour
force was 38.3%.
• High Unemployment: Drawing from the 2018 State of Working India Report, the
youth unemployment rate is pegged to be at least 18.3% (3.47 crore youths).
• Unutilized Potential: About 30% of youth fall under the ‘neither in employment nor
in education’ category and 33% of India’s skilled youth are unemployed

39
Challenges
1. Social
• Drug Abuse: Due to India’s close proximity with major opium growing areas of the
region, India is facing the serious menace of drug trafficking and as a spillover effect,
drug abuse especially among the youth is a matter of concern.
• Suicidal Tendencies: Though India’s suicide rate is the 12th highest in the world, the
country is unfortunately home to the highest number of suicides among people in the
15-29 age group – 35.5 in 100,000 people.
o Also for instance:It is significant that the highest number of suicides is reported
from states with a high literacy level. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal,
Kerala and Karnataka report more than 53 percent of the national total.
• Depression: Depression is a very common yet overlooked disease among youth.
Globally 300 million + people were suffering from depression as in the first quarter of
2017. Although this number is only going up, no strong steps have been taken to create
a working atmosphere that allows an employee to remain happy and stress free. This
only adds on to the misery of the person, affecting his or her personal life as well.
• Moving towards crime: The young today have sadly been subjected to the ill-effects
of fast growing urban sutures and are drawn to crimes even to maintain a living. A
major reason for this negative outlook is the disparity between availability and
accessibility.
• Rural-urban disparity: In India, over 90% of individuals are dwelling in rural areas;
in this way, there isn’t enough place for everyone in schools, hence the low literacy
rates.
• Social neglect: Low focus and the taboo associated around mental health is also one of
the reasons. The youth does not present such situations often and the parents try to hide
it to avoid the social stigma of mental illness
2. Political
• Radicalization: Recent reports about a group of Indians joining the ISIS have raised
concerns about the possibility of an increasing number of young professionals joining
global jihadist groups. Second area of concern is the recent trend in India's domestic
politics where radical groups and ideologies are being propagated, causing greater
polarization among communities
• Political exclusion: As an age cohort, youth are less likely to be involved in governance
and decision-making processes, as a result of economic, political, and procedural
barriers that prevent their participation.
3. Economic
• Employability Challenge: Over 30% of youth are not in employment, education or
training (NEETs). This is more than double the OECD average and almost three times
that of China.
• Lack of Education and Skill: India’s underfunded education system is inadequately
equipped to provide the skills young people need to take advantage of emerging
employment opportunities.
o For example: According to the World Bank, public expenditure on education
constituted only 3.4% of GDP in [Link] report revealed that India stands
62nd in terms of public expenditure per student, and fares badly in quality of
education measures such as student-teacher ratios.

40
Measures
1. Legal Provisions
• Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1985
• Prevention of Illicit Trafficking of Narcotics Drug and Psychotropic Substances Act, 1988
2. Schemes and initiatives
• Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana: To encourage and promote skill development
in the country by providing free short duration skill training and incentivizing this by
providing monetary rewards to youth for skill certification.
• Rashtriya Yuva Sashaktikaran Karyakram: The umbrella scheme of Rashtriya Yuva
Sashaktikaran Karyakram subsumed the following eight sub-schemes. It aims to develop
the personality and leadership qualities of the youth and to engage them in nation building
activities.
• YUVA Scheme for Young Writers: The scheme is aimed at training 75 aspiring writers
below 30 years, who are ready to express themselves and project India and its culture and
literature globally.
• National Rural Livelihoods Mission (NRLM): Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen
Kaushalya Yojana (DDU-GKY) is a placement linked skill development programme for
rural youth between 15-35 years and allows skilling in a PPP mode and also assures
placements in regular jobs and is being undertaken all over the country through Project
Implementing Agencies (PIAs) registered with the Ministry.
• National Career Service (NCS):A Mission Mode project set in motion by MoL& E, for
establishing quick and efficient career related services across the countryby revamping the
existing nation-wide set-up of Employment Exchanges into IT-enabled Career Centers.
• YuWaah Platform: Main objective is to provide career guidance support to young people
through career portal as well as through job-readiness and self-exploration sessions to make
young people career-ready.
• Prime Minister's Employment Generation Program: The Government of India
approved the introduction of a credit linked subsidy programme called Prime Minister's
Employment Generation Programme (PMEGP) in 2008 for generation of employment
opportunities through establishment of micro enterprises in rural as well as urban areas.
• Promotion of Folk Art, Culture and Yuva Kriti: With the ‘Generation X’ obsessed about
the west- this programme comes as the much-needed task master to provide opportunity to
the rural youth to showcase and promote their culture and talent.
• Mahatma Gandhi Yuva Swachta Abhiyaan and Shramdaan Karyakram: to alert and engage
the youth in contributing to the cleanliness drive and water conservation.
• Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana: It was launched by the government in 2015 for
providing loans up to Rs. 10 lakh to the non-corporate, non-farm small/micro-enterprises.
• Scheme for Higher Education Youth in Apprenticeship and Skills (SHREYAS): The
scheme is to provide industry apprenticeship opportunities to the general graduates exiting
in April 2019 through the National Apprenticeship Promotion Scheme (NAPS).
• Atmanirbhar Skilled Employee Employer Mapping (ASEEM): Launched in 2020, it is
a portal to help skilled people find sustainable livelihood opportunities.
• 'Going Online As Leaders' -GOAL are helping tribal population with areas like art and
culture, handicraft, textiles and digital literacy among tribal areas leading to
entrepreneurship development among the tribal population.
3. Policies
• National Youth Policy:
o The vision of NYP-2014 is to empower youth to achieve their full potential, and
through them enable India to find its rightful place in the community of nations.

41
 o For achieving this vision, the Policy identifies five well-defined objectives and 11
priority areas and suggests policy interventions in each priority area.
o The priority areas are education, skill development and employment, entrepreneurship,
health and healthy lifestyle, sports, promotion of social values, community
engagement, participation in politics and governance, youth engagement, inclusion and
social justice.
4. Institutional
• Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports: The Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports is a
branch of the Government of India which administers the Department of youth affairs and
the Department of Sports in India.
5. International conventions
• Single Convention on Narcotic Drugs, 1961: The aim of the convention was to combat
drug abuse by international action that was well coordinated.
• Convention on Psychotropic Substances, 1971: An international control system for
psychotropic substances was established. It responded to the diversification and expansion
of the spectrum of drugs of abuse and introduced controls over a number of synthetic drugs
according to their abuse potential on the one hand and their therapeutic value on the other.
• United Nations Convention against Illicit Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic
Substances, 1988: This Convention provides comprehensive measures against drug
trafficking, including provisions against money laundering and the diversion of precursor
chemicals. It provides for international cooperation through, for example, extradition of
drug traffickers-controlled deliveries and transfer of proceedings.

Way forward
• Needs Policy Attention in coming years: Around 50 lakh youth are expected to be entering
the workforce annually.
• Less Time to prevent Demographic Disaster: India has just a decade’s time to seize the
opportunity and realise this youth demographic dividend, else it will turn into demographic
disaster with high unemployment rate & underutilized potential
• Future of India: The aspirational younger generation born after 1991 invariably hold the key
to India’s economic and political future.
• Realizing Demographic Dividend: India has just a decade’s time to seize the opportunity and
realise this youth demographic dividend.
• Most Needed Scheme: Therefore, it is an appropriate time to launch an Indian Youth
Guarantee (IYG) programme, akin to the European Union Youth Guarantee (EU-YG) but tuned
to our country’s context.
• Fruitful Engagement: An IYG initiative, with statutory backing, can function as a facilitatory
framework for ensuring gainful and productive engagement of youth.
• Special Component Plan: At a time of fiscal stress, one way to allocate budgetary resources
would be to create a Youth Component Plan, earmarking a specific percentage of funds for the
Scheduled Castes and the Tribal Sub-Plan.
• Funds Outlay: The Youth Component Plan would be formulated by States/Union
Territories/Central Ministries to channelize flow of outlays and benefits proportional to the
percentage of youth population based on sub-regional requirements.
• Strategic Goal: It should be there to ensure that within a fixed time frame, young people
graduating from college or losing a job either find a good quality job suited to their education
and experience or acquire skills required to find a job through an apprenticeship.
• Decentralisation: An important aspect of IYG should be to rope in the district administration
and local bodies for effective outcomes.

42
 1.2) DATA

Data - Children
Child Labour India Specific
• 10.1 million working children in the age group of 5-14 years- 5.6
million are boys and 4.5 million are girls. (Census 2011).
• Recent study “Child Artists in India”-> child below the age of 15 in
the entertainment industry in India, works for more than 12 hours a
day.
• It amounts to 13% of our workforce or one in every ten workers in
India is a child. (UNICEF).
Global Data
• 160 million children globally; Child labour is more prevalent among
boys than girls at every age. (UNICEF)
Crimes against • India recorded over 350 crimes against each children each day in
Children 2020 (NCRB).

Child sexual abuse • India has the largest number of child sexual abuse cases in the
world.
• Estimated 2.4 million instances of online child sexual abuse
reported from India from 2017 to 2020. Eighty per cent of these
children were girls under the age of 14 (Interpol).
Missing Children • On average, a child goes missing every 10 minutes in India
(Ministry of Women and Child Development)

POCSO cases • Trial in 99% of cases pending by Dec 2020 (Praja Foundation
report).
• Over 2.26 lakh cases pending before fast-track courts.
• 20% shortage of police sub-inspectors, responsible for investigating
cases as of March 2021.
• More than 90,000 cases registered under POSCO are pending at
end of 2016.
• Conviction rate: It was 29.6% in 2016 as against 45.1% for all
IPC crimes.
Out of School • 43% dropping out before completion of upper primary education
Children (CAG report)

Trafficking • Child Beggars- Around 3,00,000 child beggars in India.

• Every year 44,000 children fall into clutches of gangs.
• Children make up roughly 40% of prostitutes.
Child Pornography • Child pornography cases reported in India increase by more than 600
per cent in 2020.

Juvenile • Juveniles were charged with only 3.4% of all the rapes committed
Delinquency in India (NCRB).

Child marriages • Total of 785 cases were registered under the Prohibition of Child
Marriage Act; highest in Karnataka (184) followed by Assam
(138) (NCRB Data, 2020).

43
 • About 50% rise in the cases of child marriages recorded in 2020
over the previous year (NCRB data).

Health Indicators Global Hunger Index (2021)

• Child Stunting- Decrease from 54.2% in 1998-1999 to 34.7% in
2016-2018 (still considered very high).
• At 17.3%, India has the highest child wasting rate of all
countries covered in the GHI.
Centre for Science and Environment
• Air pollution kills an average 8.5 out of every 10,000 children in
India before they turn five.

SDGs related to SDG 2 – Zero Hunger

Children SDG 3- Good health and well-being
SDG 4- Quality Education
SDG 5- Gender Equality
SDG 8- Decent work and Economic growth
SDG 11- Sustainable cities and communities

Data - Youth
Youth • India has the largest youth population in the world; around 66%
of the total population (more than 808 million) is below the age of
35.
• Half of India’s current population is under age of 26 and median
age is 29 years, making it the youngest country in the world.
• Median age of Indian population is around 28 years in 2021 and
will become 31 years by 2031 (Ministry of Statistics and
Programme Implementation).
Unemployment • Youth Unemployment rate decreased to 22.90 percent in the first
quarter of 2021 from 24.90 percent in the fourth quarter of 2020
(Ministry of Statistics data)
• India needs to create around 8.1 million jobs a year to maintain its
employment rate (World Bank)
Politics • For the last 20 years, the average age of Lok Sabha MPs has
always been above 50 (India Today’s Data Intelligence Unit).

Global Data: Inter-Parliamentary Union

• Young people under 30 make up just over 2.6% of the world’s MPs.
• Around 25 per cent of the world’s single and lower houses of
parliament have no MPs aged under 30.
Important Trends Youth in India 2022 report
• Total youth population increased from 222.7 million in 1991 to
333.4 million in 2011 and is projected to reach 371.4 million by
2021 and, thereafter, decrease to 345.5 million by 2036.
• Proportion of youth to the total population increased from 26.6%
in 1991 to 27.9% in 2016.
Miscellaneous • Indian youth spends 'online' 8 hours per day.

44
 1.3) QUOTES

If we have to bring real peace in the world, we must begin

Mahatma Gandhi
1 with children.

There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul than Nelson Mandela

2
the way in which it treats its children.
We are guilty of many errors and many faults, but our worst
crime is abandoning the children, neglecting the fountain Nobel Laureate
3 of life. Many of the things we need can wait. The child Gabriela Mistral
cannot. To him we cannot answer ‘Tomorrow.’ His name
is today.”
“Safety and security don’t just happen, they are the result
of collective consensus and public investment. We owe our Nelson Mandela
4
children, the most vulnerable citizens in our society, a life
free of violence and fear.”
It’s the greatest poverty to decide that a child must die so
5 Mother Teresa
that you may live as you wish.
“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and
Pearl S Buck
6 therefore they attempt the impossible, and achieve it,
generation after generation.”
"Youth is a blunder; manhood a struggle, Old age a regret.
7 Benjamin Disraeli.
"Any society that does not succeed in tapping into the Kofi Annan
8
energy and creativity of its youth will be left behind"
9 When the youth is empowered, a country is empowered. Swami Vivekananda
There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents,
10 the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the Sophia Loren
people you love.
There can be no keener revelation of society’s soul than the
11 Nelson Mandela
way in which it treats its children.
Children are like wet cement whatever falls on them makes
12 Haim Ginott
an impression.
13 “Children must be taught how to think, not what to think.” Margaret Mead
"Children are like buds in a garden and should be carefully
14 and lovingly nurtured, as they are the future of the Nation Jawahar Lal Nehru
and the citizens of tomorrow"
“We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we
15 Franklin D. Roosevelt
can build our youth for the future.”
“Older men declare war. But it is youth that must fight and
16 Herbert Hoover
die.”
17 “Youth is easily deceived because it is quick to hope.” Aristotle

45
 1.4) Anecdotes [Inspirations] and Case Studies

NAME STORY
He is India’s first field athlete to win the gold medal during
the Tokyo Olympics [Link] story inspired so many
youths in India as well. He was an obese kid, his family
1. Neeraj Chopra made him do some exercise in order to keep his health in
check. While he was on the ground he saw others practice
with a javelin and that’s what sparked his interest. From
being the obese one, he’s ‘the one’ for the nation.
She has become a symbol of youth-led advocacy. She is a
16 Year Old Swedish environmental activist who is known
for challenging world leaders to take immediate action for
climate change [Link] activism began when she
2. Greta Thunberg
persuaded her parents to adopt lifestyle choices that
reduced their own carbon footprint. She has INSPIRED
Thousands of young people across the globe are taking up
the fight to save our planet from Sierra Leone to Brazil.
The environmental activist is a 12-year-old little girl from
Uttarakhand, her name is Ridhima Pandey. Among the 16
teenagers who filed a legal complaint to the UN in order to
take the rapid climate change in a serious manner. The
3. Ridhima Pandey complaints sent by many people were in the age range
between 8 to 17 and Ridhima was one of them. Ridhima
has been an environmental enthusiast since she was wee.
She raised her voice against global warming becoming the
Indian Greta Thunberg.
When Hattie was born with Cerebral Palsy, a brain
condition caused by premature birth, her parents were told
HATTIE she would likely never walk. Flash forwards 9 years later
4.
and Hattie is a Restless Development tri athlete; running,
swimming and cycling to raise money for youth-led
international development.
The active conflict in Israel-Palestine has left many
children with psychological wounds and a lack of life
prospects. Sulaima, a 29 year old Palestinian is working on
5. SULAIMA all fronts to make their lives better. She co-founded the
“Puppets for kids – Yes Theatre,” and now is working
alongside Restless Development as a partner researching
youth employment and employability.
A tragedy can change your life. It can pull you down to the
depths of despair. But not if you are Arunima Sinha. She
met with a tragic train accident and lost her leg — but this
didn't pull her down, instead, it made her go 'up'! It became
6. ARUNIMA SINHA
the turning point in her life and she vowed to make a name
for herself. Like the Phoenix that rises from its ashes,
Arunima rose to the occasion and began climbing
mountains as an amputee. Truly an icon for the youth of

46
 the country. She was awarded the Padma Shri in 2015 and
an honorary doctorate by the University of Strathclyde in
2018
A 6-year-old little boy from Gujarat became the world’s
youngest computer programmer. He got this tag in
November 2020. His name is also in the Guinness Book Of
7. Arham Om Talsania World Records since he cleared the ‘Python Programming
Language’. His father is a software engineer and he taught
him coding with his tablets at the age of 2. That’s what
sparked Arham’s interest and he continued in that field.
She got her student pilot license at the age of just 15. She
also became India’s youngest female pilot to fly a plane all
across, the young ladies from Mumbai, Maharashtra. She
8. Ayesha Aziz
met her inspiration, Sunita Williams, during her two
months NASA course. She also met the first lady pilot who
flew a plane with a private flying license.
She is a 22-year-old daughter of an electrical and LIC
agent. Making her parents proud by becoming India’s
youngest mayor, in Kerala. Earlier the record was held by
9. Arya Rajendran Kavya who became a major at the age of 26, but now it’s a
22-year-old girl. She won by 2872 votes and was elected as
the Mayor of Jawahar Nagar Municipal Corporation
becoming the youngest.
If resilience is to be synonymous with a person's life, then
Deepa Malik would be a great example. When paralysis
struck her at 30, she had a family with two daughters to
raise. But she took her disability in her stride and went on
10. Deepa Malik to become the first Indian woman to win a medal at the
Paralympics. Today, she dons many hats—a Paralympic
athlete, a swimmer, a biker, a rally driver, a disability
activist, an entrepreneur and the President of the
Paralympics Committee of India.
She is the World’s Youngest author. He published her book
at the age of 7 only. Her book, ‘Happiness All Around’ is
mostly targeted towards children. She writes about the
11. Abhijita Gupta
positive things she feels and sees, whatever makes her
happy. The pieces are in the form of short stories and
poems. The little author is from Uttar Pradesh, India.
He completed his graduation at the age of only 12 and
completed his Ph.D. course when he was only 22. While
some of us even struggle to realize what we should move
12. Tathagat Avatar Tulsi forward with even when we’re 23. In 2009 he was tagged
as the youngest Ph.D. holder in India. He was also
mentioned in the Times Magazine with the title,
“Superteen.”

47
 1.5) Movies

Movie Name Category Synopsis

Already going through the usual adolescent trials,
Upper West Side teenager Lisa Cohen (Anna
Paquin) becomes even more screechily self-
righteous after witnessing a horrifying bus
Juvenile
Margaret accident for which she may bear some
Justice
responsibility. This emotional drama from
Kenneth Lonergan is a sharp-eyed portrait of a
juvenile convinced that her bad behavior is the
only way to make things right
Director Peter Brook doesn’t pull any punches
when it comes to adapting William Golding’s
novel of class-conscious ruthlessness. Stranded
Loss of on an island, British schoolboys replicate the
Lord of the Flies
INNOCENCE social hierarchy they knew back home; soon, a
primal pecking order starts to weed out the
weaklings, and the movie’s Darwinian metaphor
reaches its logical, shockingly brutal conclusion.
It is a great movie, seriously an inspiring slot. This
is the kind of movie that can be viewed by
everyone, regardless of [Link] beautifully captures
the life of a young boy ‘Ishaan’, a dyslexia child.
Every CHILD
Taare Zameen Par He was a great struggler in his life. The movie has
is Unique portrayed a beautiful lesson to everyone that
every child is different and has different needs in
this world.

FOLLOW It portrays a story of thousands of youth from

UDAAN YOUR Indian middle class families, who desire to break
PASSION free and follow their dreams passionately.
This is a peculiar, but an inspiring film indeed. It
depicts a story of a Rajasthani boy who looks up
Get INSPIRED
to President Kalam and finds the courage to
I AM KALAM From The
follow his dreams passionately.
Greats

It tells a tale of how the youth of the country

Be A manages to oppose the sitting government over
Rang De Basanti CHANGE the injustice and went on to uncover the corrupt
MAKER politics of the country, for which they ultimately
paid the price

48
 1.6) Poems

Happy those early days! when I

Shined in my angel infancy.
Before I understood this place
Appointed for my second race,
Or taught my soul to fancy aught
But a white, celestial thought;
When yet I had not walked above
A mile or two from my first love,
And looking back, at that short space,
Could see a glimpse of His bright face;
When on some gilded cloud or flower
My gazing soul would dwell an hour,
And in those weaker glories spy
Some shadows of eternity
- Henry Vaughan

Often I think of the beautiful town

That is seated by the sea;
Often in thought go up and down
The pleasant streets of that dear old town,
And my youth comes back to me.
And a verse of a Lapland song
Is haunting my memory still:
‘A boy’s will is the wind’s will,
And the thoughts of youth are long, long thoughts.’

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

’Tis death! and peace, indeed, is here,

And ease from shame, and rest from fear.
There’s nothing can dismarble now
The smoothness of that limpid brow.
But is a calm like this, in truth,
The crowning end of life and youth,
And when this boon rewards the dead,
Are all debts paid, has all been said?

- Matthew Arnold

49
 Verse, a breeze mid blossoms straying,
Where Hope clung feeding, like a bee—
Both were mine! Life went a-maying
With Nature, Hope, and Poesy,
When I was young!
- S T Coleridge

The Child’s faith is new –

Whole – like His Principle –
Wide – like the Sunrise
On fresh Eyes –
Never had a Doubt –
Laughs – at a Scruple –
Believes all sham
But Paradise
- Emily Dickinson

“Come away, O human child!

To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping
than you can understand.”
- William Butler Yeats

As a young citizen of India, armed with technology, knowledge and love for my nation, I
realize, small aims are a crime.
I will work and sweat for a great vision, the vision of transforming India into a developed
nation, powered by economic strength with value system
I am one of the citizens of the billion; Only the vision will ignite the billion souls.
It has entered into me ; The ignited soul compared to any resource is the most powerful
resource on the earth, above the earth and under the earth.
I will keep the lamp of knowledge burning to achieve the vision - Developed India
If we work and sweat for the great vision with ignited minds, the transformation leading to
the birth of vibrant developed India will happen.
I pray to the Almighty: "May the divine peace with beauty enter into our people; Happiness
and good health blossom in our bodies, minds and souls".

- APJ Abdul Kalam

50
 1.7) Books

The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

● This coming-of-age story became a cult classic because of its honest look at the lives
of everyday teenagers.
● Through the eyes of 15-year-old Charlie, the novel details the daily trials and
tribulations that many teenagers face, but it also tackles hefty and controversial topics,
like drug abuse, teen pregnancy, and suicide. It also focuses on the roles that
friendship, family, and love play in helping us through difficult times
A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier by Ishmael Beah
● This gripping memoir tells the true story of Ishmael Beah, who at the age of 12
became a boy soldier for the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) during a civil war
in Sierra Leone.
● Left with no options, he’s taken in by the rebel army, which brainwashes him and
forces him to take drugs and watch violent action movies. By 13, he’s become the
very thing he was running from: a violent, unrelenting killer. At the age of 16,
UNICEF intervenes, removing Beah from the army and giving him hope for a new
life.
● Teen readers will certainly be moved by Beah’s tale of survival and his ability to
overcome a tragic childhood to become an ambassador for peace.
THE HOBBIT : J.R.R. TOLKIEN
● It immerses readers into the world of Middle-earth, a magical realm of hobbits,
elves, dwarves, and more. In this classic book, Bilbo Baggins is summoned on a
great adventure that will change his life forever.
● With themes of friendship, loyalty, sacrifice, and more, The Hobbit is an adventure
waiting to happen for those willing to embark on the dangerous business of stepping
into the story.
THE DIARY OF A YOUNG GIRL: ANNE FRANK
● Both heartwarming and chilling, it provides a glimpse into history like few texts
can.
● The diary details life hidden in the “Secret Annex,” where Anne’s family and
friends stay tucked away, hoping the war would end (and not in Nazi Germany’s
favor). This heartrending classic will spark discussions of love, friendship, and
coming of age.
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
● Protagonist Holden Caulfield is a 16-year-old disaffected and alienated young teen
who flunks out of his latest boarding school for not “applying himself.”
● Even though it’s near the start of his holiday vacation, he’s not expected home for
a few days, so he decides to take a train to New York City and stay in a hotel for a
few days, where Holden finds himself grappling with a succession of adult-themed
situations.

51