How Politics, Religion & a Failed Education System Let Down Indian Youth

Every nation loves waxing lyrical about its so-called "demographic dividend" that is supposed to propel it to global preeminence: millions of young, sprightly and energetic citizens fuelled by a sense of nationalistic pride and accomplishment. But energy without direction burns out just as quickly and leaves behind more friction than thrust. And today, the rosy prospect of millions of nation-building and innovative young people can be disheartening when we step out of the well-groomed confines of political and corporate slogans to actually see the realities on the ground.

A large chunk of our youth is currently unskilled, unemployed, and unproductive. Instead of being the vanguard of the national economy, they are increasingly becoming economic liabilities - living off their aged parents or on the government's dole just to eke out a living.

But before we label these youths as lazy, irresponsible and ungrateful, there is a deeper question we must ask ourselves: who created this environment in which these young people grew up?

The blame squarely falls on the four traditional pillars of society - an outdated education system, rapacious politicians, dogmatic religious preachers and the orthodox (and overbearing) families who have quietly conspired to drain an entire generation of its much-needed practicality and vigour.

The Classroom Factory

The skill crisis stems first from the classroom factory. For decades, our education system has churned out students trained to memorize, regurgitate, and obey - qualities that are more suited to the nineteenth-century industrial mills than twenty-first-century enterprises.

Fifteen to twenty years of hard memorization of textbook "fundamentals" later, students emerge with framed degrees only to find themselves completely lost when placed in a real-world office, workshop, or even a tech-startup environment. They don't have the basic communication and computer skills to send out a professional email or analyze some simple data. The huge disconnect between theoretical classroom knowledge and the demands of the marketplace leaves employers groaning over their inability to find suitable recruits while these students rot at home blaming the system for not finding them jobs. If an education system that rewards memorization, not analytical ability; rote-learning, not practical know-how; and obedience, not enterprise-spirit fails to churn out productive workers, then it is the system and not the students who are fundamentally unemployable.

Political Puppetry

What can millions of these frustrated, unemployed and unskilled students do? They go into the waiting arms of the political puppeteers.

Politicians have had the easiest time with this particular confluence of factors. Building sustainable jobs, infrastructure, and technical education requires a long-term view and commitment. Rallying these frustrated masses through their anger and sense of victimhood is a far easier way to garner votes in the short term.

Instead of encouraging young men and women to acquire coding skills, technical expertise and management know-how, politicians encourage them to become trolls, goons and unpaid choirboys. They are given a diet of consistently inflammatory speeches, empty slogans and parochial identities as a substitute for the hard work of acquiring a marketable skill set. The constant stoking of communal anger ensures that instead of looking inward to find their own inadequacies (like the lack of a marketable skill), these young people are encouraged to look outward at some shadowy conspiracy of "the other".

By keeping these frustrated masses in a permanently inflamed state, unskilled and untrained, the politicians can provide cheap and easily malleable manpower (for their construction projects or security details) that serves them well at the polling booth.

Religious Dogmatism

Divisive politics has the most synergistic relationship with orthodox religious dogma. While spirituality can offer young people a healthy ethical centre, fatalism from hardline preachers acts as a potent demotivator.

Too many religious leaders in the country actively encourage a fatalistic approach towards life. They advocate against questioning the status quo, scientific research, and individual initiative. Instead, young people are often browbeaten to accept their lot in life as God's will. Healthy skepticism is discouraged while superstitions are held up as virtues.

In an age where technological advances in artificial intelligence, genetics, and robotics require us to constantly question and innovate, this defeatist attitude saps the youth of their much-needed energies and inventiveness. Instead of looking forward to developing new ideas, technologies, and approaches to life, young people with fixed worldviews become fixated on looking back at their "roots" and "traditions".

The Orthodox Family

Finally, well-meaning but overbearing Orthodox families add their special seasoning to the mix at the breakfast table.

Honor before happiness and risk avoidance are the watchwords drilled into young people by their parents. This encourages them to go only into "safe" careers (read: government jobs) and avoid potentially stressful but innovative fields (such as entrepreneurship, technology or even the arts). The family is the single most important agent in the life of a young person, but too often it becomes a mill that grinds creativity into conformity. The encouragement to study law, medicine or engineering in order to get a regular government job is now a national curse. Why become a successful doctor when you can be a corrupt government medical officer with a far more assured income?

Perhaps more worryingly, traditional families often encourage emotional and economic dependence well into one's late twenties or even thirties. These young people are poorly equipped to deal with life's harsh realities, and low expectations lead to frequent despair. They are often unwilling to take risks or pursue their own interests because they have been programmed to expect their parents to look after them.

Way Forward

The situation is not pretty. A nation with a bloated, unproductive youth has more problems than it can shake a stick at. The much-vaunted demographic dividend has turned into a demographic disaster. To turn this around, here are four crucial steps:

1. Revamp the current education system that rewards rote learning and obedience. This can be done by doing away with traditional written exams and replacing them with more practical skills-based assessments. Redirect funds into apprenticeship programs and teach students digital and communication skills that will put them on the path to a sustainable career.
2. Encourage young people to look at jobs, healthcare, and education as important factors when choosing their political leaders. Emotional rhetoric and tribalism are not answers.
3. Promote a scientific temper and scepticism towards unsubstantiated dogmas both in the classroom and outside.
4. Let young people take risks in their personal lives so they can develop a sense of independence and responsibility.

Until this country stops viewing its youth as useful only as unpaid cannon-fodder and trophy-hangers, we will continue to turn our demographic dividend into a devastating deficit. We must stop demanding blind loyalty and obedience from the youth and start actually giving them the tools to build a functional future.