With the creation of every nation around the world, the nation carries his legacy of disputes and problems along with him, rather it be in terms of political, economical or geographical conflicts between the neighbour states and emerged from the decisions of their leaders. And with every born state borns the psyche of its citizens linked with their ancestor’s pain and hardship taken in the efforts to make circumstances that had contributed in emergence of that state. Same has happened with Kashmir and their youth. Youth in Kashmir are born and brought up under the heavy burden of instability in state and regional turmoil of choosing between personal interest or as responsible citizen-their nation. It is very well proven that youth have very distinctive role in countries development. India is leading in terms of youth population and if we explore our past youth played a very important role in Indian Freedom Struggle and since then it is well recognise that youth power is very essential in the development of India.
Kashmir is considered as the “Paradise on Earth”. As per estimates Kashmir present population is about 1 crore and those between the age group of 15 to 35 form 57% of the total population, considering them as youth. These comprise students, worker, farmers, students and unemployed. As evident from number these young people forms a large force of energetic, enthusiastic and full of zeal citizens. This is now high time for the nation to take corrective measures for ensuing that youth of Kashmir contributes into the nation building grid.
Youth has uncapped power and the whole world appreciated this. The youth represent our deeds, what we do, and what we perceive. the youth have such unchanneled power that no other sect of the society can match it. The new generation can play an important role in making a stronger and well united India. But, unfortunately for long, since independence, Kashmiri youth have felt neglected, rudderless and disillusioned. They need a sense of direction, responsibility and involvement.
Nation Building is a multidimensional concept, that involves the participation of its citizens from various walks of their life. Dedication and hard work of it’s citizen is must for a strong and powerful nation. However, there are various factors that works as deterrent against the efforts of a nation towards tapping the potential of it’s human resources. In Kashmir there are various stake holders in contributing towards uplift of such deterrent.
Kashmir is a young union territory with more than half of it’s population below the age of 35. This makes Kashmir an enormous power house, but not utilised efficiently because the economic development is not been able to generate enough opportunities to employ the growing work force. All over this the removal of Article 370 further reduce the locals share in employment basket due to unmatched competition with their peers coming from outside. Although government has started working towards the problem but the pace of development is too slow and need further push for the changes to be visible in citizens domain.
Due to continued violence and instability, it has made a deep impact among the local population, particularly the youth. In this adverse environment Kashmiri youth have grown up and faced tremendous stress. Our neighbour exploit this situation by carrying out well woven, effective propaganda to expand dissent and dissension. As evident many youths get swayed by this adverse publicity. While the army has played the role of protector, but adverse propaganda by enemy has led to the defence forces been seen by Kashmiris, particularly by youth, as an instrument of Government of India’s policy to curb freedom.
The primary requirement for a society conscience to evolve is education and further to become good citizen of state people needs to get good education. They need to learn relevant skills to do the job that their country’s economy needs. Youth at Kashmir also needs to know how to read, write, understand, think, discuss and analyse the issues related to their country and particularly their area faces. With quality education comes analytical thinking but due to unstable political and disturbance debacle from Pakistan, most of the time Kashmir population especially youths loose their touch with basic requirement like education. One can easily understand the pity condition by comparing it with the ill effect children in other parts of nation have faced due closing of educational institutions during COVID pandemic. What has happened for merely two years in terms of education and basic necessities in the whole world was and is happening here in Kashmir since so long.
The importance of quality education is evident from the skills its recipient acquired. A skillful workforce do act as exponential factor on development matrix of a nation. However, for continuous development to happen, it’s government responsibility to provide the Kashmiri youth with proper and unhindered facilities for getting equipped with the modern era knowledge. Youth is like spring of life. It’s the age of dreams and discoveries. They have the power and potential to transform the nation into a better place. They are the leaders and have the ability to lead their nation into the right direction.
Youth are fighters, they fight for their identity not only in society, but also for their equality, their homelessness, bullying, unemployment, poverty, exploitation and other problems which they face today due to present national situations. All the youths hope for a nation with full of opportunities, so that worthy among them can conquer those opportunities and become better individuals. To handle conflicts in positive way they need high morale and values.
Also, due to lot of criminal activities, the faith in government efforts have gone down for ethnic minorities and due to ill propaganda, most of the youths have join the Pakistan matrix of compromising the youths of Kashmir. Government needs to emphasis upon policies and needs to think upon its approach towards negotiating the Pakistan factor in compromising the conscience of youths of Kashmir.
