Let the youth be the youth

One of the most common refrains in public discourse in our context is “the future belongs to the youth.” However, there is a logical fallacy here. The youth of today will no longer be in their youth in the future. Therefore, it is wrong to say that the future belongs to the youth. Rather, the correct way to say is, “the present belongs to the youth.” The future will belong to the youth of the future. The world belongs to the youth and it is from the youth and not from the old that the ‘change’ we as a society seek and long for will come. Throughout human history, it has always been the youth who brought about epoch making changes in society in every field. The old, at the most, on most occasions guided and mentored the young. Almost all the important historical figures from around the world that we read of in the textbooks were people in their youth who accomplished extraordinary achievements. Unfortunately, in Naga society, the youth are still regarded as the irresponsible and inexperienced cohort who are not yet ready to shoulder responsibilities in life. The panacea to almost all of our problems as a society is for the youth to own up and lead from the front.

The main reason why young people in Naga society are not strong enough to shoulder the responsibilities lies in the family, the individual households, and their upbringing. After all, the family is a microcosm of the larger society. Every child in the family is pampered and raised in bubble wraps, and there are ‘children’ in their 40s living with their ‘loving’ parents because they are still too ‘young’ to venture out into the real world on their own! Parents who truly love their children should prepare them to face the real world out there so that by the time they reach their 20s, they will have become strong enough to deal with the pangs and toils of life on their own.

Perhaps we should redefine the meaning of youth. Language is a powerful tool and it shapes our thoughts and actions. When we refer to 40-year olds as young people, which we do in our society, we are normalizing an utter misconception. Where in the world do they consider a 40-year old grown up middle-aged person as young, except in Naga society? There is no universally agreed international definition of the youth age group. For statistical purposes, however, the United Nations defines ‘youth’ as those persons between the ages of 15 and 24 years. In India, the National Youth Policy 2014 considers the persons between the age group of 15 and 29 years as ‘youth’. Once a person reaches 30, he is entering the threshold of middle-age life. We must realign our definition of the term ‘youth’ with the rest of the world and make concrete steps to reinforce it. For instance, our youth organizations should not have members or be led by people who are in their 30s, 40s and 50s. Accordingly, a person beyond their 20s should not be considered a youth. This ‘change’ will automatically solve a lot of the problems that we are faced with as a society today.