{"id":118079,"date":"2021-07-12T17:44:24","date_gmt":"2021-07-12T12:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=118079"},"modified":"2021-07-12T17:44:24","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T12:14:24","slug":"tapping-on-the-potential-of-the-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tapping-on-the-potential-of-the-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Tapping on the potential of the youth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Source: \u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/epaper.thehindu.com\/Home\/ShareArticle?OrgId=GT68OP5UN.1&amp;imageview=0\">The Hindu<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Relevance<\/strong>: This article explains the challenges in reaping the benefit of demographic dividend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Synopsis: <\/strong>India needs to focus on safeguarding young people\u2019s well-being because India\u2019s welfare is dependent on them.<\/p>\n<h5><strong>Background:<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>World Population Day is marked on July 11 every year to focus attention on the importance of population-related issues.<\/li>\n<li>It was first observed by the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/un-environment-programme-unep\/\">United Nations Development Programme<\/a> (UNDP)<\/strong> in 1989.<\/li>\n<li>It aims to promote sustainable ways to safeguard each life.<\/li>\n<li>As per UNDP report and the Lancet, India will stabilize its population 12 years earlier than expected.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Therefore, <strong>India has lesser time to leverage the \u2018demographic dividend\u2019.<\/strong><\/p>\n<h5><strong>Why India needs to focus on demographic dividend?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li>Firstly, India\u2019s \u2018demographic dividend\u2019 represents the <strong>potential for economic growth<\/strong>. However, transforming this potential into reality requires adolescents and youth to be healthy and well-educated.\n<ul>\n<li>At 253 million<strong>, India\u2019s adolescent population is among the largest. <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>The median age of the population is less than 30 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Secondly, India\u2019s <strong>underfunded education system<\/strong> is inadequately equipped to provide the skills to young people.\n<ul>\n<li>According to the World Bank, public expenditure on education constituted 4.4% of GDP in 2019 and only 3.4% of GDP in 2020.<\/li>\n<li>India stands <strong>62nd in terms of public expenditure per student<\/strong>, and fares badly in quality of education measures such as student-teacher ratios.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Thirdly, <strong>COVID-19 has worsened the state of education<\/strong>. School closures have a serious impact on the lives and mental well-being of children.\n<ul>\n<li>In India, more than 32 crore students have been affected by the nationwide lockdown due to COVID-19.<\/li>\n<li>Of these, about 15.8 crores are female. Many of those who have dropped out are unlikely to go back to school.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Fourth, the impact of the <strong>pandemic on adolescents<\/strong> has been severe, especially the <strong>mental well-being.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>17% of young people likely to be suffered from <strong>anxiety and depression.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lastly, <\/strong>increased poverty levels during the pandemic may result in early marriages of girls in India and gender violence.\n<ul>\n<li>Child marriage as a strategy to address household poverty has been noted in India in general.<\/li>\n<li>Adolescent girls are at high risk, given their vulnerability to abuse and trafficking, especially if primary caregivers fall ill or die.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h5><strong>What needs to be done?<\/strong><\/h5>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Allow a decentralised approach<\/strong> where district-level officials may reopen schools in a phased manner based on local COVID-19 transmission rates.\n<ul>\n<li>In <strong>Odisha, for example, community schools<\/strong> have re-opened in some areas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Prioritising the vaccination<\/strong> of teachers and school support staff with a mix of <strong>online and offline<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Collaborative actions and better inter-sectoral collaboration<\/strong> by key ministries, government agencies, and civil society are needed.\n<ul>\n<li>The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare must collaborate with the Education Ministry to disseminate key information to help adolescents safeguard their health and ability to learn.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Teachers can work as volunteers<\/strong> to collaborate with frontline health workers to distribute sanitary napkins to girls.<\/li>\n<li>The Health and Education Ministries should strengthen outreach via existing helplines and by enabling conversations on critical issues regarding reproductive and sexual health.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Improved nutrition benefits learning. <\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>It provides an incentive for parents to send their children to school on the assurance of one nutritious meal.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Need to learn from <strong>East Asia\u2019s economic miracle of 1965-1990.<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>East Asian countries developed social, economic, and political institutions and policies that allowed them to realise the growth potential created by the transition.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>That is why India needs to generate a virtuous cycle with healthier and educated young adults contributing to secure India\u2019s future.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Source: \u00a0The Hindu Relevance: This article explains the challenges in reaping the benefit of demographic dividend. Synopsis: India needs to focus on safeguarding young people\u2019s well-being because India\u2019s welfare is dependent on them. Background: World Population Day is marked on July 11 every year to focus attention on the importance of population-related issues. It was&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/tapping-on-the-potential-of-the-youth\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Tapping on the potential of the youth<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10316,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-118079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10316"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118079\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}