Question

essay for collective action to fight corruption-role of youth

Answer 1

Youth is a spark which can either burn or lighten the country”, it is said. India and China are the countries having maximum youth population and suppose to enjoy the demographic dividend. However, this demographic dividend would become a demographic disaster, if the youth are not properly guided and their energy is not harnessed.

Well, today there is a tremendous pressure on the youth of our country in every field, to achieve, excel and take the country forward. When it comes to fighting corruption, everyone looks towards the youth(conveniently!?). There appears to be exasperation out of this expectation from the ‘not so youth’ and elderly, particularly in the area of fighting corruption. While every citizen has to play an effective role in the fight against corruption, the youth, by virtue of their very nature and in their own self interest, should go the extra mile in the fight against corruption.

In this direction, it is worthwhile recalling the call of Mr. Ratan Tata to the youth of our country sometime ago, when he said, “The youth of today will need to recognise that they shoulder a great responsibility. They will need to fight for rooting out corruption, for ensuring that no one is above the law and uniting the citizens of India as ‘India first’ instead of communal or geographic factions”.

Now, it is a question of taking responsibility and rooting out corruption. Where does the journey begin? In my opinion, the role of youth in the fight against corruption should happen at two levels. One, at their personal level and secondly, their professional level.




The next contribution that should come from the youth in the fight against corruption is at their professional level, immaterial whether they take up a job or become an entrepreneur. The youth should not allow themselves to become a money making machine. They should become leaders through their right action. Also, they should understand the limitation of technology in distinguishing between human values, human good, human need and human pleasure. In fact, few years ago, I was invited by the Hindu Businessline, Chennai to interact with a group of college students. I was asked to give five guiding principles which the youth can put in practice in the fight against corruption. This is what I had to say:

(i)Self disclosure – speak out or send out clear signals right at the beginning of your career that you stand by certain ethical values and demonstrate such values in your work and exhibit your honesty. Remember, honesty is doing the right thing even when no one is watching! For entrepreneurs, it is important to come out with a code of ethics while evolving the systems for the enterprise and equally important is to stand by those laid down codes;

(ii)Be sure that you do not become an object for blackmailing – do not do anything which gives room for others to blackmail;

(iii)Be fair and transparent in all your actions. Fairness comes when your action or decision does not make the other party to lose. Such fairness must be visible to others. If at all you had to violate any of the existing system and procedure, it has to be only to benefit the organisation and do it in a transparent way. Soon you will realise that such violations gets updated to the existing systems and procedures!

(iv)Learn how to call a spade a spade and learn to tell ‘no’. Do not be a ‘yes man’ and do not allow ‘yes man’ around you. Remember Tata once scrapped one of his project proposals after a board meeting when everyone said ‘yes’ to his proposal!

(v)All the above four principles can be put into practice only when you know yourself and believe in yourself. With this belief comes an absolute faith in God, no matter what, you are bound to succeed.

Ultimately, the truth lies in what Mr. P. Shankar, former CVC said in his message to SIV-G sometime ago in the context of role of youth to fight corruption, when he said, “We cannot and should not wait for a Mahatma to come and fight for this. Each of us should raise our voice and the resultant roar should frighten the evil forces of corruption.” He further said, “once the youth of the country recognize corruption as a weed to be destroyed from our midst and show themselves as determined to fight it and not be passive, we can, indeed, hope for a good future for the country.