Speech on role of youth against corruption
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“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.
I have been closely associated with a faction of the youth of our country in the e-mode, thanks to the online essay contests conducted for the past 7 years through SIV-G (www.siv-g.org) involving the youth on topics such as integrity, good governance, fighting corruption etc. With this experience, I can say categorically that there are good numbers of youth in our country who are ready to shoulder greater responsibilities as Mr. Tata envisaged. May be the numbers are not good enough! At the same time, it is very difficult at this stage to explain to the youth that corruption is risky and does not pay, especially when examples of flourishing corrupt people have become common! The experience in involving the youth in forming the National Governance Corps (NGC) on the lines of NCC and NSS also gave a clue that the present day youth, driven by their parents’ pressure in most of the cases, ask the question ‘what is in it for me’ when they are expected to be good and honest citizens. Perhaps, the feel of ‘India first’ as Mr. Tata said, is hard to find.
This has lead to a situation where the youth today tries to relate everything to success, sadly in terms of monetary terms. First of all, one must be clear about what success is. Is it to be rich? To be a world icon? To be famous? To be rich and famous or to be a great visionary or what else? And…. One has to have a logic for thinking so. I only recall the story of Aristotle (I think). Once when he was sitting near the border of his village, a stranger who wanted to migrate to the village approached him and asked, ‘do you have thieves in your village?’ Aristotle replied, ‘yes’. Then the stranger asked, ‘are there people who fight with each other in your village?’ Aristotle said, ‘yes’. Then the stranger came out with another question, ‘are there people indulging in bad habits in your village?’ Aristotle replied again, ‘yes’. Hearing all these ‘yes’, the stranger decided to move to another place. After a while, another stranger approached Aristotle and asked, ‘do you have honest people in your village?’ Aristotle replied, ‘yes’. Then the stranger asked, ‘do you have people having concern for others in your village?’ Aristotle replied, ‘yes’. The next question from the stranger was ‘do you have people with good character in your village?’ Again the reply from Aristotle was a big ‘yes’. Then the stranger moved in to the village happily. So it is important for the youth to know what they want and more importantly, how they want what they want! In fact, one can not blame the Google for providing a bad search result when the ‘key search word’ itself was bad!
Therefore, it is up to the youth to look up for the role models and derive inspiration and keep their heads high. They should have higher ideals in life which goes beyond the self-centered boundary and the precinct of the narrow mind. The higher the goal, the greater the potency in action and fruitful results rather than those of lower ideals towards accumulation of wealth and indulgence in earthly pleasure. This is the first and foremost step the youth has to take in the fight against corruption at their personal level.
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.
I have been closely associated with a faction of the youth of our country in the e-mode, thanks to the online essay contests conducted for the past 7 years through SIV-G (www.siv-g.org) involving the youth on topics such as integrity, good governance, fighting corruption etc. With this experience, I can say categorically that there are good numbers of youth in our country who are ready to shoulder greater responsibilities as Mr. Tata envisaged. May be the numbers are not good enough! At the same time, it is very difficult at this stage to explain to the youth that corruption is risky and does not pay, especially when examples of flourishing corrupt people have become common! The experience in involving the youth in forming the National Governance Corps (NGC) on the lines of NCC and NSS also gave a clue that the present day youth, driven by their parents’ pressure in most of the cases, ask the question ‘what is in it for me’ when they are expected to be good and honest citizens. Perhaps, the feel of ‘India first’ as Mr. Tata said, is hard to find.
This has lead to a situation where the youth today tries to relate everything to success, sadly in terms of monetary terms. First of all, one must be clear about what success is. Is it to be rich? To be a world icon? To be famous? To be rich and famous or to be a great visionary or what else? And…. One has to have a logic for thinking so. I only recall the story of Aristotle (I think). Once when he was sitting near the border of his village, a stranger who wanted to migrate to the village approached him and asked, ‘do you have thieves in your village?’ Aristotle replied, ‘yes’. Then the stranger asked, ‘are there people who fight with each other in your village?’ Aristotle said, ‘yes’. Then the stranger came out with another question, ‘are there people indulging in bad habits in your village?’ Aristotle replied again, ‘yes’. Hearing all these ‘yes’, the stranger decided to move to another place. After a while, another stranger approached Aristotle and asked, ‘do you have honest people in your village?’ Aristotle replied, ‘yes’. Then the stranger asked, ‘do you have people having concern for others in your village?’ Aristotle replied, ‘yes’. The next question from the stranger was ‘do you have people with good character in your village?’ Again the reply from Aristotle was a big ‘yes’. Then the stranger moved in to the village happily. So it is important for the youth to know what they want and more importantly, how they want what they want! In fact, one can not blame the Google for providing a bad search result when the ‘key search word’ itself was bad!
Therefore, it is up to the youth to look up for the role models and derive inspiration and keep their heads high. They should have higher ideals in life which goes beyond the self-centered boundary and the precinct of the narrow mind. The higher the goal, the greater the potency in action and fruitful results rather than those of lower ideals towards accumulation of wealth and indulgence in earthly pleasure. This is the first and foremost step the youth has to take in the fight against corruption at their personal level.
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Youth in every nation can prove to be an effective counter to corruption. Since they are modern, latest ideas can be conceived of which can help decrease misbehavior and increase clarity. Some of the things where youth can contribute to -
Young people should lead to opening awareness. Many times degradation occurs because people are unaware of rules and hence gets stuck. It is nevertheless tough to mislead an aware person. Social media and the internet can be practiced for such crimes.
Young people should themselves display worthiness and not receptive to “advantages”. If they themselves do not demonstrate honesty, the entire action is connected to fail. Sadly, there are many young people who do understand and choose alternatives.
Youth can support in bringing clarity through technological discovery. If we reduce “discretional power” we are witnessing a less defective system. Indian railway reservation is a textbook example to illustrate how computerization brings exploitation underneath.
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