This year’s International Youth Day theme – “Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World”, reiterates one the potential of youth to bring transformative change and two it is a call for collective action towards fostering a culture of youth empowerment, agency building, upskilling and instilling green skills to create more environmentally conscious, socially responsible and resilient nation.

Youth are the most important and dynamic segment of the population in any country. And India is going through a demographic window of opportunity, a “youth bulge”. India has world’s largest share of young people i.e.>300 million young people and will continue for the next 20 years.

For any nation, these young people are driving force for progress, building culture of innovation, entrepreneurship, diversity and inclusion. They are the leaders for the upcoming times which is advancing towards green transition. Therefore, todays and tomorrow’s youth have an immense role and potential to transform & transition into to a greener world through sustainable development. A successful transition towards a greener world will depend on the development of green skills in the young population. Green skills are “knowledge, abilities, values and attitudes needed to live in, develop and support a sustainable and resource-efficient society”.

This year’s International Youth Day theme – “Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World”, reiterates one the potential of youth to bring transformative change and two it is a call for collective action towards fostering a culture of youth empowerment, agency building, upskilling and instilling green skills to create more environmentally conscious, socially responsible and resilient nation.

For channelising youth brigade’s transformative power towards sustainable world, comprehensive understanding for sustainable development, circular economy with green curriculum being interspersed is imperative. The latest national education policy 2020 (NEP) has similar scope yet better clarity specific to the topic of sustainable development will help in strengthening the agenda of green transition.

Learning should not be limited to theoretical and curriculum-based lectures rather better opportunities which bring practical exposure and hands on experience-based learning shall be focussed such as projects, workshops, training, and interactive pedagogy methods. Initiatives like plantation drive, beach clean drive, reuse-recycle campaign etc shall go beyond single point intervention to include environment ethics practice in day-to-day life.

Since, youth population offers both a workforce as well as a demand generator / market hence building youth life skills will help them to act as effective advocates for concepts like sustainable architecture, renewable energy solution, green technology, circular economy, food waste reduction, organic farming, responsible land use, eco-friendly product design and practices while contributing towards green transition and sustainable development.

However while we chalk out and design programs for youth empowerment, studies have shown that socio cultural norms including marital status, gender, age or family background act as barrier and limits certain groups from making informed decisions related to higher and specialised education, job, career progression, life plan and goals etc. This indicates disproportionate investment in human capital which further hints on losing the opportunity of unique demographic advantage. This underpins the role of civil society along with other stakeholders like experts, leaders, govt. authorities, mentors and parents: i) to effectively integrate youth in society while removing barriers & biasness; ii) ensuring youth empowerment and education is carried along with diversity and inclusion at its centre and growth is shared by all sections of the society.

With all these efforts of youth building and channelising their potential, equal efforts and focus is needed to absorb and utilise their energy, skills and capacity while engaging them in economic activities. Existing GoI’s key steps in this direction such as Start Up India Initiative; Skill India Mission; dedicated Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship; industry-led sector skills councils, Stand Up India, Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana (PMMY) to support small business and entrepreneurs and improved Industrial Training Institutes have successfully created the ecosystem which boost job creation and economic growth. Yet studies have shown that there is lack of awareness regarding available government-run skill development programmes along with doubt and uncertainty about it’s user friendliness, quality, relevance and outcome. There is also a paradoxical situation of high youth unemployment yet issues of inadequately skilled workforce.

These gaps highlight the need for attention and focussed efforts towards- one, enhancing uptake of the schemes and initiatives will be helpful. Two, continued updating of initiatives and curation of strategies to address the dissent or discord between youth preferences and market opportunities and generating green jobs (jobs that directly have a positive impact on the planet, and contribute to the overall environmental welfare)will be instrumental. And third, more active and result oriented collaborations to be done for making existing initiatives more demand driven and compatible with industry requirements. Collaborative impetus at all levels including Govt, entities, private agencies, civil societies, academicians, industry and sectoral experts, training and skilling institutes and youth too is not negotiable to shift towards an environmentally sustainable and climate-friendly world.

Holistic approach for youth empowerment and capacitating towards green transition is critical not only for responding to the global climate crisis but also for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Contribution through focussed and sustained efforts at all possible levels to build a resilient and sustainable army of Indian youth to drive the nation towards SDG fulfilment will go a long way. Let’s come together to harness the nation’s youthful demographic in establishing India as a global power.

https://www.financialexpress.com/business/defence-indian-youth-brigade-green-transition-3212377/