A youth policy is there to help to create ideal conditions for opportunity, learning, and experience. These three things will then help youngsters to develop key skills, improve their competences, and increase their knowledge.
This Helps to Improve Society
A good youth policy will help the young people of society grow up to become adults that are able to integrate into whatever society they are in as well as play an important role in the labour market. It should ensure that adequate resources are also spent on other entertainment and activities on sports, partying and gambling. It should also create individuals who are agents of change. If a youth policy does not promote learning and integration and does not create young adults who want to change the future, then it is a policy that needs to be rethought.
Who Decides on the Youth Policy?
Each country has its own youth policy that is created by the government in charge at the time. It is safe to say that a country’s youth policy reflects the government’s current view about its young citizens.
Youth policies will often include everything that the government reckons will affect young people. For example, it could be gender equality, unemployment, health, social protection, education, and housing.
Let’s Take a Look at the Indian Youth Policy
In the Indian youth policy, youths are classified as those between the ages of 15 and 29. This particular age group makes up nearly 30% of the country’s population.
The youth policy aims to create a productive workforce that is able to contribute a lot to the country’s economic improvement. The areas that they are looking at specifically include the education system, entrepreneurship, skill development, sports, health, and social justice.
The Ministry of Youth and Sports is the authority that is responsible for all youths at the federal level. It oversees systems that are set in place for young people that are in an education, housing, volunteering field. It is also responsible for organising the National Youth Festival, which takes place every single year.
The Indian government believe that the youths of the country are fragmented and that there is not enough communication between those organisations that specialise in helping youths out. There is also not an easy way for the youths to communicate with the government, so that they can get any points that they might have across. They are continually looking for ways that they can improve this.
The national youth policy states that around 900 billion Indian rupees are spent on youths in India. This is equal to 2,710 Indian rupees per youth. A lot of this money goes towards improving the education system as this is something that is very important if the government wants to ensure that their young citizens become smart adults that can change society.
What Changes Have Come about Due to the Youth Policy?
The literacy of youths has increased from about 60% in the 80s all the way up to around 93% nowadays. Furthermore, adult literacy has increased by nearly ten percent since the beginning of the century.
There used to be a huge gender gap at school, but this has decreased dramatically due to the effort that been put in to ensure that females attend school. The educational gap between castes is something else that has decreased significantly.
However, it has not all been positive. For example, although there has been an improvement in the education that youths can receive, the unemployment level among youngsters is still a lot higher than the government would like. Statistics have shown that unemployment rates in those between the age of 15 and 29 (for both females and males in rural and urban areas) are a lot higher than the unemployment rates for the other age groups.