By Kalyani Shastry:
Politics as we define is, “the art or science of government or governing, especially the governing of a political entity, such as a nation, and the administration and control of its internal & external affairs”. In a way, to explain it in easier words, we can say that politics basically is an act of  leading a nation or a part of nation and lead them towards a common development, at the same time rectifying the flaws in the already working system of the government.
Since the date our constitution got into action, it has been accepted by the people of our country that only aged people, as they were experienced, suited to administer the country. It was so because it was believed that they knew & understood the country & its requirement better than the youth. This further continued to work in the same pattern since then.
If we talk about main stream politics, initially, youth was not taken into consideration and gradually their mind sets changed in such a way that they stopped bothering about it. In earlier times, getting into the armed forces was taken as a thing to be proud of. People who did so were given a respectful name & image by the society. But now, as the time passed by, the youth started to get more attracted towards the glamour world. Everyone is running behind their share of fame and name. Interest or passion in today’s youth for doing something for the country seems to have lost. Even in present times approx. 29% men & 40% women who are eligible to cast their votes do not cast votes.
In 2004, 50% of the Indian population was aged 30 years or younger; however, only 35 out of 543 Lok Sabha members (6%) were aged under 35. Nevertheless, a World Values Survey conducted by the World Bank showed that the proportion of people aged 18—24 who identified themselves as “very” or “rather” interested in politics was around 50%, an increase of 15% since 1990. The oldies, who are chosen to perform their duties of public services by making the rules and getting them into action, so that a system of proper functioning of the government can be carried out, these people work on their pre-set traditional patterns, which results in a failure at times when there is a need for some snap decisions to be taken. So, at the times when a strict legal action was suppose to be taken against the rapists of a young girl, the ministers instead gave statements like- ‘girls get raped because they wear provocative clothes.’
The youth comes up with a number of complains, if we ask them about present political scenario. Regarding the field of politics, usually a perception exists, that it is not suited to educated people. But again the statistics explain that even if half of the governing powers comes under control of sensible educated people, then a combined effort of old experienced people as well as young educated minds would increase the development rates to 40%. Not just talking about Indian politics but also matters like inter country business or maintaining relations with other nations, it is important for the youth to take participation in it as they can think above the traditional ways and easily adapt the modern ways of development.
As Kiren Bedi once mentioned in one of her interviews that “the youth must enter politics, but only considering it as a public service & not for the sake of powers.” Many initiatives are taken in schools to develop interest among students to enter Indian politics & to change the pre-set conceptions about politics not being suitable for educated people is being changed by many school students who take up the idea of politics as their career & help promoting this cause.
In near future, if these initiatives take up a larger shape, then we would surely be able to see some new young ministers who would learn from the experiences of their seniors & at the same time would enhance the vision of developing India with their dedication and passion towards building up a better India.