Every industry in our country promotes young talent. We are always inspired by people who achieve success early on in their life. But when we consider politics as a profession, we hardly see young leaders! Statistically, India has a majority of young population. But we have very few political leaders from that section of the population. One of the reasons for this is probably the lack of faith of youth in the existing political culture of the country. Perhaps they believe that this culture will never let them see or bring the change they want.
There is also this notion that politics as a career is not for the educated or the young. Also, how do we forget the implicit custom of political leaders holding on to their seats till their descendants take over? Young politicians are also seldom given the chance to be front runners, despite having the required vision and potential.
History dwells on cases where the youth of a country played a vital role in bringing political transitions like in case of Middle East or Indonesia. But once the transition phase is gone and stability sinks in, the traditional corrupted politicians come back to power.
While the rest of the world still promotes young leadership in politics, India seems to have an exclusive perspective. Data shows that in 2014, the Indian Parliament had only 12 Members of Parliament under the age of 30 and the average age of leaders was above 50. An organization called Young India Foundation is in fact leading an Age of Candidacy campaign seeking reduction in the age of political candidacy below 25.
A study on the similar political scenario in Africa suggested that in order to include more young people in politics, they should be facilitated with participation in electoral and consultation process. Even if we do that I do not think that is going to bring a lot of change.
I think like all big revolutions, to start with, there should be political renaissance among the youth. We ought to understand that no matter how bad the situation is, we need to participate in the affairs of the country. We need to bring in changes in the country that we deserve.