India, a country with a population of 136 crore people has a strong, active and energetic youth community. Each one of us has dreams, living in a diverse country which is starstruck by Bollywood limelight and inspired by young civil servants and pilots, we all have an entire spectrum of goals to accomplish.
As a teenager, I was told by my father that our country has a cut-throat competition. That in order to succeed, I’ll have to work immensely hard to establish myself as a successful person in this race to become number one. There is no substitute for hard work and so we continue to strive against all the odds.
Every individual fights their own little battle, for some, it’s the society, for others it is their family and for some little girls across the globe, it is the terrorists.
“Many Students In India Fight Poverty, Ambitious Young Girls And Women Smash Patriarchy And Their Creative Minds Conquer Hypocrisy”
As medical students holding the scalpel pledge to never discriminate amongst their patients and serve humanity for the rest of their lives, a young solider picks up the gun to save their countrymen. We might have different purposes to serve, a different perspective to life, but it is this difference which makes us human, which makes life to exist on Earth.
The youth of my country stands divided today when it comes to politics, it is the ideology and the vision for a developed nation, that the university students have come down to the roads, against each other, fighting for their rights, protecting their liberty and the fundamental right to live.
It is for these rights that the youth today extraordinarily fights an elected government in the largest democracy of the world. To build a nation where their dreams and ambitions are no longer caged in poverty, illiteracy and inequality. And it is for these rights that a young girl across the border was shot in broad daylight, only to see her back stronger and fearless than ever before.
Political Inclinations, The Caste System, Social Backgrounds, Communal Tensions And Financial Constraints Divide Us But We Are All United In The Hope For A Better, Safer, Inclusive Future
What makes all of us stand together is our hope that someday in the future there will be no more battles fought for our mere rights, the right to live a normal life, the right to live happily, the right to make our dreams turn into reality.
Our generation today is full of thoughts, ideas and righteous spirit waiting for the right opportunity. I see young girls wanting to join the combat role in the army and young boys wanting to live freely without the burden of being manly and a responsible family head. After being a part of an unhealthy competitive race for an entrance exam, the positive thing about it I realized is that the aspirants have an unbreakable spirit to achieve their goal regardless of the continuous failures.
Their ambitions refuse to settle for anything less than they have dreamed of, ready to give in whatsoever it takes, they wake up every morning with new hope as bright as the sun. It is saddening that their efforts might not be acknowledged after a 3-hour examination and the 15 lakh students would go hopeless as the rest of 1 lakh students finally reach their long-awaited goal. It is this unpleasant ratio that keeps countless young minds dejected and makes them question their calibre.
Coming in terms with the current situation of our society, understating the major setbacks we are facing today and hoping to see a positive change against all the odds, I, as a citizen of this country want every gift to get an equal opportunity, a fair chance to fulfil our dreams, to get what we deserve and not what the system reserves.
A country where competitive exams are no longer unhealthy and we focus more on collaboration and communication. The unanimous agreement to not give up on anything that protects our liberty and abandon everything that disrupts our equality.
I wish to see every gift being equally respected and acknowledged, an entrepreneur getting the same social appreciation as a doctor, the artists being treated as equally as the officers. A society where the youth is not silenced on speaking their minds and women are equally welcomed in every field of work, where dissent is taken as disagreement and not disrespect, where opposing ideas does not mean hating the other person and different religions bring in secular faith and not communal hatred.
A Nation Where Lynching Or Bombing Innocent People And Demolishing Religious Structures, Irrespective Of The Community, Is Not Celebrated
As the educated crowd, I truly hope that we never misuse our knowledge against humanity and keep the peace of the world. We the youth might be twenty per cent of the population but we are one hundred per cent of the future.
I may no longer have faith in the systems but I do have faith in people. It is us who decide what this world would be like in the future and how it will treat the generations to come. What a terrorist is afraid of is not one educated Malala but the thousands of other girls following her in accordance who would no longer believe in the theory of anyone or anything superior to humanity, it is that crowd of brave young souls that scares them. Let no evil power take away this courage to find our happiness, our goals, our purpose to live this one and only life.
Together we aim to create a world where dreams take off without the burden of reality. Thousands of us vow to work for this change and I hope for these solemn vows to be kept throughout the whole Earth, beneath the Sun.