By Syed Mustafa Ahmad
Youth is a stage of life that falls between the childhood and adulthood. This stage of life is a hub of creativity, energy, agility, etc. However, it is also the stage of emotional instability. For a nation to achieve the greatest things of a civilization, it is youth that can play a vibrant role in this endeavour.
India is proud of this demographic dividend; it has 62.5 percent of its population in the age group of 15-59 years. It shows that we are living in an age where the potentials of youth can be channelized into constructive ways.
However, it looks a distant dream, given the present situation in India. At the present moment, the whole world is engulfed by the COVID-19. The avenues for the youth are narrowing with each passing day. Socially, economically, politically, morally, etc, the youth of today find themselves isolated more than ever before. Same is the situation here. The youth of Kashmir also are full of talents, but lack the avenues to showcase them and realize their potential. They are in a hell; their past as well as the present is gloomy.
If we look into the recent past, the seven-months-long shutdown is an example that can easily make the picture clear about what our youth are going through. We are isolated. We have become strangers in our own homes. We are yet to come out of the trauma that befell us in August 2019 as is evident from the fact that we are still forced to do with the Internet that operates at snail’s pace.
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has made us feel the most brutal type of strangeness. We can’t meet each other. We can’t talk to each other. We can’t go into someone’s home. We can’t have social gatherings. Friend circles have moved to the virtual world. Social empathy is losing its grip. Mourning, being a social sympathy, has become a stigma with the arrival of the COVID-19. In this case, youth feel choked.
I can say for myself that being a youth, I am busy counting the cases of coronavirus. My constructive powers are wasted in something as futile as this, but have no idea how long it will continue to be like this.
Usually at the end of each dark tunnel there is some light. But in this part of the world, the tunnel has no end and the possibility of a light seems a utopian concept. Our lives are meaningless. We live for the sake of living. I, like others, have a habit of just passing or killing time, as I do not know how to utilise it to bring about a change that we cherish in our bruised hearts. The situation is same for my friends too. We feel that in this big world, we are alone. Is it so? If yes, why?
Politically also, we are at the receiving end. Since 1947, we have been listening the same story of referendum. We are taught that the youth of any society grow up into great leaders. However, here our political iconography is very por.
Corruption has defaced the pillars of democracy. We are taught that corruption is the most dreadful evil. In practical life, nothing works without it, particularly in the political sphere. An approach of a political leader means that your job is done. No need to worry. Merit loses its value. Dreams fall like a pack of cards.
Youths are frustrated when they see politics fooling the gullible people. The slogans of equality, liberty, fraternity, etc, are silenced with brute force. Human rights violations continue in varied manifestations, and no one is ever held accountable.
(syedmustafaahmad9@gmail.com)
