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EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: DR. KHALID MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

Business / Qatar Business

Youth will act as pillar for sustainable value creation, conference hears

Published: 22 Dec 2020 - 09:48 am | Last Updated: 07 Nov 2021 - 08:25 am

The Peninsula

Doha: FICCI – Tamil Nadu State Council with support of SRM Institute of Science and Technology hosted an online conference on December 19. The agenda for discussion was “Celebrating Youth Mission and Values”, which was attended by professors from the institute and college students.

Today, there are 1.2 billion young people aged 15 to 24 years, accounting for 16 per cent of the global population. The active engagement of youth in sustainable development efforts is central to achieving sustainable, inclusive and stable societies by the target date.

Young people are the innovators, creators, builders and leaders of the future. But they can transform the future only if they have skills, health, decision-making, and real choices in life. Today’s record 1.2 billion young people present an enormous opportunity to transform the future. The potential economic gains would be realised through a ‘demographic dividend’, which can occur when a county’s working age population is larger than the population that is dependent. In order to maximise the dividend, countries must ensure their young working-age populations are equipped to seize opportunities for jobs and other income-earning possibilities, the UN agency said.

In an independent study in 2012, the International Labor Organization revealed the following demographics: India has the largest population of youth in the entire world with 66 per cent of the total population in the country is below the age of 35. Nearly 40 per cent of the Indian population is aged 13 to 35 years. The median age in India in 2010 was just 25.2 years, compared to 34.5 years in China. With 356 million people between the age of 10-24 years, India has the world’s largest youth population.

Youth empowerment is an attitudinal, structural, and cultural process. The youth today feels an urge to speak up, to stand by its self and its beliefs and ideals. The youth today believe in the Freedom of Speech and Expression. They are making the world know that they are against injustice, inhumanity, social problems, racism, inequality, differentiation in religions, political issues, any many other things. The youth keep in mind that they are the future; this country and world will be passed onto them.