This article was originally published on 26th December, 2018.
I am a teenager, a commoner, a young Indian citizen and, perhaps, the most unimportant person in the whole of India.
But there will come a time when I will be an adult and I will have my name on one of the voters’ lists in India.
Unfortunately, it is only then that the government will approach me asking for a vote and promoting all of their so-called schemes.
Sometimes I get frustrated, I’m sure other youngsters do too.
We can’t vote, it is understood. We aren’t mature and developed enough. But are we not allowed to interact with the government, too. India is the largest youngest country. There are 243 million adolescents like me in India, and, on an average, less than 8% of the government schemes are indicated towards only us.
The government does not know what the youth wants from them. They do not care what we need because we don’t vote.
None of the governments have been successful in meeting the needs of the young Indians. They haven’t bothered to even make proper efforts to communicate with us.
Adolescents don’t always need a solution. Sometimes all I need is for someone to hear me out, in an open-minded manner.
I remind the government, we are the future. We are buoyant with ideas and we’re full of life and love. It is high time they realise that it is us who need so much more investment. Because it isn’t about one child, or a million, it is about our future and India’s growth and development.
All this, depends on how lovingly you nurture us, and make us into successful, compassionate, loving, encouraged, happy and independent citizens.
Little do the politicians know that who India desperately needs is a youngster who walks into a messy room of thoughts, fights, hatred and politics, and says, “I am going to fix this, we are going to fix this.”