Preparing Youth for the VUCA World we live in

Singapore, South Korea and Israel are some of the countries with policy to get male citizens to serve a period of compulsory service in the uniformed services. In Israel its mandatory for women too. Most of the young adults in these countries serve two to three years around the age of 18 as trainees. Apart from obvious benefits of military training, these youth have been observed to pick up the traits of Tenacity of Purpose in Performing Missions and Drive to Victory, Responsibility, Credibility, Professionalism, Discipline, Comradeship, and Sense of Mission. Any country with youth imbibed with such wonderful traits is better prepared for the VUCA world we live in, and are going to be successful against all odds, which we have seen in these countries.

While choosing between a government job that offers stability or a private job that opens avenues of opportunities, may still be a question haunting many young minds, one fact remains that now job security carries insignificant meaning as the enterprising young lot spends time and effort to explore career avenues with acquired substance in the form of money, experience, exposure and performance. Youth is engaging in highly competitive and rewarding work culture and atmosphere caring a little for post retirement benefits, as can be seen in the rising craze for startups, unicorns, innovations, sports etc.

Till now, the main advantages driving the youth from especially middle and lower economic strata of the society for the central government Jobs are- relatively good salary based upon the profile of the job and qualifications of the claimants, allowances, job and social security, insurance cover, leaves, vacations, housing benefits, health and other benefits. However, things have changed with scores of funding opportunities available.

Hence, ‘Agnipath’- an attractive and transformative defence recruitment scheme of the Government of India has been designed to give lakhs of youth of the country, not just one career avenue or chance but quite a few. Being an essential part of the future-ready soldier, they are set to stand out in crowd and after four years of service with their changed attitude, skills, discipline, sense of timing and responsibilities. The new system is sure to attract even those who want to stay with the armed forces only for a few years out of the love for the nation and then want to do something else of their choice with a different aptitude, attitude and perspective towards life, society and nation building. One can also expect a lot of defence-related startups mushrooming 3-4 years from now across the country, taking the defence ecosystem to hit new heights.

The new scheme envisions creating a youthful profile of the Armed forces with newer technologies with being able to use the whole range of weapons and communication devices used across the world by the most advanced armies of the world. Strengthening the very connect between society and the military does serve many a purpose and the government wants to bring the armed forces closer to the people in general. 75% of the Agniveers going to the society after serving 4 years in the army, will also take with themselves the ideals and ideas for the country and society, discipline, serving tendencies, physical, mental and emotional prowess that the armed forces stand for.

The definition of Employment is changing tones at a dynamic rate across the globe. Youth across the world has left the conventional way of finding a set-patterned occupation behind and is engaging in opportunities which are tech-oriented, varied and skill-based in a global setting where different sectors are both inter-mingled and unexplored. India is one of the countries where the pace of change is much higher because of regional, cultural and religious diversity. Unlike earlier, when only academic qualifications and government jobs occupied the center stage, now, major thrust is laid on certain essential skills like ambition, entrepreneurial mindset even in a job, willingness to continuously learn and evolve, soft-skills and communication, ability to listen and assert, confidence, perseverance and risk taking ability among others to succeed in both life and profession.

Worrying trend of mental health among adolescent

Texas shooting in the USA, killing 19 children among 21 in a primary school attack by an 18 year boy, has again raised the rising concerns of mental health among adolescents. Experts from across the globe say- it would be oversimplification to say that such shootings happen because of the lax gun laws, which allow even an 18-year-old to buy a long automatic gun, but rather it is a worsening psychological condition forcing adolescents to go for a shooting spree.

Corroborating the popular concerns, WHO says, globally, one in seven 10-19-year-olds experiences a mental disorder, accounting for around 13% of the global burden of disease in this age group. However, the majority of them do not seek help or receive care, rather they remain unrecognized and untreated. Depression, anxiety, behavioural disorders and suicidal tendencies are fast rising among adolescents.

The consequences of such adolescent mental health conditions extend to adulthood, impairing both physical and mental health and limiting opportunities to lead a fulfilling life as adults, besides creating upheavals in society. According to the WHO, if we do not act immediately, by 2030 depression will be the leading illness worldwide.

Multiple factors affect mental health. Childhood and adolescence are critical stages of life for mental health. During this formative time, rapid physical, emotional and social changes take place. Children and adolescents acquire cognitive and social-emotional skills that shape their future mental health and are important for assuming adult roles in society. However, exposure to poverty, abuse, violence, educational difficulties, bullying, harsh parenting, mental illness of parents, violence in the family, substance use, heavy episodic drinking, use of tobacco and cannabis, severe and socioeconomic problems and apathy of the system, family and society can make adolescents vulnerable to mental health problems.

Moreover, some adolescents are at greater risk of mental health conditions due to their living conditions, stigma, discrimination or exclusion, or lack of access to quality support system and services. The solutions, besides approaching expert medical practioners/clinical psychologists, include parents or guardians listening to their children and taking their feelings seriously, staying away from passing negative feelings and continuous acrimony, talking through the problem in order to work out the best way to tackle it, generate awareness among masses about mental illnesses.

India is also not immune to this crisis of enormous magnitude. According to India’s latest National Mental Health Survey, an estimated 150 million people across the country are in need of mental health care interventions. In India, lack of awareness, stigma related to mental disorders, delayed treatment-seeking behavior, lack of low-cost diagnostic tests and limited access and availability to easily available treatment further aggravate the problem.

However, the Government of India is implementing the District Mental Health Programme (DMHP) under NMHP in 704 districts of the country. To generate awareness among masses about mental illnesses, information, education and communication (IEC) activities are an integral part of the NMHP.

Tackling the Menace of Substance Abuse

The world needs to address the importance of developing a healthy mindset with a sense of urgency now as cases of depressions, liquor intake, and especially ‘Substance Abuse’ rise exponentially across the globe. Any material in nature which possesses physical properties is called a substance. However, things are not as simple as that. Here, we are discussing the substances that have the potential to make an abnormal change to body and mind in the guise of giving a pleasurable high. These substances are something which falsely claim to ease our stress or help avoid real problems of life. In common parlance, substances or drugs are termed as psychoactive substances, which when taken, affect mental processes like – perception, consciousness, mood and emotions. Substance abuse is a menace causing a great deal of trouble to the real world amid a figment of an unreal world. The threat can be perceived from the fact that in India, 272 districts of the country have been found to be vulnerable based on the data available from various sources.

According to the World Drug Report 2021, globally around 27.5 million people used drugs last year and over 3.6 million people suffered from drug use disorders during the period. The latest global estimates also say- about 5.5% of the people between 15 and 64 years of age used drugs at least once in 2020 (perhaps due to Covid-induced stress). This is the reason why production, distribution, sale or non-medical use of many psychoactive drugs are either strictly controlled or prohibited outside legally sanctioned channels by law in several countries. WHO says, around 5 lakh deaths annually are attributed to drug use with 3,50,000 male and 1,50,000 female deaths.

The sharp rise in substance abuse may be attributed to various factors like fast changing cultural values, breaking down of the social and family system where everyone feels free to do whatever he/she wants, fierce competition in the fields of education and employment and declining support systems or supportive bonds for especially adolescents. However, there is little denying the fact that substance abuse causes long standing mental, physical and emotional problems to people of all age and a damage to the larger society which is in a case irreparable. Substances include Heroin, Cocaine, Marijuana among others, which are highly unhealthy. The use of psychoactive drugs may cause an increase in morbidity and mortality in individuals. They also cause upheavals in personal, family, social, educational and professional life. Its social and economic coats are unimaginable as drug addicts are normally low in productivity and cause big disruptions in family, social and economic life. They also face increased health care expenditure which further affects their economic well being.

Seeing a sharp rise in substance abuse cases, Indian government has also taken several policy measures and initiatives. The ‘Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan’ or a ‘Drugs-Free India Campaign’ was flagged off on 15th August, 2020 across vulnerable 272 districts of the country. Ministry of Health is running a National ‘Drug De-Addiction Programme (DDAP)’ with the objectives to provide affordable, easily accessible and evidence-based treatment for all substance use disorders. The ministry has also released the ‘Standard Treatment Guidelines for the Management of Substance Use Disorders and Behavioural Addictions’. National Fund for Control of Drug Abuse has been created to meet the expenditure incurred in connection with combating illicit traffic in Narcotic Drugs, rehabilitating addicts and educating public against drug abuse, etc. Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment implemented National Action Plan for Drug Demand Reduction (NAPDDR), under which financial assistance is provided to state governments/UT for preventive education and awareness generation, livelihood support of ex-drug addicts, programmes for drug demand reduction, etc. The ministry also provides financial support for setting up of District De-addiction Centre (DDAC).

A healthy society needs health practices and for that all societal forces need to roped in with the responsibility to make people, especially the youth aware of the evil effects of substance abuse. Drugs may give a rush of good feelings in the beginning, but when the effects wear off, everything slows down for one good chunk of population, people who could have proven to be a lot beneficial for the country otherwise.

Movement for Exam Stress Management

‘Pariksha Pe Charcha’ is part of the larger movement – ‘Exam Warriors’ – led by the Prime Minister to create a stress-free atmosphere for youngsters by bringing together students, parents, teachers and the society to foster an environment where the unique individuality of each child is celebrated fully. The event is preceded by ‘Pradhan Mantri – Mentorships’ Scheme for Young writers (PM-YUVA), a creative programme to further ignite their passion for excellence. It was organized by the Ministry of Education for young writers up to the age of 30 years. For the first time, Raj Bhawans of all the states and UTs had also been connected virtually in the programme and the selected students were awarded with the special kits by the state Governors.

Education is a subject of concurrent list. In a unique departure from the past, PM Modi has often been seen stressing on the need to leverage co-operative & competitive federalism to achieve all round growth. And mass events like Pariksha Pe Charcha, PM’s direct interaction with winners of Bal Puruskar awards, and his messages to students through Exam warriors book and often through his monthly radio program Mann Ki Baat, are connecting government and administration with young minds and seekers at grass-root level. These efforts are resulting in enormous churning in terms of strengthening the role of the centre and its efforts of heading towards ‘Cooperative Federalism’, centre’s new vision which aims to empower different states equally with boost to Federalism.

India is a diverse country and is rightly focussing on nurturing the unique talent and skill-development and entrepreneurship among youth as it also tries to make people aware of unknown leverages they have but fail to recognise, like the power of language, culture, food, local history and speciality, hyperlocal tourism, power of regional arts, traditional dances and games, local traditions and regional attractions, etc. and building on it in the advanced digital way. NEP 2020 offers a plethora of such opportunities as it focuses on developing both soft skills and technological engagement and learning. PM Modi stressed on the importance of skill along with knowledge, highlighting why skilling has been included as a part of the National Education Policy. He also underlined the flexibility provided by NEP in the choice of subjects, saying proper implementation of NEP will open up new avenues in life and career. He urged schools all over the country to find new ways to implement the new technologies invented by the students.

When PM says, ‘Appear for the exams in a festive mood without any stress and treat technology as an opportunity, not as a challenge”, he doesn’t limit himself to just guiding lakhs of students for their immediate examinations, but try to prepare them for life by injecting into them elements of flexibility, adaptability, acceptance and a clear realization of life. It’s a fact, substantiated by the experts from top notch health institutions that emotional quotient is the key to success in this very fast changing age. Being emotionally healthy promotes productivity and effectiveness and plays an important part in maintaining cordial relationships with all kinds of forces touching upon our life, which is crucial for the all round development of the children. Good mental health helps us cope up with adversity which has amply been reflected by Covid-19.

Clearly, the Prime Minister in a stretch addressed several issues which have far reaching ramifications for the education, social, psychological and economic life of crores of people including students. He also referred to the new educational policy policy at the same time. When he says, “Daughter is the strength of the family. What can be better than seeing our nari shakti excel in different sectors of life”, he gives out a strong message for their educational and economic empowerment, which is a must for the formation of a knowledge based 21st century economy and society.

Planning for a VUCA World?

VUCA had become part of our lexicon for quite some time, but Covid has brought it to the realisation that the world has truly become volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. In this context, the National response mechanism for short term crisis management, as well as long term strategy formulation, is under scrutiny across the globe. The traditional sequence of problem formulation, detailed planning and bureaucratic way of implementing the steps was put to test, and it failed miserably during the pandemic. What worked though, can be termed as Agile model, where a corridor with feedback based course correction mechanism is the target instead of a rigid set goal.

Indian Economy has shown strong resilience and has bounced back from the crisis of COVID-19, yet the recovery has not been uniform across all sectors of the economy and definitely not across demographics. Various courses have been completed without even meeting teachers, trainers, peer groups, research target groups etc. Poor families who have lost a working member are going to need help from younger members, esp. young girl child to take care of chores at the cost of going to school.

To add to the micro-economic level issues, the pandemic induced shifts in technology, supply-chain dynamics, and generic consumption pattern changes are increasing the uncertainty.

What is of help though is the feasibility of real-time or near real-time feedback mechanism using the latest tech developments. This is where the emphasis on reinforcing the digital economy is critical as done in Budget 2022. Starting from Digital University to ease the learning of basic skills to advanced technologies, to the concept of using satellites to ascertain the extent of rural vs urban inhabitants, agri vs other usage of the land, environmental impact of infrastructure development and other activities, almost an end-to-end use cases have been identified for deeper engagement of citizenry. An important aspect is to keep a learning attitude and positive mindset to encourage one and all to strive for a better future.

 

Stressful Children in Digital Era


10 year old Pixie Curtis is an Australian entrepreneur with two profit-making businesses and is said to be retiring as a millionaire by the time she is 15. On the other hand, the youngsters who created apps like Bulli Bai and Sulli Deals have been arrested by police. Latin word for finger and toe is digitus, which transformed into digitalis and around 15th century the word digital came into being. But its wider meaning is in reference to signals or data which are expressed as a series of digits 0 and 1. Digital is about dealing with extremes, may be at extremes – and it warrants handling with care, esp for Gen Alpha.

Being an adolescent in the digital age has its risks and rewards. An alarmed, pandemic-struck world could prevent educational collapses mainly because of the online learning arrangements. But with this, parents, tutors and educational institutions have also unlocked a new dimension of cyber exposure for young learners, barely knowing what impressions it can carve, on behaviours and perspectives. Parents of these times who have handled the global panic colossally, are hard pressed to deal with the fact that the more time young ones spend on digital gadgets, lot more is also getting funnelled to non-educational engagement.

Digital-native kids are facing far greater risks due to the changing technology that is well adapted by them, but not that swiftly by parents and elderly folks. Many apps, software, online tools, and games are becoming increasingly popular among teens luring them to start businesses, buy cryptocurrencies, indulge in data-mining, and investments. Many such applications would request private data access or even money for items that are “important” to them during those digital engagements.

It is being widely acknowledged that there is sharp declines in life satisfaction amongst older adolescents who use social media passively, as in by just viewing others’ photos, as compared to those posting their own content. Many studies and surveys have revealed that psychosocial problems like depression, isolation, bodily disorders, stress, anxiety, self-esteem complex, are becoming incessantly common, due to education becoming e-education. Further, increased usage of Virtual Reality(VR) systems have an ability to create immersive and overpowering experience which, in most cases, are too strong for the teenage mind to differ between two realities – real and surreal. There are games that make these kids feel as if they are physically present on top of a very tall building and need to walk on a thin plank to get to another rooftop, others put them in a role of a fighter, a hero even, but would require them to slice off the limbs of enemies, not on a flat screen, but in a realistic sense. Many children are spending hours on games like ‘PUB-G’, ‘Call of Duty’, ‘Final Fantasy’, wonderstruck by the grandeur, action, killing and danger. Gaming apps like ‘Blue Whale’ and ‘Pokemon Go’ have resulted in suicides and other untoward incidents.

With cellphones and gadgets becoming ubiquitous, including now on the study tables, a great parental intervention is of prime importance to keep a tab of activities and handling matter at source. The problem needs much more than just IT guidelines, that APPs and Games need to allow only selective online purchases, or cyber laws and nugatory reporting frameworks. This hitherto unknown stressful situations for kids is nothing less than a worldwide IT and mental health emergency.