Redefining Youth: Unrest, Identity, and Concerns

Abstract

The Youth of today are passing through turbulent times owing to multiple factors of causation. Education, which should mould them for the future, has lost standards. The environment around them, namely the family and society, is not as harmonious as before. There are issues in the family that clash with modernity and tradition. Gender roles are redefined. The youth, by themselves, are seeking freedom from all forms of control. Day-to-day developments are disturbing. The vast majority constituting students find they have no future, either because education is not leading to a job or jobs are unstable or are very poorly rewarding. Most of them are poorly equipped to face life's challenges. Politics has infiltrated all walks of life, leading to misleading individuals into activities that serve the goals of certain vested interests. Religion is diverted to a philosophy of hate and intolerance as against co-existence and pluralism. It no longer gives spiritual solace, but acts as a weapon for fighting annihilating battles. Achievement motivation is lacking since vital life goals are missing. Added to this is the danger of being lured into wrong habits of drinks, drugs, and sexual liberalism. New forms of crime are emerging. Basic values in life have slowly eroded. Caught in this complex trap of vulnerability, the youth are frustrated. More than ever before, they are insecure about their identity. A set of individual, institutional, and situational factors operates to foster such disharmony. Today's youth are at a crossroads. An attempt is made here to unravel the factors contributing to the unrest among youth and their identity, which warrant redefining them as victims of vulnerability. Further, the impact of individual, institutional, and situational factors is delineated.