International Youth Day 2017

Theme: Youth Building Peace

The International Youth Day is celebrated on August 12. Youth are agents of change. They have vigour. They have vitality. They have hopes and dreams. They have aspirations and anxieties.

The world needs to allow them avenues to flower forth with their talents so that they can develop as genuine human beings and become socially useful. The UN Security Council Resolution 2282 (2016) recognised the youth as one of the important stakeholders in building peace.  The theme for 2017 is: Youth Building Peace.

India stands in need of fostering a peaceful and inclusive society so that people of different religions, communities, groups etc. put away their feelings of bias and hatred against one another and hold hands together for national building.  The politicians, religious heads and community leaders should not use the youth as fodder for satisfying their motivated ideology. The police, the administration, the bureaucracy, and the government should help channelize the surging energy of the youth to proper use.

Unfortunately terrorism is taking a heavy toll of people’s lives. It is because politically motivated activist groups are out to kill, loot, destroy, lynch etc. They are cultivated by anti-social leaders or politicians.  India needs to rise above such acts of violence and depredations.  One wishes that sense and sensibility will provide amongst us all so that our youth get a right direction for growth, development and to serve the country with honesty and integrity.