New India Demography – Dividend or Danger | BL Santhosh

Just last year India’s demography has reached a threshold, where over 50% of the population are youths of employable age. A few years ago, we were worried about population explosion. But live examples of China, Japan and some European countries have proved that if properly tackled, this huge growth of population will be an enormous help for the development of the country. Of course, it is equally true that there are examples of countries whose development was set back by a few years due to enormous growth in the population. Hence the new demographiy of India could be either a boon or a bane. BL Santhosh, the general secretary of BJP in a discussion with Ajit Hanumakkanavar gave his views on the possibly scenarios on the development of India with respect to India’s new demographics. “Individual, society and institution are the three elements on which either possibility depends upon. With the individual as the base, how society shapes him and how institutions utilize him will mandate how he turns out later in life.” opined BL Santhosh. “There are cases in which the surplus population is negatively exploited, and there are cases when meaningful exploitation is done.” When asked about the Health and Education’s in India with respect to India and how it applies to the meaningful exploitation of the population, Mr. Santhosh said,” Every year, there is close to 100% enrollment in primary education among eligible age groups. But the percentage that passes out of SSLC is 79%. And only 23% succeed in getting a degree. But a large majority of these aspirants still lack the skills which companies are looking for. Speaking of health, a significant portion of people at the employable age are not eligible to work due to obesity, diabetes, or overall lack of physical and mental fitness. For the lack of skill in India, I feel that recent programs like Skill India and Make in India have contributed significantly, and will continue to do so.” Speaking about the availability of employment for those with the required skill, Mr. Santhosh said,” There is no dearth of jobs in the country of India as a whole. But for specific locations, there is a lack of jobs. Having 1 crore jobs in India is not adequate. The 1 crore jobs must be equally distributed across the country. Or else, people moving to select developed cities where jobs are available, subsequently competing with the locals for jobs and thus causing friction is inevitable. BL Santhosh concluded this session by saying,” Controlling the population is not a viable solution, preparing for the meaningful exploitation is the best choice by all standards.”