International Youth Day: Empowering Youth with Green Skills

 The UN celebrates International Youth Day on 12 August, 2023 and the theme for this year is "Green Skills for Youth: Towards a Sustainable World." The youth has an immense role and potential towards transitioning to a greener world through sustainable development. Today the world is advancing towards a green transition. The green transition will result in the creation of 8.4 million jobs for young people by 2030. Young people need to be well-equipped with green skills to navigate this changing environment. Henceforth there is a dire need to educate young people with relevant green skills.

“We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children (Anonymous)”.

There is no other better quote than this to highlight the need for urgent action toward mitigating climate change and paving the path to a sustainable world. Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were framed in 2015 with the aim to make the world better for everyone by 2030 and as of today, it is clearly evident that SDGs are unlikely to be met by 2030 (Bill Gates and Bjorn Lomborg, July 2023). Governments, businesses, media, the education sector, and NGOs should come together strongly to chalk a realistic path for achieving SDGs. Current youth do not have the luxury of ignoring to incorporate sustainability in every aspect of economic and technological development. Against this backdrop, it is important to discuss the ways on empowering youth in achieving SDGs.

The fact that youth plays a significant role in contributing towards achieving SDGs should be recognized and acknowledged by empowering them with green skills to build back better and greener to make the world more sustainable and resilient. Youth should be equipped with the right green skills to convert their education, activism, passion, and creativity to build a greener economy. The first step towards this should be to incorporate the sustainability curriculum in higher education. The current national education policy 2020 (NEP) in India has provided this opportunity at various intensities and levels. There is a lack of clear guidelines and resources to train youth in sustainability in higher education. The curriculum on sustainability should be taught with the highest flexibility providing better opportunities for students to be exposed to hands-on projects, workshops, training, etc. The scheme of evaluation should be open to accepting various forms of knowledge assessment in the area of sustainability rather than restricting to written examinations and assignments. Students should have the flexibility to demonstrate course outcomes through live projects, industry training, internships, field visits, product development, certificate courses, club activities, etc.

There is an urgent need to have skilled human resources in the area of sustainability. Industries, government agencies, businesses, policymakers, and individuals should come together to help youth in their sustainable world movement by empowering them with resources, skills, and opportunities to upskill them in green technologies. Here are the links to some excellent and leading organizations that offer memberships, voluntary activities, career and internship opportunities, free and paid specialized courses, etc., in the area of sustainability and green technology.

Dr. Sumaraj

Source: Telegraph, 12/08/23

Message from Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of the International Youth Day

Young people are not only our future -- they are our present. Our planet has never been so young, with 1.8 billion young women and men. They are the most connected, the most outspoken and the most open-minded generation the world has ever seen. They are powerful agents of positive change, essential to taking forward the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
It is not enough to hope for a better tomorrow -- we must act now. Change is underway, and millions of citizens are already transforming the way we produce, consume, behave and communicate. Young people, such as our #YouthofUNESCO sustainable consumption advocate, Ms Lauren Singer, show us the way towards a zero-waste life-style, fitting all of her refuse produced over the past four years into one small jar! This is an inspiration for this year’s celebration -- The Road to 2030: Eradicating Poverty and Achieving Sustainable Production and Consumption.
There are countless initiatives like this, all giving shape to a new humanism, to new forms of solidarity and citizenship to combat poverty, marginalization and despair.
Optimism and confidence do not mean we minimize the challenges ahead. Most young people live today in least developed countries, and shoulder the heaviest burden of conflicts and poverty. There can be no sustainable development if they remain on the side-lines, and I call upon all Member States and UNESCO partners to support their initiatives, to give them voice, to let them grow, to shape together the future of dignity that we are building today.


Irina Bokova
Message from Ms Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO on the occasion of the International Youth Day
12 August 2016

To become empowered, we must train our youth in the Constitution

‘We the people of India having solemnly resolved to constitute India…’ words so powerful that if only we understand its intended meaning, it would pave the way for the empowerment of each one of us. Freedom we attained 68 years ago but empowerment will continue to elude us unless we make an honest effort to understand the ideals and spirit of our freedom movement that culminated in the production of a finest non-religious, yet sacred book: The Constitution of India.

Our founding fathers not only secured us freedom but toiled for three long years in the Constituent Assembly and after prolonged deliberations gave us our Constitution, which not only ensures individual rights but also clearly laid down the principles to build a prosperous India, free of inequity and exploitation.

The biggest disservice that we have done and continue to do so is to pay scant regard to the spirit of the Constitution. This neglectful attitude has produced various problems, especially the sectarian tendency to demand privileges while denying the same to others. If we continue to ignore the wisdom propounded in the Constitution, it would lead us to moral bankruptcy and spiritual paucity.

Our Constitution not only spells out the duties of various organs of the State and basic rights of the citizens, but also charges the citizens with certain duties. The failure on our part would be a moral and spiritual setback.

The Preamble gives a fair idea of what behaviour and conduct is expected of us, the citizens. It was further reinforced by the incorporation of a list of fundamental duties in the Constitution in 1976.

Now we may ask ourselves if our conduct is in conformity with these fundamental duties. The day we can honestly say yes, most of the problems that confront us in the conduct of our national life would disappear and our interests would integrate with the State. In fact, in a landmark judgment the Supreme Court has observed: ‘State is all the citizens placed together and hence though Article 51-A does not expressly cast any fundamental duty on the State, the fact remains that the duty of every citizen of India is the collective duty of the State.’

As citizens we can show our commitment to the Constitution by conscientiously doing our duties and that alone is the most effective instrument to protect our liberty. Today our behaviours are more influenced by the legacy of the colonial rule rather than the spirit of the Constitution. That explains why we are still obsessed with our denominational and social identities, and the focus of political discourse takes no cognisance of the citizen.

We, however, need not despair. We are an old civilisation but a young nation who has laboured under colonial rule for centuries. During this period we developed certain attitudes that do not agree with the letter and spirit of our Constitution. The best method to get rid of that colonial hang up is to train our young minds to become familiar with the Constitution and imbible its spirit.

(Mustafa Arif is an advocate. The views expressed are personal)

source: Hindustan Times, 29-12-2015