Responsibilty of youth towards nation building

Ernest Renan, a French historian quotes that nations developed from the common needs of the people, who consisted of different social groups seeking a collective identity. A nation is the choice of the people to live under an identity, and the nation which they created, is their responsibility to be strengthened and lead to prosperity and development. Nation starts with people’s choice and runs with people’s choice and ends with people’s choice.
The population of a nation comprises of average 16% of the youth population having age in the range of 15–24 years. Let us define youth as the people being in the 18–32 age group as proposed by majority of organisations in the world. These 16% in a poulation are analogous to the coal metamorphisng into gold to serve as a valuable asset for the nation tomorrow. So you are a part of the population which is going to be the future of the nation.

The moment you turn 18, you get the right to vote and now you are expected to be a part in deciding how the nation should run. Till the age of 18, the nation is working for you , you being a part of common people, to provide best facilities for you to grow yourself and you being on the receiving side and not being asked anything. But once you turn 18, you get the right to vote, responsibilty gates open, opportunity to being active in nation building opens up. Now if you feel nation is misssing something, you have the right to say it and change it with your vote. Now turning a blind eye makes you guilty in the moral sense.

Now is the time to develop yourself in such a way that you be a source to provide for yourself, as well as contribute towards the nation which ultimately provides for you directly or indirectly.
You observe things both in sphere of influence and sphere of concern, and feel that the nation which makes me “ME” is asking to be a part. You do not become selfish in sphere of influence and take whatever steps you can do to make things better. You see hospitals in bad condition, you see healthcare not catering to poor class of people, you do not turn a blind eye, you take steps to make it better from your hand, if not then from your words, if not then at least pledge to do something better in future when you have the authority to do that or pledge to reach that authority.
You see something that pollutes the environment, and people do it unconsciously but you consciously make sure it does not happen from your side and you try to raise their conscience as well. You see bad practices being followed whether it is corruption, dowry, or any other in the society, you take steps consciously to stop that in whatever form you can or atleast start from yourself.
In essence, you see something that goes against the nation building, you take promising steps involving people generously to the unwnated extreme lawful steps. In all this you remember, Nation is for people and people are what makes a nation, so you take steps not creating a sense of fear in people to be a part of nation building but the encouragement in the sense that let’s build the nation together.
You might feel that , how I alone can change the nation’s direction towards progress, prosperity and development. But history provides for you a great encouragement, as Gandhiji said “for a change, be a change”. You look at history, how being under the devastating colonial oppression , some section of people even the majority got used to colonial oppression, and just were after fulfilling their needs. But very small number of people in different regions, felt responsible for what was happeninng to them, and around them. They decided to take steps in their regions, in their sphere of influence, raised the conscience of people against the colonial oppression. Soon these turned into movements , and every movement was gradually working towards building of an independent nation India without even realizing it in the first hand. Then there happened unification of these individuals to lead a united movement towards independent India and finally many decades after India became independent. This shows how beginning even if alone gradually changed the condition of whole nation. It may take years, for you may not see these changes but the next generations would reap your efforts and it cascades subsequently with more efforts and nation progresses gradually.

So with this inspiration, you realise that your responsibility is to do well for yourself as a priority because if you can not do well for yourself, how can you do good for nation. Then simultaneusly you take small steps towards nation building which are in your sphere of influence.
Youth are the future of the nation, as tomorrow you will be in the position to decide the course of the nation in different forms ranging from low level jobs to high level jobs. Every person is contributing to nation building , and you should be proud of that. Whatever actions you take is going to effect the nation whether it is being honest , being respectful, making better policies, philanthropy, social service, planting trees, investing in your growth, or wasting your potential, each decision is going to be a drop of water in ocean whether clean or dirty and ultimately it is going to decide the character of ocean.

So it is responsibility of every youth, that the nation built by the efforts of previous generation of youth and which helped him to grow in his life, to give back to the nation in anyway as possible. A nation develops only when people who progresed in their lives starts giving back to the nation in any form they can.
‘Lean on your nation when you need it and nation will provide for you the best it can ,then tomorrow don’t turn your back when it needs you.’
I will conclude with the following quotes:
“ A system is corrupt, when it is strictly profit driven, not driven to serve the best interests of its people” (Suzy Kassem)

“One person is nothing, two people are a nation” (Terry Pratchett)

“For enslaving a nation, just kill the conscientious people, the rest can be bought” (M.F. Moonzajer)

“Work for building the nation not just your home.”
(Anuj Jasani)

So raise your conscience, and realize that most of your decisions in life is not affecting you but your nation as well indirectly or directly. So be wise and take decisions to make the nation progess and let’s build the nation together for our best interests and for generations to come.
‘It starts with simple steps, but every simple step is cascading towards prosperity, progress and development of the nation’