Soft Skills as a Panacea for Young India

India, it is widely acclaimed, is on the verge of a youth revolution of sorts. And rightly so, given the overwhelmingly large population of the young people that the country has today. But is only having a large number of young population enough? Can it be translated to competitive advantage without any further efforts? Perhaps not. We need to ask how can we reap the demographic advantage that is being fashionably talked about so very frequently in academic seminars and popular media debates these days.

Undoubtedly, this segment has tremendous potential. They are being acknowledged as a very potent and important group all across the globe. India also is no exception. This is the reason why all political parties today are courting the youth and proclaiming to be championing their cause. Young and old leaders alike are addressing to the youth. It was about this youth that Rabindra Nath Tagore had once said, “age considers, youth ventures”. But this venturing youth needs to be given a direction and should be enabled to give India the competitive advantage that we are desirous of acquiring.

The youth have the desire, the energy and the courage to take to the streets for improving their country and their lot. Today they have assumed considerable significance for governments and the policy makers. They have occupied centre stage in policy formulation. But there is need to ponder to find out whether this youth is venturing in the right direction or just adventuring. And what needs to be done. Skilling them seems to be the answer as various experts are pointing out and making the youth of today job ready is one of the top most priorities of the government. There can be no doubt that our young graduates and undergraduates need employability skills. Attempts are already afoot towards this and several agencies have been created to inculcate skills in the youth. But there is a missing link. That is, in realizing that employability is not just about the hard skills, the specific skill sets that are required on the job. These skills, though required are only instrumental in getting someone the job. Staying there and performing successfully calls for another critical set of skills – the soft skills. Without these soft skills the hard skills do not prove to be of much use.

In fact, it is not only the Indian youth but the youth all over the world that needs to be trained in soft skills. Energy unguided is explosive and must be harnessed in proper direction. It is precisely for this reason that soft skills need to be emphasized.

Young people the world over are seemingly under pressure to compete, win, survive and thrive. The term young people which we are talking about covers a wide range from adolescents to late teens. It is this population that has dreams to fulfill, goals to achieve and energy to back efforts. But its impatience and attitude need to be fined tuned.

In urban India, this class is the most vibrant section of the society that gives life to it and make things happen, or alternately, not happen. This section today is experiencing some kind of a paradox – a psychologically unstable mind set. It is reticent, it is restive. It is withdrawn and it is aggressive. It is quiet, it is vocal. This is the iPod generation-insecure, pressured, over taxed and debt prone, and is not satisfied with the ways of the world. It wants a rapid change, demanding a state of affairs that may be somewhat utopian – a just, equal and humane economy. The so called recession that keeps on appearing at a nagging frequency is the apparent reason for this kind of a situation. There are two questions then that need to be answered. First, is this the real reason? The second question is whether there is a solution?

Coming to the first question. For the large majority who can’t think beyond economics are economically inclined the answer is yes. But for such people the answer to the second question will be a BIG NO. It needs to be understood that the so called recession though seemingly an economic problem is basically rooted in Psychology, that is greed and fear. Unless we address this, recessions will keep on visiting.

 Coming back to the original issue of young people being under pressure. Why are they so? There are two fundamental reasons. First, they are in hurry that is they want things very fast – too much, too soon. It is the prevalent culture today- speed. But they forget that speed kills. The second reason is that they want so many things at the same time. Or rather they do not know what they want. The result is that they want to have the cake and eat is also. In the process, the life has become too complicated, like a vortex- of demands, desires, needs and speed that sucks them to nothingness. The outcome is depression, anxiety, frustration and aggression leading to a negative world view – I am not ok, you are not ok. Things that are happening as a result of this are really alarming. According to the World Health Organization, India ranks second in the number of people committing suicide. Even more interesting is the fact that a large number of those committing suicide belong to this so called Young People group which has still a long way ahead and is not living in penury. Thus, the reasons are not economic.

The answer , thus, cannot be found in economics. It has to be found in Psychology. To be more specific in attitude- the way they look at the world .The way they take life. The essence lies in two things- balance and simplicity. Balance is the core of Buddha’s philosophy, the middle path. And simplicity is Gurudev Ravindranath Tagore’s answer to the complexities of life. Only some months back we celebrated 150th birth anniversary of Tagore. Let us take the golden lesson for successful living from him – to embrace simplicity. To quote – it is very simple to be happy, but very difficult to be simple. The young people who are finding themselves under pressure need to understand this. They need to reframe their idea of life. Life is not a struggle as they perceive. Struggle is life. And to succeed in this struggle is to not just raise the IQ (Intelligence Quotient), but also EQ (Emotional Quotient), and MQ ( Morality Quotient). Soft skills thus need to be developed in the young people.