The topic for next week's forum which is to appear on Saturday is:

VK Joshi: Frankly my answer is YES and NO. Opportunities are there, but the masses are unaware. People in the north India make a beeline for the government jobs. Each recruitment means tons of black money for the recruiters and create a human pool of youth who will try to 'earn' the 'money paid' to get the job. Yet people want these government jobs only, because it assures monthly salary with no answerability. In the rest of the country people vie with each other for any job and few are able to compete. Affluent class gets best opportunity for higher education, poor remain poorly educated, exceptions apart. Teaching in general is most lowly paid job, meant to groom the youth of the country. Teaching is the last resort for most jobless. Government's policies at providing opportunities are vote bank oriented and not people oriented. The day this system changes country will reach the top as per the dream of Prof Abdul Kalam our ex President, but may be half a century after 2020!

Navneet Kumar Sinha: I would rather say youth of today are getting much more opportunity for development. It is for them to utilize it in the positive directions rather than negative. In an era of globalization and technological development there has been increase in the opportunity for the youths to develop themselves into more sensible and intellectual citizen of the nation. There are few hindrances such as reservation and expensive education which are proving to be disaster for the proper growth and development of the young generation. Therefore, these social and economical illnesses should be treated to achieve more benefits. In spite of all these obstacles I would say there are lots of advantages which need to be properly harnessed by the youths. Young generation has to decide what they have to do and what they want to achieve and how they are going to achieve it. There are wide and invariable choices for present young generation -be it in the field of study, sports or any other career. It is for them to approach it in a positive manner. There is no dearth of opportunity, what's lacking is the enthusiasm and creativity among the youths.

Dr Suram Singh Verma: Taking into consideration the uneven development in the country, there may be fewer opportunities for village youth as compared to their counterparts in cities & towns but present day youth in general are getting enough opportunities for their development. Problem with them is not with the availability of opportunities but the lack of discipline, determination and desire to put hard work. Present youth is inclined more for complacent attitude and want everything so easy.

All day-to-day life sustaining facilities like communication, transportation, education etc are at their level best in every nook and corner of the country. It is the responsibility of the youth to make best use of these facilities towards their (youth's) development. All the facilities showered by the single minded parents on their children (pampered child syndrome) is not only taking them away from self development but it is turning them self centered, selfish, arrogant, lazy, indiscipline and also not ready to make the best use of development available to them in all respects.

Lijo Joseph: In my opinion, today's youth is getting more than enough opportunity for his development. Development essentially includes physical, mental, moral, social and economic. From their early childhood to their extreme youth, it's just raining opportunities for them.

The setting up of good schools, colleges, universities etc have not only made the youth literate but with their good infrastructure have also served as the best place where the youth can make the best use of the enormous opportunities they get here. Also, the setting up of various NGOs have helped a lot in the moral development of the youth by providing assistance and guidance to them on various youth problems.

The establishment and plans executed by the sports and youth welfare department of the government has also played a pivotal role in the development of youth. Recent trend of part-time jobs are yet another opportunities for the youth to support and develop themselves. And then, with so many opportunities, it's unfair to say that the youth is not getting enough opportunities, now if anything is needed for further development of the youth, it is a change in their attitude.

And the message is clear:

"Opportunities knock just once and your attitude weighs tons".

Sushmita Shrivastava: It is true that the youths are not getting enough opportunity for development in our country. But it is said that where there is a will there is a way. If a young person wishes to contribute in the development of the nation he or she can do so despite the hurdles and the scant opportunities available. I feel that the youths today are so selfish and self-centred that it is useless to expect that they would do anything good or positive for the society. Their only target is to amass wealth and dub as 'frustrated' those who lead an upright life and do not amass wealth by unfair means. The present system is so corrupt that honest and upright youth get frustrated. In a nation of teeming billions, no one gives a damn to qualities and talent. Rather you should have 'guts' and connections with influential persons. That is more important, I am afraid.

RJ Khurana: The poser is void as there has been an explosion in opportunities for the youth. Today he is far better placed than his counterparts at any time in the earlier decades. According to a survey conducted by US-based consultancy firm, Manpower Inc, the Indian job market is red hot with the financial sector and real estate leading the talent hunt with 47% of the employers surveyed giving a net indication of stepping up recruitments. This is not all. Booming economy and the information technology and knowledge revolutions have opened up new vistas. To quote another survey conducted by the Indus Entrepreneurs, with India becoming a favoured destination of several MNCs, thousands of Indian IT professionals are heading back home with good pay packets. 60,000 of them came back in the last couple of years alone. The irony is that unlike in the past now there are more jobs than employable skilled workers. More skills need to be created. The downside of the present boom is that the whiff of opportunities has not yet touched our rural and tribal youths. The lacuna calls for a course correction. To be rich is glorious but to be poor in the midst of plenty is a lot more hurting.

Krishna Chander Mouli: In a fast developing country like ours there can never be dearth of opportunities for youth for their development. The real problem is not lack of opportunities but our widespread corrupt systems and our lop-sided educational policies. Our politicians and the bureaucrats are also no less responsible for this state of affairs.

Youth is an unbounded, ever-growing, electrifying, high-powered energy. If this energy is properly channelised then the constructive power thus generated facilitates not only the youth's development but also the development of the Nation. But if that energy is improperly channelised for ulterior motives and selfish ends, which in fact we have been witnessing all these years, then destruction of the youth as well as the Nation is imminent. The post-independent youth of India has been over-exposed to power politics by our own senior politicians of the day in the name of training to groom them into matured politicians enabling them to assume the responsibility of governing the republic of India. The University and College level student union elections and the democratic way of their functioning were introduced in these academic institutions precisely with this objective in mind. But our over-ambitious politicians of different political shades aided and abetted by bureaucracy have destroyed the original spirit and transformed the students into warring rowdy groups rather than matured politicians.

By and large students now ignore their studies, non-serious about the skills in the stream of their discipline and are casual and easy-going in acquiring knowledge of the discipline but are very ambitious of a degree by any means sans any career oriented vision and dimension. They indulge more in get-quick-rich short-cut methods excluding themselves from the more professional, challenging and respectful mainstream opportunities which ultimately lead them on to the path of development. This is a sad state of affairs.

But all is still not lost. Even now if youth could be prevented from being lured and used as pawns by the wily and scheming politicians and derailed from the development track, then almost everything under the sky is available for them as a respectable but challenging and competitive opportunity to grow and develop and even reach the top. The need is only to grab these opportunities.

Dr Visal A Khan: Since more than 70% population live in villages, a typical youth of India is a young farmer and to find out his level of opportunities we have to go in a small village of India. Findings show that the youth is an average of five levels.

1) below poverty level 30% 2) poverty level 20% . 3) above poverty 10% level 4) middle level 25% and 5) High level 10 to 15%. The first type say "BL" is following traditional heredity opportunities and in somewhat race of development he obtained burden of loans from banks. He is busy to refund loans to try his level best but natural calamities and their impact damaged his opportunity. He works as a labour in Govt. Plan Projects for reducing burden of bank loans but the agencies who employ him give him bread only. He has no time of education, no time to maintain his health and no suitable environmental managed house to live in. The second type say "PL" is somewhat first type but has much opportunity for education up to the level of higher secondary only. His living condition a bit better. The third type say "AL" manages for higher education in city but is reluctant to come back to his native village after graduation. He has dreams of cream opportunities in towns and he is busy in searching jobs at the cost of his parents. Fourth type youth say "ML" since he got a little opportunity of job in town and he is found busy in multiplying it and left his link of native village. Fifth type say "HL" dreams of politics and wants all types of opportunities without loss of time as a VIP. He is busy to tackle villagers for votes and uses all his silver spoons of parents to achieve his goal. This youth misuses opportunities of his village people strength which are provided by the Government for development of the country.

India can establish economic policies that may give young people suitable more work opportunities. For instance, we find that industries that are heavily export-oriented such as textiles and electronics employ young people at about twice the rate of other such industries. These are not always skilled jobs, but they provide employment for raw inexperienced young people who have fewer skills. On the other hand, there is also a high demand for young people in areas like the electronics industry where creativity is valued. It's important for young people not to end up in dead-end jobs. For instance, in Penang in Malaysia, it was the employment of young women in the electronics field that drove the electronic revolution in that country in the 1970s and 1980s.

Another example is what is happening in some developed countries. In order to compete in the world market, many are learning that they must have more flexible labour markets. But it is very hard to change regulations once in place. Attempts to give employers greater incentive to hire inexperienced "BL", "PL" young people, for example, have been perceived by some youths as making them more vulnerable to being fired while other parts of the labour force remain rigidly protected, resulting in street protests. For better or worse, developing countries usually do not have such social protection regulations.

There is an acute requirement of the Indian Youth Program offering opportunities a wide range of age-appropriate activity, which may promote the opportunity growth and development of Indian youth. The program may serve school age (through 12th grade) Indian children and youth. Preventive health, physical activity and youth development programs promote healthy lifestyles, strengthen character and leadership skills and curtail high-risk behaviors. The program may provide opportunity, health and safety education, life skills guidance and Indian cultural enrichment activities - all in a caring and friendly atmosphere.

Subhash C Agrawal: All good things start from the top. Indian youth are deprived to take political leadership in this great nation. While multi-national and other prospering private-sector institutions in India are taking full advantage of young talent for further positive growth of their business, political leadership in India is dominated by aged and retired ones never wishing to retire from public-life.

If there is a retirement-age for those in judiciary and bureaucracy, why it is not there in legislature! Mind also tires and should be retired for politicians too at an upper age-limit of say 65 years. System will also check unhealthy trend of dynastic politics which does not allow deserving young talent to take senior posts in politics in presence of sons and daughters of dominating aged political leaders and rulers.

Lust to rule for life can and should also be snatched from political rulers by making legislators real king-makers which can be best done by making only persons having not contested elections say in last one year as ministers (Prime Minister/Chief Ministers included) so that deserving youth may get better chances of taking political leadership.

Sonal Chhaya: As we know, population wise, India's size is very next to China. We are not in a position to look after each and every person. In other words population is the root of all tribulations. However China has tried to control its population. It is doing good in all sectors. We need to follow China.

In this scenario how can we presume about development of the youth? Nobody is getting enough opportunity for development, whether he is child or youth. Everything is muddled, nothing is running systematically.

So far as youths are concerned they are utterly befuddled. Most of the youths are not educated. And materialistic knowledge sans spiritual does not help. And when you see the spiritual world it is also not clear. So the truth lies in the fact that we continue to learn right from wrong. We learn from experience the hard way. For everything there is opposition.

Greater part of youth is living in villages. Some are working, others are struggling for their survival.

Question arises- who is responsible for this wretched state of affairs? I think not a single reason is conscientious for it. There are plethora of reasons which are hindering the way of development of the youth.

A number of govt sponsored schemes like IRDP, PMRY, SJSRY, SGSY etc are running for helping people. The Govt and banks both are not working properly to help the youth. The youth know that they need not return the money being given by the Govt.

Furthermore the youths are not inclined to do anything. They want to sleep only. You can always see crowd of youth in front of beetleleaf shops or tea stalls.

Even though the youth may not be getting enough opportunity for development yet this is also true that they are themselves to be blamed for their pathetic condition. The laws of success should be applied with all diligence. We cannot blame others only for our shortcomings.

It is high time for all, especially the parents, to think over these aspects and take corrective measures.

Rohan: Bring up a child in the way he should go and he shall never depart from it. Man's ways are the ways of God. There are reasons why some people succeed and others fail. And due to lack of these eternal truths about bringing up a human being, the net result is suffering..suffering and only suffering. Though mankind has learnt a lot from its failures yet many a time we see that the mistakes are being repeated. Take the example of war. Every nation knows that war is not good for human beings yet all nations are accumulating dangerous weapons at a faster pace so as to outwit others.

There are labour laws but difficult to implement. The employers do not know about the labour laws and if they do know, then they may not want to implement them. So there is the element of human nature. And human nature is there because the wily invisible Satan is there. As per the Holy Bible God will imprison Satan so that it will deceive human beings and the nations no more.

Because mankind is cut off from God almighty we are not getting all the help from our maker. Once we get all the wisdom from our heavenly Father then we will do excellently. Yet those youths who by applying proper reasoning are making success of themselves especially in making money, yet life demands that we become successful in human relations too. This is only possible by being constantly in touch with our Maker, in reading his thoughts - not limited only to one's own religion in which he took birth but searching God's will by reading others holy books too, by closely observing how people live.

RK Kutty: Yes, it is a fact that the youth in our country are not getting enough opportunities for development. The reason for this is divergent. The youths of today are much techno savvy. They have great deal of ambition to go up. But, there are limited scope/avenues. Even if avenues, then there are lots of obstacles. In a way the clash of two cultures - traditionalism and modernism is going on. The generation gap, where, the aged are not able to catch up with the minds of the younger ones is a real problem. The aged desperately want to put the younger generation on the very same track or stereotype on which they travelled in their times. Whereas, the younger generation wants to catch up with the fast changing, technologically guided route, so as to reap a fast buck, as early as possible. This is a serious problem affecting even family relations/bonds.

When one looks up to the leadership of the country as a whole, one can see this very clearly. During the 2004 general election, one reason for the victory of the present UPA combination was that the youths of the country were shown loly-pops for participation in the governance of the country. Many promising, younger generation leaders decided to take up the political lineage and many of them were got elected also. Whereas, the overall percentage of the youth's participation in governance - be it at the Centre or at the State's level, is a miniscule minority. Most of the youthful leaders are desperate to find some berth to show their talent/capabilities. The aged, redundant, obsolete or obsolescent leaders know pretty well that they are blocking the hopes and aspirations of these modern youths by not giving them chances. This is the reason for the desperation that then percolates in other areas. Look how Maoism, terrorism and other forms of street violence, law and order situations develop from almost all parts of the country. Look at Bihar. We continuously witness open, arbitrary disposal of cases of theft, attempt of theft et. al by the general public, with the help of the disgruntled, infuriated youths. It is the very same youths whose services are engaged by the disgruntled political parties/fundamentalist forces to create disturbances, organize bandhs, hartals or chakka jams etc. in which properties worth crores are unnecessarily damaged thereby causing avoidable lose to the exchequer. On the contrary, if that vast energy of the youths had been channeled for some other constructive purposes, by providing them opportunities/avenues to eke out a daily living, it could have been avoided. Neither the governments nor the political parties as a whole think anything constructively for the youths of the country. We have a large chuck of educated, unemployed youths, loitering without any kind of work. Particularly in the central India and northern Indian states like Bihar, UP, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa and West Bengal, development in industrial and agriculture sector is much wanting to accommodate this vast pool of educated youths. One of the main reasons the youths in these States couldn't catch up with the youths of other southern states like Kerala, TN, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka or in the extreme North Eastern States is their education in the Hindi medium. In this age of technology, they are much lagging behind to catch up with the fast changes taking place elsewhere in the world. Govt. needs to correct this policy to meet the situation.

are: First Navneet K Sinha , Second Sonal Chhaya , Third S Vidyasankaran