But the last few years show that the promise to the next generation, cannot be taken for granted. As a parent, like all parents, we judge Ourself on the opportunities Our children will have, should have and the happiness that can provide. As citizens, we will judge the nation on the opportunities that India should provide for the next generations.
What unites us is that there is too much politics and not enough action. And what is happening to our next generation is those unspoken facts that people know about – but the politicians refuse to discuss. Rampant uneducation and growing unemploment. Parents who don't understand, that despite their hardest efforts – raising their children correctly and giving them every opportunity, their children have no prospects of a successful life. Parents are working longer hours than ever before and spending less time with their family, with no real success in sight.
Our generation is on the road to failure in our duty to the next; to uphold the promise of a Society from which we all should benefit; not only because our elder generation has failed us, but also because we are not willing to take corrective action to change our path to the road of success.
Some of these are big problems that are rooted in the way the country's been changing for years, not just over the decade. And our governments are doing nothing to turn things around. In fact on many issues, they are making the situation worse. Their only benchmark of success is dividing to rule. Our government have, and are, piling debts on our economy; debts will make it far harder for the next generation to start a business or buy a house. It is harder for families to survive, and that's not just bad for them but for the country as well. They have consitantly failed to understand the problems and decline in economy. They will quote statistics and talk about rising GDP, but refuse to accept the growing poverty. They have no ambition to change, no national concern except political survival.
Ask the people if they or their children will find it easier to find jobs, own a home, have a bank balance, have a secure retirement or fulfil their potential and they will tell you by vast majorities that 'the answer is No'. In these circumstances, how could we, the people possibly believe the country is heading in the right direction towards growth and prosperity?
To replace despair with hope will require us, once again, to be a force for major change in India. So the task we must set for our selves and our society is to identify how we can turn failure into success.
First, we need to increase and create jobs for people. We cannot just stand by when nearly 350 million people are out of work. We also have to recognise that seven out of ten graduates who work are not doing jobs for which they studied. In other words they are not being given the opportunity to use the skills for which they have worked so hard. Our ambition has to be to reshape our economy so that Indians can choose a business based on higher skills and higher wage jobs; not in low skill, low wage jobs.
And for those young people who choose not to go to university we need to construct a better route through vocational training, apprenticeships and entrepreneurship which give people fulfilling work and chances to achieve success and their dreams of a secure life. That is why our challenge is not just to open the economy to all our people, but also to change something that politicians hardly talk about – the culture of long working hours, low pay and insecurity at work.
When the time comes, future generations will look to our record just as we look towards those of the earlier generations. We owe a committment to equality, democracy, and freedom; not only to ourself but to our children and their children. A committment of a better and secure future, a promise of a generation.
