Students’ responsibility towards nation building

Dhiren Newar

(The writer can be reached at dhiren.newar@gmail.com)

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others

— Mahatma Gandhi

India has long left the idea of being a laissez faire state and has adopted the path of welfare state. It finds its relevance more vibrantly given the fact that India houses for around 23% of its total population below poverty line, a considerable size estimated at around 25% of its total population illiterate and bulk of its youth unemployed. Under such circumstances, the student fraternity, who forges the future of a nation, has great role to play for welfare of society and the nation as a whole.

Students are the beacon of the future of a nation. No society has ever evolved without the right guidance and social engagement of the student fraternity. All the great social reformers who we think of today are or were great socially attached students. Great personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and others had been active social activists from the days of their academic life. Mahatma Gandhi was very active social worker while as a student of law in England. He fought for equal rights of Indians and other deprived classes while in England and in South Africa. It sets example that social responsibility for welfare of a society does not percolate on a person once he or she completes his/her academic life or in the mid half of his/her last age. It is rooted from the very beginning of one’s life once he or she is capable of learning things and the process continues till his or her last breath.

However, social responsibility does not restrict itself with joining big international organizations that work for human right or doing a handsome job and spending a little sum of its salary in the name of community welfare. On the other hand it all begins with the little things that surround a person. After all, it depends on the zeal to wipe out the sorrow that fades the face of anyone and bringing some smile on his or her face. And who can understand the sorrow of a person with a clear picture of it other than a student who undergoes a holistic view of the situations of sorrow and misery of the people around the globe? Yes, our country is homeland to multimillionaires, but it is also the home of millions of people who are suffering from and are deprived of their daily needs as well. There are around 25 crore population in our country who are forced to sleep half-fed every night. However, the irony is that in spite of having more than 50% of our population who are youth, and the considerable size of it being students who have the zeal and the energy to work for a better future, we are still lagging behind to develop a proper strategy to vanish it out.

The reason lies within. We think that in a welfare state like India, it is only the political representative or the government who only bears this responsibility of a better India and social welfare. But we tend to forget that in order to see the change that we need, we must find the solutions in the scratch. And students have got a greater role to play here. As a student we can do various social welfare activities like donating our old fashioned cloths to the needy one, donating books to one who can’t afford but wants to study, doing free tuitions to the poor children and educating them etc. After all, a noble cause does not require public limelight and hype. And none but student can be the forerunner here.

It is said that a student is the future of a better nation. The responsibility of a student in the name of social responsibility should not be, however, restricted within various activities done as a part of academic performance. They have got the role of nation building as well within their purview of social responsibility and social welfare. A student understands the geography and politics better than many others. Flip the pages of history, right from the struggle for independence to the various political developments in free India like agitation against emergency in 1975 etc., it were students who were taking a lead role. In the recent years also, we have seen several instances like J.N.U. agitation, Ramjas College incident etc. where many agitations were led by the student fraternity in the demand and support of free speech and expression and democracy. The ongoing nationwide agitation against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 is also led by the student fraternity of different universities and colleges. After all demand and action for a better democratic India is the best form of social welfare and social service, which student community understands the best.

However, many a time it is seen as a part of criticism that social welfare activities are not well paid off and that an investment of time and energy in these activities during the academic career of a student whose only focus should be on building his/her bright future does not interest him or her the most. But what is the point of a bright future of a student when the future of the society or the nation where a student lives in is not so bright? Had it been the mindset of the students taking front roles in the freedom struggle of the nation, we would still have been the subjects of the British. At the end of the day, it all begins with a desire to change and the change must come from the student fraternity from their zeal and will towards serving for the welfare of society right from their early days of academic career. As Mahatma Gandhi himself says:

“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”