Why do you think Arab Spring became a success? I think it was because the entire phenomena was built on the firm shoulders of the younger generation- a generation that had seen their parents being tormented and stripped off their rights.

Younger people tend to be, if not creative, more optimistic and less risk averse. They persevere until they have created a window of opportunity for themselves to escape the clutches of insignificance. This fear of being “irrelevant” has driven many of them to take risks worth taking. The transition to relevance has not been smooth but the outcome is mesmerizing. When the owners of unicorn companies walk into a restaurant, the average worth of an individual shoots upwards of a billion dollars.

The current decade signifies an inflection point on the economic growth curve. It’s a make or break moment for us as a responsible citizen. Backed by world’s largest youth population, India is poised to reclaim its title of “golden bird”- the title that India lost when British deprived India of its resources and created artificial famines that pushed Indians to the precipice of revolt. As a country, now, we are closely knitted in the same fabric of patriotism. We can grab this moment and create a society with less income disparity, high social status and higher level of education.

But it’s not that simple. We are basing our premise on the assumption that this lot of people have minimum skills or education to make them employable. Well the assumption is negated by a report that claims that 90% Indian engineering graduates are not employable. That is unfortunate. To augment our productive capacity, we need individuals who are skilled and market ready. We don’t need people with a degree but no practical exposure. It’s like a boat without a rudder. Skills play a prominent role of troubleshooting complex issues that degree cannot. India’s education system is woeful. To provide training to workforce without a proper educational background is like building a house of cards on an inclined table. How much so ever you try, it is destined to fall.

Let’s talk about Germany. Germany has lowest unemployment rates around the world and its economy is as robust as ever. Aren’t you riddled by this conundrum? Me too. But, Germany has a very distinctive apprenticeship culture. Apprenticeships last three years, involve at least one day a week of classroom teaching and are rigorously assessed. Many countries have tried to emulate this model. Companies like Jaguar and Land Rover based in England follows the same model. So, why cannot India follow the model? Not exactly step by step, but at least we can adapt and improvise the model to be applicable in India.

It is premature and naïve to think of India’s demographic dividend until its youth is healthy and fit for work. We have an Infant Mortality rate that tops Sri Lanka and compares poorly with even Bangladesh and Nepal. Many of the surviving kids are raised in unhygienic conditions without proper immunization. According to the World Economic Forum, India stands to lose $4.58 trillion between 2012 and 2030 due to non-communicable diseases. Against this backdrop, it is important to assess India’s relative position.

India is at the cusp of a revolution: it can either ride the tide and leapfrog into the status of a higher level of income-employment situation or remain a laggard in converting unused labor into productive capacity of a nation. The odds are in the favor of latter situation. But if Indian government takes proactive measures to introduce policies that enable skill development among the youth, India has still got a decent chance. Several ambitious campaigns like “Make in India” and “Digital India” have been rolled out to make India a manufacturing hub and create employment in manufacturing domain which requires low-skilled workers. But these campaigns are as strong as the will and execution behind them. Many of the recent policies and initiatives have been reduced to populist measures undertaken by our thick-skinned politicians at the helm to add flab to their vote bank. Hope that is not the case with the recent initiatives.

India needs to adopt a three-pronged approach to empower the youth: Health, Skill development and Job-generation.

Health:

Initiative such as large scale immunization drive would help in curbing the infant mortality rate and prevent common diseases among children. Public financing in health is minimal. This implies that costs related to that are mind-boggling. Government needs to realize that if it increases spending in healthcare by a percentage point, it would dramatically boost the GDP. Theranos- a blood-testing startup in Silicon Valley is revolutionizing the healthcare industry in USA. The company offers simple blood tests at a much affordable rate compared to traditional blood labs. Indian government should step forward to provide incentives to startups in healthcare industries. This would create plethora of jobs and increase our productive capacity. There should also be initiatives aimed at reducing air pollution by promoting environmental friendly fuels because air pollution is the major cause of respiratory problems in the youth.

Skill Development:

Concerning skills, a large fraction of employees lack vocational training and have only general idea of theoretical concepts involved. To address the issue, government should setup vocational training institutes or provide incentives to private players to develop seed accelerators or start-up incubators that could provide people the skills they need to create a new company. The much-trumpeted idea of “German apprenticeship” can be imported and tested only after modifying it to suit the needs of our culture.

Job-Generation:

Lack of jobs can lead to social unrest among the youth. Violent protests in Spain and during Arab Spring was partially due to frustration among youth owing to lack of jobs. Indian government recently launched “Start Up India, Stand Up India” to promote bank financing for start-up ventures to boost a culture of entrepreneurship among Indians. This is a step in a positive direction. Start-ups create jobs and boost the employability of workers.

Besides investing in start-ups, government should also focus on reducing income disparity among its citizens. The rich should be taxed more and poor should be motivated to work. Income disparity is one of the reasons why slogans such as “Occupy Wall Street” and “We are the 99%” came into being. Income disparity creates frustration among citizens who may revolt and throw the economy into a logjam situation.

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One crucial piece of puzzle that we have been overlooking is the fact that women are getting empowered as we speak. Women have the ability to lead as better managers and guide our economy out of social comatose. However, we are not doing much progress in this front. Reports suggest that China would eventually lose its competitive edge to India. But, this naïve proposition belies the fact that Indian women are far less likely to participate in workforce than their Chinese counterpart. Demographic dividend entails us to focus as much on female youth as on the male youth. Both are equal contenders to drive us out of this perilous situation of unemployment. So, demographic profile of India is laid down like a chess board with India having an upper hand. We have a lifetime opportunity to checkmate the world.