Aiding India’s progress with choice, control and capital

Why in the News?

• The article coincides with World Population Day 2025, which focuses on the theme:
  “Empowering young people to create the families they want in a fair and hopeful world.”
• It reflects on India’s youth demographic, reproductive autonomy, child marriage, and the need for a rights-based, multi-sectoral approach to empower young people, especially women.
• India has 371 million youth (ages 15-29)-the largest youth population globallyhighlighting both a demographic challenge and a developmental opportunity.

Background

• The 1994 International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) promised that every person has the right to make informed choices about sexual and reproductive health, free from coercion and discrimination.
• India has made progress in:
  • Reducing child marriage (23.3% in NFHS-5 from 47.4% in 2005–06).
  • Lowering teenage fertility (national average of 7%).
• Yet challenges persist: unmet contraception needs, gender inequality, and limited reproductive autonomy.

Feature

Youth as a Demographic Asset

• With the right investment, India’s youth can contribute an additional $1 trillion to GDP by 2030.
• Requires focus on:
  • Education
  • Nutrition
  • Healthcare
  • Family planning
  • Dignified employment

Key Initiatives Highlighted

Project Udaan (Rajasthan, 2017–2022):

1. Prevented ~30,000 child marriages and ~15,000 teenage pregnancies.
2. Used scholarship schemes, SRH (sexual & reproductive health) education, and modern contraceptive access.

Advika Programme (Odisha, 2019–20):

• Promoted adolescent empowerment and child protection.
• Enabled 11,000 villages to be declared child marriage-free.

Project Manzil (Rajasthan, 2019–2025):

• Human-centred design approach to skill training and dignified employment.
• 28,000 young women trained, 16,000 employed, many as first-generation skilled workers.
• Transformed economic independence into reproductive agency.

Challenges

Persisting Gender Norms

• Patriarchal attitudes still restrict women’s reproductive and economic autonomy.

Regional Disparities

• Teenage childbearing in some states is more than double the national average.

Unmet Reproductive Goals

• 36% of adults face unintended pregnancies; 30% report inability to meet fertility aspirations (UNFPA 2025).

Low Female Labour Force Participation

• Women’s employment is undermined by social norms, a lack of safe jobs, and care burdens.

Fragmented Implementation

• Despite good schemes, implementation is often uneven, lacking cross-sector coordination.

Way Forward

Rights-Based Youth-Centric Policy

• Empower youth with education, information, and bodily autonomy.
• Centre reproductive rights in health and development planning.

Scale Proven Models

• Expand successful models like Udaan, Advika, and Manzil across states.
• Integrate them into national schemes such as RKSK and Skill India.

Invest in Girls’ Education

• Secondary education reduces child marriage likelihood by 6% per year (UNICEF).
• Conditional cash transfers, school infrastructure, and safety can keep girls in school.

Ensure Economic Independence

• Focus on gender-sensitive skill development, safe workspaces, and market linkages.
• Economic empowerment leads to delayed marriage, better reproductive control, and community change.

Address Social Norms

• Launch behaviour change campaigns to challenge patriarchal beliefs and expand life choices for girls.

Strengthen Intersectoral Convergence

• Coordinate between education, health, skill development, women and child departments.
• Adopt localised approaches with community participation.

Conclusion

India’s development trajectory depends on how it treats its largest-ever generation of youth. Empowering them, especially young women, through choice, control, and capital is not only a moral imperative but also an economic necessity. The success of targeted programmes like Udaan, Advika, and Manzil shows that transformative, scalable models exist; they now need policy-level mainstreaming and budgetary support.

MAINS PRACTICE QUESTION

Question: How can India empower its youth, especially young women, with greater choice, control, and capital to harness its demographic dividend and achieve inclusive development?

PRELIMS PRACTICE QUESTION