CELEBRATING YOUTH

"Born anew, new sun each morn

New hopes and heights every new dawn

Such is the sparkle that lights up the day

And so is our youth, and so they say”

The youth of a nation is not just the muscle but also often a breath of fresh wind that showcases the mundane in a magical light. The world has always been here and always will be, but our perspective can make it look new and different and

this perspective is the true power of youth. When fearless, the youth of the world can bring about change that few would expect and it is this gripping fear that anchors down our youth and hence, us. So what exactly is this fear and who has put it into our world? What keeps the youth from being all that they could be? Today we know that stress levels and depression is extremely high in the youth and this is not only shameful, it also cripples our progress as a country as well as mankind in general. What exactly is the reason behind these issues? this is what we tried to explore this August.

On 12th and 13th August, we (The Department of Community Medicine) at Vardhman Mahavir Medical College (Safdarjung Hospital), New Delhi, celebrated the United Nations International Youth Day, in collaboration with the ‘Indian Association For Adolescent Health’. This year, the theme for this annual global event was ‘Youth Civic Engagement’. We hosted multiple inter-college events conforming with the theme and also tried to explore certain medical issues of today’s youth.

The idea was spontaneously conceived, almost out of no where, and it got together each one of us here to help it become a reality. At first, it was just a bunch of first year post graduate students fiddling with an idea that seemed too difficult to chase in the short span of time that they had. Then, some undergraduate students got interested. “Let us do it.” That is the spirit of youth. It is almost poetic that youth got together to attain something seemingly uphill, to showcase the power of youth.

However, no seed ever germinated without the cool water and warm earth nurturing it and no plant ever becomes a tree without standing tall in the harshest of sun. And so, the seniors ( and I mean seniors as well as the faculty ) carefully helped the idea materialise.

With a lot of team work, a lot of institutions were included and events held. Both medical colleges and non medical institutes got together under one roof to express the various concerns of today's youth via art, photography and the spoken word.

On 12th of August, we had a photography as well as poster making competition. While the photography competition highlighted the ‘Role of Junk Food in Adolescent Obesity’, the poster making competition was an open invitation for participants to express ‘The Power of Youth’ or ‘The issues faced By Today’s Youth’. There were also literary events. A debate competition was organised to compare the role of youth in their health versus the role of the government in promoting the same. In the extempore competition, different participants had different topics, all relevant to today’s youth. All these events witnessed enthusiastic participation by students from various colleges across Delhi and with each participant, the audience could appreciate the various aspects to the multi-factorial issues that revolve around youth.

Since youth is what the children are made into, our program also included a school for underprivileged children. The posters they made emphasised on how junk food was affecting the health of the youth and many children participated. On 13th, we had the opportunity to directly communicate with the children after the extempore competition, which had various youth related topics.

As the event concluded, we realised we made so many new memories for so many people. The beauty of practising ‘public health’ is the impact that it has on the root of an issue. Many gigantic issues can be easily resolved if only seemingly trivial and at times overtly simple, grass root level interventions are devised and implemented and this event was one such small yet significant step.

In youth we learn, in age we understand and since we shall never be as young as we are right now, it makes ‘now’ the perfect time to realise what youth is all about.