Empowering rural youth in India is crucial because they represent a significant portion of the population and can drive economic and social development in rural areas. By providing them with education, skills training, and opportunities, they can contribute to a more prosperous and sustainable future for their communities and the nation as a whole. 

Rural youth constitute a substantial portion of India's population, and empowering them allows the nation to leverage this demographic dividend for economic growth. By creating better opportunities and improving living conditions in rural areas, empowerment initiatives can help reduce the pressure on urban areas and address the challenges of rural-urban migration. Empowering rural youth aligns with several Sustainable Development Goals, including quality education, gender equality, decent work and economic growth, and industry, innovation, and infrastructure. In essence, empowering rural youth is not just about individual development but also about unlocking the potential of rural India and contributing to the overall progress and prosperity of the nation. 

Madurai (Tamil Nadu)-based Nikhil Foundation has been doing yeoman service through its Life Skill Education Programme. The foundation was founded in memory of N. Nighileswaran by his parents. They are philanthropic individuals who started to help the students of various government schools in Tamil Nadu, initially, from 2007. The (one-day free) program, called the Life Skills Education Program for the 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th standard students of government, corporation, municipal, and aided schools, covered topics like “Self-Analysis,” “Goal Setting,” “Effective Communication,” “Human Relations,” and “Memory Skills.”  A 92-page manual on the above topics was distributed to the participating students free of cost, and a certificate of participation was also given. This program aimed at empowering the rural underprivileged youth of this nation. The mission statement mentioned their mission as "by imparting life skill education programs to the youth of this nation in helping them to empower towards excellence for proactive performance and to become responsible citizens and through them strive to make India a frontrunner in bringing out universal peace." Through this well-thought-out program, more than 1 lakh students from various government schools have benefited since its inception. Unfortunately, and in a most unexpected manner, a controversy erupted after a freelance ‘motivational speaker’ delivered a spiritual sermon to students at a government school in Chennai on Aug '24.

 While the motivational speaker was invited to deliver a lecture on self-confidence, he started talking about ‘rebirth,’ ‘sins,’ ‘karma,’ and other beliefs related to the Hindu religion. It is said that the teacher also urged the students to chant “Jai Shriram,” irrespective of their religion, to get rid of the sins they might have committed, as per the beliefs of the Hindu religion. This irresponsible act of the said motivational speaker created a big ruckus among some of the teachers, as they, obviously, belong to other religions. Tamil Nadu’s School Education Department came under severe criticism for allowing a freelance “motivational speaker” to propagate the so-called regressive ideas and talk about sins of the previous birth and karma before students of a popular government girls’ school in Chennai.

This invited outrage from a school staffer, and soon both got into a verbal spat. Netizens criticized the school authorities for inviting such a guest speaker of doubtful character and called for action. The education minister, A. Mahesh, took note of the incident and transferred the school principal and also promised action against the motivational speaker. The Tamil Nadu government, being famous for its anti-Hindu stand all along, took this very seriously and soon after issued a notification to stop outside faculty lecturing in the schools. A few days after the incident, the motivational speaker, who delivered the controversial speech at Chennai government school, was arrested later in Chennai International Airport on his return from overseas.  He was arrested by the police on September 7th following a complaint from a visually impaired teacher who alleged that the motivational speaker had insulted and demeaned the teacher during the event. The arrest was based on multiple IPC sections, including promoting enmity between different groups and intentional insult. The freelance teacher was later granted bail after tendering an unconditional apology. It is to be noted that this is not the mistake of the foundation. An individual had gone overboard and lectured about his religion and its principles, which created unwarranted comments and criticism from the staffer as well as from the government. It is also to be noted that several private schools, particularly those managed by different Christian organizations/missions, have made Bible reading mandatory, irrespective of the religion of the children. Many such schools even practice the acts of asking the school students not to wear bindis on the forehead or flowers in the hair or henna on the hands, as these are deemed against the religious beliefs of Christianity.

The state government of Tamil Nadu never questions these acts, as these schools are managed by the minority religions, and their vote bank support is a must for the ruling party in the elections. Whereas, the people of the Hindu religion are mostly not united, and many of them openly support the ruling party for various reasons, despite their stand against the majority Hindu religion. Judging the holy mission of empowering the poor students by a stray incident is not fully correct. The government should take relevant remedial measures to prevent such irresponsible acts by some vested interests. So, ever since the incident and following the state government notification, the foundation has stuck only with the government college students and not with the school students. In order to empower the college students (through its Empower Thyself program), the foundation, with the help of its trainers, teaches various subjects such as “Self Analysis, Goal Setting, Effective Communication, Human Relations, Memory Skills, Achievement Motivation, and Leadership.” 

In addition, the foundation is also embarking on programs in Tamil to empower the rural public through its various publications. Apart from empowering the students and the public, in general, the foundation has been involved in the empowerment activities for the teachers as well. Programs on presentation skills, classroom handling, emotional intelligence, assertiveness, stress management, teaching methodology, teaching objectives, etc., are conducted according to their needs and willingness.

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