POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS: RECIPROCATING ON THE PERCEPTIONS OF YOUTH

With India emerging as one of the important world powers, understanding the political consciousness of the youth regarding socio-cultural and political terrains would be a prime concern. The perceptions of youth could be decisive in shaping various discourses on culture, society, environment, and development. The power of the youth can be cultivated for constructive activities and hence their perceptions and attitudes need to be rationalised. To shape a country with a better future, the youth need to be educated and trained to think politically. Political rationality and neutrality would be one of the vital characteristic features needed to be acquainted with the increasing intensity of socioeconomic and environmental problems. The opinion-making of the younger generation is expected to be unbiased and without the influence of politically vested interests and party agendas. It would be apt to hence reflect upon the political consciousness of the younger population. Consciousness shapes perceptions of a person vis-à-vis how they acknowledge the current situation in society. Understanding the perception of youth would thus reflect the larger political processes that are shaping the young generations' political perceptions. The research engages in making enquiries into the current socio-economic conditions, political situations, and other such relevant issues to investigate their perceptions. The research also makes the generation indulge in questions of policies, policy-making and their implications. The youths from the cities have been targeted specifically to understand the process of shaping political consciousness. As the cities are powerful in terms of politico-economic positions and seat of various political deliberations, it is presumed that the city youths are privileged to have well-defined perceptions on various issues with academic backgrounds and wider exposure. The proposed research attempts at mapping the “political consciousness” of the younger population to understand how their political perceptions have been shaped. The research also attempts to capture how far the youth are aware of the current socio-cultural and politico-economic issues. Finally, the research attempts to culminate the dialogue with the younger population to grasp their preferences regarding their own lives and the community at large.