North East Institute of Social Sciences and Research (NEISSR), Dimapur organized its annual Youth Knit 2021 on December 13, under the theme “Youth towards excellence” initiated by the Youth Development Forum with an aim to motivate and influence the youth to bring about positive change within themselves and the society through inspirational talks.
The resource persons for the event were promoter, Nagaland Education Consultancy, Steve Chophy and state president National Student Union of India (NSUI) Nagaland, X Chophika Sumi.
Steve Chophy in his inspirational talk shared his life testimony saying that he had gone through many obstacles yet he never gave up. He encouraged the students to cultivate a positive mindset, positive approach and to have positive outlook in life and mentioned, in order to excel in life, a positive mind with strong principles is what one should maintain. He stressed on youth empowerment, personality development, and the importance of career guidance. He added that students should not opt for common courses, but encouraged them to opt for professional courses. He also encouraged the youth to have career alternatives in life, and not to be dependent only on white collared jobs.
X Chophika Sumi, talked about the similarities between the Greek city state and the Nagas having own autonomy with different rules according to tribes. He stressed upon youth empowerment and encouraged the need of political consciousness among the youths in Nagaland. He mentioned about the importance of being self-reliant before joining active politics. Based on his experiences, he advised the youth not to join politics with the sole intention of earning livelihood, but to be part of the system in order to bring changes within the system. Quoting late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said “India is an old country, but a young nation” and further added that youth should not shy away from joining politics because politics determines and governs every aspect of our lives.
Earlier, youth forum co-convener, Johilo Kath introduced Youth Knit. He informed that Youth Knit is conducted to have a better understanding of youth empowerment and to explore the potentials of being an inspirational youth of today’s generation.
Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) for 2019-20, shows that 24.7% are unemployed. Reasons for the high percentage of unemployment rate could be that Nagaland embraced the modern education system very late due to its geographical isolation, lack of professional training institutions, lack of employable skills, conflict, lack of private sectors, and most importantly lack of right aptitude and attitude towards work culture.