In the previous article, I highlighted that the youth of our country are politically active in various important ways, however to translate that into electoral participation it needs a more thought out approach. The first and foremost aspect of electoral participation is to simplify the process of voter registration, especially in times of widescale migration from one’s home constituency to another part of the state or country.
I showed in my previous article how countries across the world have tried to address this problem by making voter registration either compulsory or automatic, and even punishing with fines in some countries if one fails to register after crossing the voting age. However, more than a punitive approach to encourage youth participation, we need to think of a positive engagement with the youth that can motivate and inspire them to participate. What better way to have a positive engagement with children and youth than through an engaging educational pedagogy. So in this article, let us have a deeper look at this piece of the puzzle – citizenship education, which includes a substantive engagement with our Constitution.
The condition of civics and citizenship education in school and colleges
A central aspect of converting youth political participation into electoral participation is the crucial aspect of citizenship education. However, the only time a young person encounters a semblance of citizenship or Constitutional literacy is during their high school civics lessons, which can be insufficient due to multiple reasons. Although our National Educational Policies of 1968, 1986 and 2020 as well as National Curriculum Framework of 2005 and 2023 have time and again put Constitutional literacy at the core of education, the implementation has been lacking.
Some of these challenges include a didactical pedagogy without much emphasis on how to practice citizenship – both the rights and duties enshrined in it. Or a rote examination system which reduces education to memorizing and regurgitating rather than practicing, reflecting, and transforming behavior. Unfortunately Higher Educational Institutions don’t even have those few civics lessons, leave alone a full fledged engagement with the Constitution – its preamble, its provisions (including rights and duties) and most importantly the embedded values.
It is appalling to see how Constitutional values get left out of schooling and higher education when actually it should be the first thing to be taught and revisited often as envisaged in our policies. The ‘aims of education’ of any country are first and foremost decided by the guiding principles enshrined in their Constitution (whether written or unwritten). Otherwise we can’t magically hope the children and youth to imbibe the democratic values on their own.
This lack of grounding in Constitutional values, rights and duties, often show up in either disinterest in the democratic process or sometimes even worse, that can threaten to affect the fraternity among youth. To illustrate this with an example, consider the time when reservations for Other Backward Classes (OBC) were being implemented in higher educational institutions in 2006. I was in IIT Delhi that time finishing my engineering degree and it felt that the entire campus was up in protest against the implementation of reservation, led by the group called Youth for Equality.
Nearby institutions in Delhi like AIIMS were with IIT on their demands to reject affirmative action, whereas students from marginalized communities were supporting the implementation to deepen social justice supported by progressive students in solidarity. A survey done by Lokniti, CSDS found a clear divide between youth on the question of reservation. We see a similar divide on the question of reservation in the larger society and what is its purpose and whether it should be based on social identities or economic situation.
Now when the Constitution clearly mentions the provisions for affirmative action in fundamental rights (Article 15 and 16) and is embedded in the preamble where Justice and Fraternity is mentioned, then why do we see such a divided opinion on this matter. Clearly the definition of Equality and Social Justice that the group Youth for Equality is using doesn’t incorporate the concerns of Equity or understanding of historical injustices, which the Constitution makers had clearly incorporated. There is a false binary created between merit and reservation which allows for a widespread anti-reservation sentiment that goes completely against the Constitutional values of bringing justice and equality for historically marginalized communities.
Similarly reservation for political representation of women and marginalized communities is also seen as a problem rather than as part of the solution to address historical injustices. Even though IITs and AIIMS have humanities and social science courses as compulsory part of engineering and medical curriculum, there is no clear mandate on including Constitutional values in them and to explain the history and logic of each of those values, especially affirmative action. So in a way we have not been able to educate the youth (and the larger society) about our own Constitution which is creating misgivings about its fundamental tenets leading to a lack of positive engagement with the democratization processes.
At the same time, it is highly important to ensure that the pedagogical approach to engage with Constitutional values is dialogical and interactive rather than a unidirectional imposition. The fact that the Constitution is a living document, and the youth can playfully engage with it need to be extremely central to the pedagogy. It should not come across as a document set in stone which the youth either accepts wholesale or rejects wholesale.
There should be enough space to make the Constitution one’s own by understanding the spirit in which it was made but also to adapt it to the changing context of our times. With an openness to dialogue and positive change, the Constitution can remain a relevant and living document that can be put in everyday practice of our social lives.
In the next article, I am going to discuss the role of institutions including state institutions, market and civil society in aiding youth participation in the democratic processes of the country. Without the institutions taking the moral responsibility of this aim, we can’t hope to make an engaged youth citizenry.
Asim Siddiqui teaches Philosophy and Development at Azim Premji University and works with many Youth Development Organizations. ‘The content and opinions expressed are that of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Azim Premji University.’