Adolescent issues in India

Youth policies, laws, and programs have attempted to respond to the demographic fact that the population of India is very young. Social science literature in India is rich with descriptions of demographic and cultural characteristics of youth while also providing extensive analysis of youth policies and programs. One drawback of current literature on youth in India involves the poor focus on adolescents as a significant demographic component of the youth population. This chapter provides a brief discussion of selected social problems confronting the adolescents in India today alongside with current governmental efforts in terms of laws, policies, and programs to prevent and assuage the undesirable consequences of social problems. It is argued that the difference between social problems and programs and policies intended to solve those social problems is a number of intrinsic flaws. They appear to be haphazard and ill conceived. Policies lack a broad conceptualization of adolescents as a group and their health needs. In this regard, it is argued that a rights-based approach toward building capacities among adolescents today enjoys widespread appeal, especially when dealing with vulnerable groups such adolescents. In addition, we argue that a Bourdiean perspective provides a rich theoretical stance to locate adolescents as a client group in need of capacity building.