Shopping and spending-Is India's youth loosing economic balance?

There is a consensus among many people belonging to young and old generations in India that the nation's youth is losing economic balance by shopping and spending. They opine that the teenagers and young work-executives are under the influence of western culture and are recklessly spending on wasteful luxuries. However, I believe there is another perspective to this popular notion about India's youth. A close examination of the demographic and economic profile of India reveals that its youth is dominated by responsible, calculative and sensible youngsters.

India is the second most populous nation in the world with thirty percent of its population falling under the age group of 15 to 25. They belong to different economic standards and occupations. For instance, seventy percent of India's 1.1 billion population is living in rural areas. They do not have access to basic amenities of life. They are tilling soil to earn one square meal a day. This implies that a part of India's youth is poor and ignorant of the existence of modern India with all the shopping malls and luxury goods.

Similarly, 300 million middle-class families constitute the majority of India's urban population. Urban youth includes teenagers, graduates and work-executives. Most of them hail from middle-class families. Their shoestring budget compels them to focus primarily on education and career of children. Hence, the paltry pocket money gives little or no scope to these youngsters to spend on wasteful luxuries. However, they are not deprived of minimum recreational activity. Occasional shopping in malls and watching movies in multiplexes is part of their lifestyle.

Also, a large part of young Indian executives are sole bread earners in many families. They are enjoying their professional career by quickly adapting to the western work culture and are as well attending to the needs of their parents and family. These youngsters are slogging day and night to provide better life to their family members. Their lifestyle is based on 'a penny saved is a penny earned'. Many of them are individual investors in stock market and real estate industry of India. I consider this group maintains an equilibrium of what they earn, save and spend. While I observe that most of India's youth is economical and sensible in shopping and spending, there is another group of youngsters who fall under a different category. These are the children of wealthy parents getting huge sums of pocket money or young executives working to earn money for spending it on amusement. I consider this group of India's youth is less in number when compared to the large number of calculative and responsible youngsters hailing from other economic status.

Finally, I think that socialising with friends, wearing trendy clothes and shopping for better quality branded products, is not losing one's economic balance. It is just a changing lifestyle with the changing times. Thus, I conclude that India's youth is living a balanced and healthy lifestyle.

Madhuri Sankella