Discipline is the main ingredient of nation building. No country in the world will prosper without inculcating discipline among its youth. Discipline helps a person acquire inner strength, self control, patience, perseverance and self esteem; it enhances productivity, prevents income erosion, sharpens skills and creativity. 

Discipline lays the foundation of the economic, social, cultural and spiritual development of a country. Today, India fails to realize its true potential due to lack of discipline. How to put people on the path of discipline is the biggest challenge before the country.

Rampant indiscipline

Over decades, India has lost many generations of youth who have grown up in an atmosphere of indiscipline. If one takes a road trip around the country, he will come across glaring examples of indiscipline on roads, places of worship, tourist places, schools, hospitals, railway stations, sports centers, offices, bus stops and market places etc. Driving through the Hyderabad city road is life threatening as the majority of cars drive with high beams. It seems those people don’t realize that their behavior puts many people in danger. One will come across broken humps, roads with deep potholes, fuming vehicles and errant youth whizzing past with two wheelers. 

The ORR (Outer Ring Road) is a death trap which kills and injures scores of people daily; no road rule is followed in ORR.  Indian urban centers which are economic growth hubs erode huge productivity hours due to poor traffic management, unreliable public transportation and rash driving. One rule for common man and for VIPs will reduce this perennial inconvenience on roads.   

Alcohol related deaths 

A study on Health Impact and Economic Burden of Alcohol Consumption in India, estimates that alcohol-attributable deaths would lead to a loss of 258 million life-years between 2011 and 2050.  The study shows the economic burden on the health system at $ 48.11 billion, and the societal burden which includes health costs, productivity loss etc at $1,867 billion. This amounts to an average loss of 1.45% of the gross domestic product (GDP) per year to the Indian economy. The huge loss is many times more than the easy revenue from the liquor sale which constitutes 15% of the total tax revenue of India’s 21 states.  Like liquor, the drug addiction is fast spreading to Tier II cities and villages. A recent survey reveals that about 2.8% of the population reports having used any cannabis product within the previous year. 

According to public data maintained by howindialives.com, out of around 467,000 road accidents occurred in India in 2018, drunken driving was responsible for 12,018 accidents and 4,188 deaths. Lack of discipline is the main reason why fatal accidents take nearly 100 precious lives every month in the ORR of Hyderabad. 

The freebie culture 

The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has launched Nasha Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan (NMBA) in 272 most vulnerable districts since August 2020. For a Nasha Mukt Bharat, various governments should limit the liquor sale and find alternate sources of revenue. Awareness campaigns and strong laws will reduce the life threatening addiction among the youth. Revenue and GDP growth are of no use if our youth become lazy and unproductive. 

The distribution of free food, freebies and subsidies by political parties has created massive idle energy across the country which breeds indiscipline. People abhor physical work, sell agricultural land and migrate to cities. They prefer to do menial jobs, live on rental income or bank interest than creating their own economic assets.  

Yoga inculcates self-discipline

Research conducted by the Journal of Personality found that proper discipline can help individuals to achieve the goals that matter most to them.  Discipline isn’t a way to remove the spirit from teenagers but is instead one of the most useful and important skills any man can possess. Proper discipline focuses upon inner strength, self-control, and the ability to manage actions and reactions.

Good schools significantly improve the level of discipline among the youth. Each and every child deserves quality school which will help him acquire the much needed discipline and knowledge for nation building. Yoga disciplines both mind and body. It has extraordinary therapeutic uses and it strengthens the immune system.  Today, awareness has spread and yoga has become part of life for millions of Indians.  This is high time for the leaders in every field to set personal examples of self-discipline which will influence the young generation. 

(The writer is a sustainable economic activities analyst. Views expressed are personal. He can be contacted at sudhansuranjandas2007@gmail.com )