I hail from the southern Indian state of Kerala. A state that has seen rapid improvements in social, religious and political changes over the last 40 years. From a state with its inhabitants living in absolute poverty to having a Human Development Index comparable to countries such as Malaysia. Kerala remains an ideal example of strategic political reforms. However, for most of us millennials who haven’t much accepted this rich history and politics, the drawback of such a situation strikes us in the form of our parents who quite often haven’t quite caught up to this transition. What I feel this state lacks is it’s the ability to effectively provide exposure to the younger generations. Experience and knowledge isn’t always a function of age.Every generation possesses more knowledge than the generation that came before them and in a region with such rapid rates of development this knowledge growth is exponential and most of us fail to accept this simple fact. The possibility of our progeny, being more experienced than ourselves. As a result, we still live in a society that portrays the stereotypical imagery as ideal. For instance, an ideal male is supposedly someone, who is stronger than her female counterpart and a multi-talented individual. A man in our social structure is supposedly forced into liking a lot of things say sports and driving. Added to such stereotypical society, we are reluctant towards mental health problems such as ADHD and Depression. This has reluctant towards a large number of individuals burdened with immense pressure mere victims of a society that hasn’t adapted to its environment.
Another sector which has fallen prey to is the business sector. Kerala has one of the most educated and healthiest workforces in the country. Yet the entire startup culture here is pretty dull despite the government investing crores (1 Crore = 10 Million ) of rupees into promoting them. This I believe again has to do with the social stigma surrounding the industry. Sure, starting a business from scratch is scary. It is even scarier if you are from a region haunted by its sad history comprising of absolute poverty and struggles.