Adolescent Empowerment through Life Skills Education
In the age of rapid globalization, industrialization, economic liberalization, expansion of information technology and rise in consumerism, the children and especially adolescents are exposed to lot of psycho social issues. Adolescents aged 10–19 years constitute about one-fourth of India’s population and young people aged 10–24 years about one-third of the population. This large cohort of young people represents a great demographic dividend with the potential to contribute to India’s economic growth and development. Violence and hostility are the hall marks of day today living and women and children are the worst affected section of the society. Changes in social, moral, cultural and religious values have made life stressful for children especially for adolescents. This can be observed in the rise of crime and suicide rates etc. Stress faced by children and adolescents are enormous and life skills are essentially those abilities that help to promote mental well-being and competence in young people for to challenge the diversities and ensure their empowerment. In order to realize this potential to the fullest, young people must be healthy, educated and equipped with information skills and confidence that would enable them to contribute to their communities and the country’s socio-economic growth. In the present paper the investigator goes through the importance of life skills, various life skills and adolescent’s empowerment through the life skills based education.