THE 11th all India conference of the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) will be held in Salt Lake, West Bengal, from May 12-15, 2022, with the slogan ‘Youth Struggle for Secular India and Right to Employment’. The conference will be hosted at Diego Maradona Nagar, Eastern Zonal Cultural Centre, Salt Lake. Approximately 650 youth from all parts of India will participate in the conference among which at least 20 per cent will be young women. The conference will be preceded by a massive youth rally on May 12, 2022. A series of programmes including cultural events, seminars, symposiums and other programmes are scheduled to be conducted across the country, marking the four-day-long conference. It's been 27 years since the fifth all India conference in 1995 that Bengal is hosting another national conference of the DYFI.

Since its inception in Ludhiana, Punjab, in 1980, DYFI has been at the forefront of the struggles for securing youth’s rights, especially in employment and education, across India. This consistent involvement in mass struggles has earned it the trust of the Indian youth and has made DYFI the largest youth organisation in our country and second-largest in the world with a membership of 12.5 million. However, the anti-people policies of the ruling classes have resulted in more aggravated issues among today’s youth.

In the aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, many Left-wing progressive organisations and communist parties around the world faced a crisis. Many movements were disbanded or ceased to exist but the Indian youth movement continued to take up the slogan - ‘Socialism is the future and the future is ours’.

 In the last two and half decades of a neoliberal regime, our country has witnessed a sharp rise in unemployment and inequality. The present government at the centre is not only pursuing the policies of liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation aggressively but also creating divisions among the masses in the name of religion. The growing menace of religious intolerance and ultra-nationalism coupled with a tendency to suppress dissent in the public sphere is a grave concern to every democratic and secular-minded Indian. Our 11th conference will address all these issues which plague the lives of India’s people, more than half of whom are youth.

Since the 10th all India conference held in Kochi in 2017, over four lakh new members have joined the DYFI. The organisation has been able to move forward in the face of major challenges in West Bengal and Tripura.  There is a steady increase in membership in states like Maharashtra, Telangana and Tamil Nadu. Seven brave comrades lost their lives since the last conference. Four in Kerala and one each in West Bengal, Tripura and Tamil Nadu were killed by reactionary forces.

The DYFI all India conference is being held at a time when Indian youth face unprecedented challenges and crises.  Unemployment in India has reached a historic high in recent years. The unemployment rate of 6.1 per cent for 2017-18 that the National Sample Survey Organisation’s (NSSO) Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS) reported was the highest in 45 years. PLFS 2018-19, the last such survey before the Covid -19 pandemic, reported an unemployment rate of 5.8 per cent – only marginally lower than the 2017-18 figures.

Unemployment in the country has risen to 12.4 per cent, and the unemployment rate among educated youth is expected to rise to 15 per cent. Three million vacancies are yet to be filled or reported. Unemployment is accelerating with the privatisation and ban on recruitment. The economic slowdown in India had worsened the jobs situation much before the pandemic crisis set in – the country had “jobless growth” even during the years when economic growth was high, but in recent years even the absolute number of employed people has fallen. Some economists have termed this situation “job-loss growth”.

The allocation for the MGNREGA, which was formed as a result of the interventions and pressure of the Left parties in the first UPA government, has been declining every year since 2014. This creates a situation where the very idea of ​​the project is subverted. We are demanding effective reforms in the scheme like doubling the guaranteed days of work from 100 to 200 and providing an employment guarantee for all the members of the same family who are eligible for work. DYFI organised a national convention on the right to employment in November 2019. It was designed to develop a better understanding of the crisis, which is particularly affecting the youth and chalking out concrete demands that the youth movement could put forward and fight for. One of the concrete demands that the convention put forward was a proposal for an Urban Employment Guarantee Act. The conference will take up solid action plans on this.

The irresponsible attitude of the central government in its failure to deal with the Covid -19 pandemic has resulted in the loss of thousands of lives.  There has been a major failure to cope and deal with the economic downturn and job insecurity caused by Covid-19. Young people were directly and indirectly affected by these conditions. Meanwhile, DYFI has done exemplary work by organising the youth during this pandemic. DYFI was at the forefront of battling this deadly disease which has pushed our country into unparalleled disaster. After the virus was reported in India, DYFI committees started intense awareness campaigns across the nation from the very beginning. At the national level, DYFI had set up a 24×7 helpline for people who need assistance, including food and medicines. We had received over a thousand calls from different states, majorly from migrant labourers who were stranded without any means to survive. By utilising whatever organisational capabilities in each state, DYFI could provide maximum help to the people in need. The Kerala DYFI committees conducted admirable work during this period which many complemented. DYFI committees in other states followed this model immediately. DYFI in all states formed volunteer groups for blood donation and food packet distribution.

When it comes to the challenges in the education sector, the public expenditure on education remains low compared to global standards. The central government is withdrawing from public sector engagement and enhancement but encouraging large financial capital to thrive, resulting in inequality and disparity. Universalising and expanding education, healthcare, housing and distribution systems would generate more jobs while also addressing food insecurity and malnutrition. Universal public provisioning of these would add to the efforts to address the concerns of the educated unemployed youth.

In our country, assault on democracy and federalism is very evident these days. The right-wing ambience is not just destroying the ‘idea of India’ but its structure itself.  There is an impetuous attack on values upholding principles of reason and scientific temper as well. Politically, this government is acting as a tool to implement the RSS project of ‘Hindu Rashtra’ by dismantling our secular democratic republic.  The Hindutva forces, emboldened by the Modi government, are relentlessly engaged in activities to aggravate communal polarization and infiltrate public institutions. Today the country is in a fascist atmosphere where reactionary tendencies and attitudes are active all over the region. Things are going on here that challenge the very essence and very existence of our Constitution.

Increasing authoritarianism undermines the spirit of our constitution when it attacks our scientific temper, rational thinking, and freedom of expression. Now, this authoritarian regime combines communalism and pseudo nationalism to create a deadly combination. The outcome is a new polarization between nationalists and anti-nationalists. Any criticism is branded anti-national. DYFI declares our staunch commitment to combating RSS Hindutva nationalism. In terms of patriotism, we are committed to the idea of a secular, democratic, multicultural and plural India. Our concepts of nationalism are based on Bhagat Singh, Udham Singh, Rajguru, and Azad's freedom struggle and martyrdom. These great martyrs are the source of our patriotism. Close associates and comrades of Bhagat Singh, Comrade Shiv Varma, and Pandit Kishorilal were present at the founding conference of the DYFI in Ludhiana in 1980. Their legacy was to be carried on by DYFI. Savarkar, who repeatedly pleaded for clemency before the British, is not our legacy. Whether against the discriminatory legislations like the CAA or in support of students, artists, and intellectuals dubbed as anti-national, the DYFI has stood steadfast.

The 11th all India conference of the DYFI will be convened in this context. During the conference, young people from different parts of the country will thoroughly examine and discuss the challenges they face. Organisational failures and challenges will be examined and accurate plans will be drawn up for future struggles, programs and activities, objectively considering the contemporary situation. DYFI has been at the forefront of struggles against unemployment and issues concerning the youth. The 11th all India conference will examine the experiences of the struggles and will formulate concrete slogans to intensify them. 

The West Bengal unit of DYFI and the reception committee are working with great enthusiasm to make the conference a huge success. A concrete action plan will emerge from the deliberations of the conference to build a vibrant youth movement at the all India level and unleash a wave of relentless struggles to fulfil the essence of secular India, upholding the fight for the right to employment.