I write this experience as a commoner of a not so common city in a very complicated country. Delhi, a ‘historic’ city, with many historical names-but a city which has now spread its tentacles so vast and so deep, it’s fair to call it simply the National Capital Region or more commonly the NCR. I use the term ‘city’ slightly loosely here maneuvering away from the technical definitions.

There was a sense of solidarity that brought the NCR together this week. Conversations on roads, homes, offices, malls, metro and even in the studios of some Delhi based national news channels were all dictated by a small group of people who proudly call themselves ‘Bhole Ki Fauj’(Army Of Shiva). This very enthusiastic group of youth was in transit through Delhi as part of their annual pilgrimage. They led with slogans of ‘Bum Bum Bhole’ while the rest of the city was forced to join them in chorus ‘Bum Bum Bhole, Traffic Kholein, Aur Ho Sake Toh Kuch Na Todein’.

I had, courtesy ‘Bhole Ki Fauj’, the good fortune of spending many hours with fellow dwellers of NCR, over the last week. Most of us were simply trying to make our way to offices, only to realise that it was not going to be simple. We could see no roads, only cars, while the Delhi Metro ran overloaded coaches. It was a deluge, not the Bombay monsoon kinds, but a deluge of human kind.

Stuck in my hour plus journey to office I was reminded of a quote by one wise panelist on a discussion based on urban issues. ‘Our population is our strength and it is not a negative’. Well, after the ‘Bum Bum Bhole’ experience that held our city to ransom I am compelled to think-is it the urban structuring or our social structuring that needs to come first to fix what we call ‘urban issues’.

If numbers are to be believed India is all set to become the youngest country by 2020. Every third person in an Indian city today is a youth. In about seven years, the median age of individual in India will be 29 years, compared to 37 for China and 48 for Japan. But the big question remains will this youth be productive enough to transform our nation into a super power? The answer would be a big NO, as long as they are misdirected as these ‘Kanwariyas’ are.

So who are these ‘Kanwariyas’? They mostly belong to the economically weaker & therefore a marginalized class. Any religious festival is an occasion for them to vent their anger. This perhaps gives them a misplaced sense of empowerment. Kawariyas are not alone, It also happens during ‘Ganesh Visarjan’ in Mumbai and during many other festivals. Saying it isn’t a big deal simply does not cut ice in an overburdened city infrastructure.

Many metros face similar traffic paralysis everyday albeit for different reasons. Look at the pathetic state of Gurgaon-The Millennium City during monsoon or for that matter plight of Mumbaikars’ when rains pour down. To struggle everyday has become a part of city dwellers lifestyle perhaps.

Where does the solution lie? Is it in building world class infrastructure? The answer would be a plain ‘No’. We also need to learn to use that infrastructure. We have to devise ways to avoid administrative collapses to happen, which means we need to train our officials to manage such situations.

Above all we need to devise ways to make the youth of ours productive. Our political class needs to realise that such giving carte blanch permission to disrupt lives of lakhs of people to ‘Bhole Ki Fauj’ , their vote bank will soon come back to bite them. Such a class also sits on a social time bomb, waiting to explode. They need meaningful employment, and a ladder to climb up the social hierarchy. The unemployment rate in the 15-24 year age group is around 11% which is higher than the country average of 8%. The political leadership needs to urgently plan for the holistic development of this army of unemployed youth.

Per capita Income of India is $ 5,350 a tad over Bangladesh & Pakistan as compared to $11,850 of China and $37,790 of Japan in purchasing power parity terms. Around 25% of India’s population lives below the poverty line, literacy rate though has grown to over 74%, it is still at a level well below the world average literacy rate of 84%.

Time is running out. So really the urgency is not so much about building smart cities, but for making our people Smart. People of Delhi-NCR meanwhile can breathe a sigh of relief! The ‘Bhole Ki Fauj’ will come back only next year and monsoon will soon be out of the way!

Saurabh Chakravertty, Associate Editor- NDTV.