CPI(M) to engage with the youth in residential areas, cultural spheres

CPI(M) report for 24th Party Congress focuses on attracting youth through social, cultural engagement and revamping party organization.

The political-organisational report of the CPI(M) which will be presented at its 24th Party Congress in Madurai later this week will dwell on innovative ways to attract the youth to the party.

The report, according to a senior leader, acknowledges the party’s “failure in reaching out sufficiently to the youth” and proposes to organise activities for students and the youth in residential areas, sports arenas and cultural spaces, including libraries.

The leader noted that barriers to campus politics in most educational institutions have prevented a vast majority of students from participating in democratic activities in their formative years.

“The nature of changes in the educational system and structure has had an adverse impact on the consciousness of students. How does one reach out to these students is something we’ve been discussing. The youth, while being aspirational, are also faced with the hard realities of the day. In the north in the last few years, tens of thousands of youths came out on the streets protesting question paper leakages, jobs being fixed, etc. They are frustrated, but we have not been able to address them adequately... This is why we are thinking of engaging with them in social and cultural spheres and extensively using social media platforms,” the leader said.  

As of 2024, the CPI(M) has 10,19,009 members, with over 50% (5.64 lakh) in Kerala.

As part of revamping the party organisation “to effectively take on the growth and spread of the Hindutva ideology”, the CPI(M), it is learnt, will ask its cadres to engage with the people in cultural and religious forums while in States such as West Bengal and Tripura where the party has considerably weakened, the effort will be to activate the party branch committees, the basic unit of the CPI(M), as genuine forums to connect to different sections of people. “The repair is to start from the lowest rung and move upwards,” said a leader. 

There’s a realisation that the party’s understanding of the social and economic changes across sections could well be dated or out of sync with contemporary realities. It will, therefore, ask the State units to carry out extensive studies to know these sections up-close so that it can address them more effectively.