Curacao's lesson on demographic dividend

India has made a mantra out of the term 'demographic dividend': 1.4 bn people and a youthful workforce that will automatically lead to inevitable greatness. Yet, qualification of Curacao, a Caribbean island that's part of the Netherlands with a population of 1.6 lakh - fewer people than the municipal town of Malappuram in Kerala - for the Fifa World Cup tournament next year offers a sobering counterpoint. Beyond the obvious comparison of footballing prowess - Curacao is 82nd in the latest Fifa world ranking, India, 142nd - the world's 190th-most-populated country teaches the most populated one that demography, by its own, doesn't translate to 'destiny'.

Curacao's achievement is the product of organisation, discipline and policy that packs a national team with players born and raised in the Netherlands (7th in Fifa ranking). So, when we moan about how India 'can't find 11 World Cup-level footballers from 1.4 bn people', we are missing the ball for the goalpost. In far too many spheres, India seems to be an advocate of a variation of the 'infinite monkey theorem' - the belief that a monkey hitting keys randomly on a keyboard for an infinite amount of time will ultimately come up with the complete works of Shakespeare. Big numbers do hold an advantage. But that advantage is frittered away when investment (money included) and accountability become footnotes to the blind belief that population alone will make us great - as an advanced footballing nation or an economic one.

Success is not a lottery weighted by headcount, but a prize earned through systems that reward merit and punish indolence. For India, a real demographic dividend will materialise only when its institutions and policywalas stop coasting on size and start sweating the details.