Youth A Neglected Chunk of Pakistani Population

Your main occupation should be in fairness to yourself, to your parents, in fairness to the State, to devote your attention to your studies. If you fritter away your energies now, you will always regret.’

In November 2009, the New York Times (NYT) while citing a report, commissioned by the British Council, wrote that ‘Pakistan will face a ‘demographic disaster’ if it does not address the needs of its young generation.’ Similar remarks were quoted by Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in a case study. It is a well-established fact that our youth is passing through a tumultuous phase. Unemployment had forced the young people to join hands with the banned outfits. Luckily, Pakistan has a privilege of having 63% of the total population comprising young people of below 25 years of age. It has been unfortunate so far to turn this huge capital into an asset. A number of young and talented people are often seen begging on roads, at auto workshops tuning a car, dealing with second class work at homes, etc.  Drug addiction has become a norm amongst disgruntled youth in the society.

During the previous fiscal year, the growth rate remained at 2.5% of the GDP. According to Economic Survey of Pakistan, the employment elasticity increased from 0.40 over the past 1974-2010 to 0.65 for 2000-2009. The rate of unemployment stood at 5.6%. In order to absorb such a great number of unemployed people, the growth rate is to be kept at 10% of the GDP. This needs to discover and utilise abundant resources both in formal and informal sectors. The further discussion elaborates that why the youth is below par and what should be done to combat this menace of unemployment.

In Pakistan, the total labour force is 58.41 million persons. This makes Pakistan among the world’s top ten labour forces. If the force is further subdivided into formal and informal sectors, it will be astonishing to see that 72% of the total labour force is associated with the informal sector. There can be so many reasons for that. High drop-out rate from schools, no vocational training available, no apprenticeship taken prior to joining hands with the firm are the main reasons behind.

The labour force is growing enormously at the rate of 3.4% which is actually greater the population growth rate. 13-15% of youth cohorts are able to complete their secondary education. Thus, they have to seek for labour work in the market. Hence, they are either forced to be a part of child labour or join their family business without formal education.

Career counselling and job placement opportunities for youth are almost non-existent; however, there are few exceptions, for instance, institutions like LUMS and IBA has successfully placed their graduates against private sector apprenticeship and subsequent employment opportunities. Similarly, ROZEE.com and CareerPakistan.com have been recently established to cater the higher end job market. On the other hand, the uneducated and educated youth with no access to and awareness of IT remains excluded. The public sector sponsored apprenticeship training programme, which focused on mobilising training in organised private sector enterprises for less educated and skilled youth, has pathetically failed. The problem of gap between supply and demand for skills is also thwarting growth. With fewer employment opportunities on the demand side, a huge bulk of new entrants on the supply side remains underserved in the job market.

Young people are, undoubtedly, the future of Pakistan and their aspirations matter; therefore, not only every young person counts but children as well, because they pass from a formative phase of youth towards adulthood. The youth strategy shall look at Pakistani youth with a ‘big picture’, a global perspective, and develop a strategy to make them a productive and integral part of the global knowledge-based economy. There is a clear need to understand youth and develop a policy for them. The following are the some of the objectives of a youth strategy:

Character building is one of the main ingredients to set the youth in the right direction. This phenomenon starts from the cradle. The youth cohorts must possess strong integrity and solidarity. These would only be inculcated if youth think that they are the builders of the nation and state.

Enabling employment is one of the most important parameter in order to rehabilitate the youth. Such objective can be achieved through different means; the most effective is to ensure skill development and vocational training programmes. Such programmes help the youth to keep abreast of all the things happening in the market. This not only elevates the stature of the young but also help them in raising their standard of life.

Another way to generate employment is to ensure entrepreneurship on the behalf of the youth cohorts. Young people are energetic and industrious. They are ever ready to take challenges on and have the ability to achieve their goals. Therefore, they should start their entrepreneurs. This will generate employment opportunities. In this regard, parents should acknowledge their children if they are going to operate some industry or organisation.

Micro financing is a tool where youth can pump in the money into their enterprises. Government should grant soft loans to such people. This will also help in reducing the poverty.

Internship is the first step to learn the practical knowledge. Government should make a policy that all the registered firms would grant internships to the young people. This would not only help them in obtaining the practical knowledge but also inculcate in them the ability to earn a respectable livelihood.

Promoting sports and recreational activities is another basic element to fresh mind. Sports activities not only provide opportunities to keep one healthy but also impart a sense of competency. Thus, a young person must learn art of achieving success. Recreational trips should also be arranged as they provide opportunities to keep body and soul free from all tensed environment.

The government must start some schemes to grant scholarships to the talented youth of the country. Punjab government takes the credit of granting laptops to the talented students. These activities provide encouragement to the young generation and create a sense of satisfaction that their hard work is being acknowledged.

Youth health activity campaigns provide opportunity to learn about the diseases. Thus, the young cohorts are given ample opportunity to learn about different diseases, their preventive measures and the steps to avert them.

In a nutshell, the energetic youth of Pakistan is seemingly facing a terrible future; however, there are ample opportunities to avoid it. The foremost thing is to avoid brain drain in the society. Market parameters are designed to absorb the young talent in a fruitful way. This will only happen if the prime focus is to train the youth according to the requirements of the market. Training, vocational work programme, internships are the extensions of the aforesaid idea.