WORLD YOUTH DAY I

Youth, the valuable asset of the country, is deprived of the privilege of education, training and employment when they are expected to lead the nation to prosperity.

The young population of Pakistan is one of its most valuable assets. Youngsters play a key role in the development of a country, and their large proportion in a country’s population can ensure its speedy development in the form of a unique and highly effective manpower. In this age of competition, the presence of highly educated and technically skilled young people in a country can play a significant role in guaranteeing an elevated status for it in the comity of nations. For this very reason, every possible effort is made across the world, to make the best use of their talents and abilities. By means of effective policies and steps, their constructive participation is encouraged in every walk of life. Under the auspices of the United Nations, World Youth Day is observed each year on August 12, to ensure their practical participation in every walk of life, including industry, trade, livestock, health, education, employment, science, technology, peace time activities and politics.

People belonging to the age group of 15 to 24 years, are described as youngsters by the United Nations. Seen in this context, the World Youth Day has a special significance for Pakistan, which has the world’s fifth largest number of youngsters in its population. According to the International Database of US Census Bureau, the number of such persons in Pakistan was 41235657 till June 2012. In this way, youngsters make up 21.7 per cent of the country’s total population. With reference to the ratio of youths in its population, Pakistan is 14th among the 228 countries of the world. It is interesting to note that while the United Nations describe the people belonging to the age group of 15 to 24 years as youngsters, Pakistan follows the Commonwealth’s criterion, according to which people belonging to the age group of 15 to 29 years, are categorized as youngsters. But even if this second formula is applied, Pakistan has the fifth largest number of youngsters in its population. According to the International Database of US Census Bureau, their number was 57862590 till the middle of 2012. In this way, 30.4 per cent of Pakistan’s population consists of youngsters. Pakistan is 22nd in the global ranking of 228 countries, with reference to the number of youngsters belonging to the age of 15 to 29 years. At this time, 3.44 per cent of the world’s youth belonging to the age group of 15 to 24 years and 3.28 per cent of the world’s youth belonging to the age group of 15 to 29 years, live in Pakistan. If we analyze the matter from the regional perspective, we find that South Asia has 25.73 per cent of the world’s total youngsters between the age of 15 and 24 years. Pakistani youth belonging to the age group of 15 to 24 years, make up 13.39 per cent of the total number of such persons living in the eight South Asian countries.

The presence of this large number of youngsters is a very valuable asset for Pakistan in the form of tremendous manpower or work force. But Pakistan is still to go a long way towards transforming this manpower into a useful economic asset. The main reason is that without proper education and training of youngsters, there can be no hope for their successful entry into the labour market. But the situation in Pakistan is not so encouraging in this regard. According to the UNICEF’s report on the state of the world children 2012, the literacy rate among boys between the age of 15 and 24 years is 79 per cent and among the girls, it is 61 per cent. According to ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth report 2012, 66.4 per cent of Pakistani young women and 10.9 per cent young men have neither got any job, nor have any access to education and training. When 48 per cent of our young girls are illiterate and technically unskilled, how can they be transformed into an effective economic dividend? On the other hand, the existing meager employment opportunities are also becoming limited and uncertain on account of the crippling energy crisis, as a result of which, a large number of our youngsters are unemployed. According to the UN’s World Youth Report 2010, there is eight per cent unemployment rate among the youngsters from the age of 15 to 24 in Pakistan. It is a matter of great concern that like other developing countries of the world, a significant number of Pakistani youth are also trapped in temporary and low productivity jobs, which neither come up to their expectations, nor create for them suitable opportunities for a permanent and higher salary. Consequently, there is a large scale migration of youngsters from villages to cities and to other countries, hoping to fulfil their dreams of a better and brighter future. This phenomenon is known as brain drain. This brain drain appears in the form of the shifting of population from villages to large cities and then, to other countries of the world. According to the UN’s World Youth Report 2010, 33 per cent of the Pakistani youth belonging to the age group of 15 to 24 years lived in cities in 1990. But this figure rose to 38 per cent by the year 2005. According to the report, in 2005, 24 per cent of Pakistan’s urban population and 21 per cent of rural population consisted of youngsters. From 1990 to 2005, there was four per cent annual increase in Pakistan’s urban youth population and three per cent annual increase in the rural youth population. The increasing number of incidents in which youngsters make legal and illegal attempts to go to other countries, bear witness to the fact that our country is facing a severe brain drain. The lack of suitable job opportunities for our young people is having many harmful impacts, such as rising level of street crime, theft, kidnapping for ransom, terrorism, sabotage and drug abuse, etc.

Another important point to be discussed is that while almost half of our young girls are illiterate, the social attitudes towards them are also not so positive. Instead of providing suitable opportunities to the talented girls for making progress in life, their early marriages are arranged and becoming mothers at a very young age damages their mental and physical health. According to the UNICEF’s report on the state of the world children 2012, 7 per cent of Pakistani girls between the ages of 20 and 25 years, were married before the age of 15. Twenty-four per cent of these girls were married before the age of 18. At this time, 19 per cent of Pakistani girls belonging to the age group of 15 to 19 years are married. Ten per cent of the married girls from the age of 20 to 24 gave birth to their first child before the age of 18. It is a bitter reality that throughout the world, complications related to pregnancy and child birth are the main cause of deaths among the girls from the age of 15 to 19. The seriousness of this problem can be imagined from the facts given in Pakistan Demographic and Health Survey 2006-07, according to which pregnancy related mortality rate in Pakistan is 259 per hundred thousand cases among the mothers below the age of 20. Such things are bound to happen because 66.2 per cent delivery cases among mothers below the age of 20 are handled at home and 53.5 per cent delivery cases among the mothers below the age of 20 are performed by the traditional midwives.

There is no denying the fact that the youth of Pakistan have to face numerous problems and challenges, but the importance of their votes has increased significantly since the age of voters in the country has been reduced from 21 years to 18 years by the Election Commission of Pakistan. According to the new computerized electoral rolls prepared by NADRA for the upcoming general elections, 35 per cent of our voters belong to the age group of 18 to 30 years. They can surely have a decisive impact on the voting patterns and this impact can manifest itself in the form of the election of those public representatives who are really keen to address the problems faced by the youth of our country.