Young Pakistan

It comes as no surprise that a recent UNDP report confirms that Pakistan has more young people now that before. Almost 64 percent of the country’s population is under 30 years of age. The number should be allowed to sink in before acknowledging how little the state is doing for them. The disenchantment can be captured in one number: almost 77 percent of them drop out of the education system. One can claim that they are forced to work at a young age to feed their families, but the reality is that we have an education system that is failing to deliver. The so-called constitutional commitment to a right to education has not translated into any significant policy reform or commitments to public spending on education. Almost 29 percent of the youth have no education at all. The ground realities for young people do not match the country’s policy paradigms – with much of it a function of disinterest. Public spending focuses on infrastructure and mega-projects while the tough task of improving the prospects for the youth has little relevance for policymakers and politicians.

While the unemployment rate for young people stands at nine percent, the real question is the quality of jobs and the quality of life they are provided. Only six percent have access to reading spaces and only seven percent to sports facilities. These might seem irrelevant to many arm-chair intellectuals but the reality is that a country must care for the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of its youngest citizens. No wonder many of them look to other countries for building a life for themselves – often at great physical peril. Young people have continued to be looked on as a burden, not an opportunity. Our policymakers could have chosen to see the growing population as an economic opportunity that could benefit the country, and its youth. But, not only do young people feel economically disempowered, they also feel politically disempowered. Even political parties that claim to be the ‘voice of the youth’ have little to offer for young people. Only 24 percent of young people trust politicians, but this is not because they do not want to be involved in politics. Ninety percent of young male and 55 percent of young females intend to vote in the upcoming elections. Despite things going against them, our young have not lost hope. But, perhaps it they themselves who will have to channel this hope into becoming their own collective voices.