Compiled By Tanweer Ahmed
Pakistan currently has the highest number of youth in the world according to the UNDP. Pakistan is the fifth-largest young country in the world. Around 63 percent population of the country comprises youth aged between 15 and 33.
Where a greater proportion of young people is considered to be a major economic driver for growth and progress. But, sadly there aren’t enough avenues for the youth to deploy and upskill themselves and benefit the country. The question is, are they well-equipped with knowledge, good health and skills, along with rights and choices, to translate their demographic power into substantial social progress? Statistics provide a grim tell-all tale of how this youth bulge comes with a downside in a country like Pakistan where youth unemployment rate stood at 8.5% – one of the highest in the region.
Recently in the Olympics people like Nooh Butt were a prime example of the scarcity of resources and the potential that the youth holds by winning a gold medal for his country. If one scrolls through these news pieces and digs a little deeper, you’ll come across a myriad of such stories where the Pakistani youth secured wins for the country without any training resources given to them.
Growing up, the youth is fresh with ideas and zest to go out in the world and prove themselves but sadly as they do they find themselves with empty hands resulting in a staggering number of young ‘unemployable’ people that have laid bare the deep gaps within the socio-political edifice of the country.
This ‘unemployable’ lot then indulges in other ends of the spectrum by joining and wasting their talents by joining political parties and such.
But the problem does not just call for an economic reckoning – usually phrased in obscure jargon – which puts the blame squarely on crippled social programs, which inevitably fall short of achieving the tasks. Social norms and cultural taboos equally pose obstacles to any attempt to find a solution.
The solution lies in creating an ecosystem for the youth where they can build upon their skill sets and expand themselves professionally. We seriously lack field specialists. It is imperative that we put this [young] population in a meaningful way by promoting entrepreneurial ecosystem.
The private and government sectors both can work to cresting opportunities that prohibits people from joining dangerous acts or companies that might misuse them in fraudulent cases and such.
There should be a recruitment pipeline that should be open to all potential candidates so people can make the most of their skills. Both the private and government sectors can work on such an initiative.
The private sector lags desperately behind in their Corporate Social Responsibility efforts. Where the private sector is busy in expansion and mergers a mere glance at giving some of it back to the community will go a long way.
Pakistan has had a massive IT blowout in the recent years. These IT companies can also shoulder their load by providing diploma courses that can help the aspiring youth to engage themselves in something productive instead of going the other route.
If even one of these solutions is applied, the crime rate will decrease and utility and growth will increase.
Be it sports, entrepreneurial skills, IT sector, private sector or the government itself, they all need to coalesce since in the next 10 years the youth populace will continue to increase.
