Pakistan's youth face major problems

Pakistan has a large youth population. An estimated 103 million or 63 per cent of the population fall under the age of 25 years. Due to endemic poverty, the majority of youth in Pakistan do not have the opportunity to experience a childhood. Male youth literacy rate is estimated to be 53 per cent and female youth literacy rate is even lower at 42 per cent, while 15 per cent of the youth is unemployed.

Despite constituting a major chunk of our population, our youth are lagging behind in every field. They have a major role to play in country’s progress but due to lack of support they are facing many new challenges in today’s society: they are afflicted by an identity crisis, lack of self-confidence, a sense of hopelessness and confusion, and ambiguity concerning about moral issues and the future. They have been trapped in a culture marked by guns, violence and drugs. All this has resulted in an unstable economy, a shattered confidence of foreign investors, lawlessness and a break-up of the social fabric. Let’s see what major problems are faced by our youth.

The most profound problem our youth is facing at present is frustration. This monster is eating up our youth slowly and gradually. The youth in Pakistan don’t have jobs, means of healthy entertainment, health resources and awareness. The frustration as a result of multitude problems is increasing day by day.

Education is the most powerful weapon of the youth. With it they could lead their country towards progress. Unfortunately, quality and skill based education is still a dream for our youth, especially for the poor. There is no formal guidance for students in logical selection of a specific course of study. There is no unified education system. Our universities and colleges have become degree distributing machines. Education does not mean only degrees but in its true sense it is the future of the youth.

Another major problem faced by our youth is unemployment. After completing their education, they find no job to utilize their skills to serve their country. This is the result of government’s inability to utilize youth in a proper manner. Deteriorating conditions are also responsible for low investment in the country, resulting in fewer job opportunities. Unemployment is a multi-dimensional and complex issue which starts a vicious circle of associated problems like involvement of youth in radical politics, bank and household burglaries, social insecurity, lawlessness, and use of drugs.

Poverty is another major problem of our youth. Due to lack of resources they are unable to get quality education and pursue their field of interest. Poverty is a sort of disease which is weakening our youth. They are unable to fully use their talent and serve their country.

Owing to poverty and unemployment, parents prefer sending their children to labour instead of to school. They make them do so to support their family and use them as earning hands from the early age. Child labour is a sort of deluge that is draining away our precious talent. Child labour can push young ones into bad company and immoral activities such as use of drugs and crime.

Some youth in a grim situation find no other consolation and resort to the use of drugs. Growing use of narcotics is becoming a major problem of our youth. They find it the cheapest source to fight their miseries. But they never realize that this habit of theirs wastes their priceless capabilities and drags them to the brink of death.

Saddest of all our youth – in sheer disappointment – are committing suicide. They waste their life without knowing their worth. Use of drugs, poverty, unemployment and failure in life are the major reasons behind this curse.

Furthermore, pressure from parents and a rigid system is also a bolt from blue to our youth. Social taboos hinder our youth from freely deciding about their future. They cannot follow their dreams. This leads them to escape from their responsibilities towards their parents and their country.

Last but not least, the role of media in upbringing our youth has been minimal. Most of the youth find our TV programmes non-entertaining and unattractive. Everybody is interested in watching other South Asian and Western channels. As a consequence of cultural invasion, our youth’s role in promoting our country has been dismal.

Despite the multiplicity of problems, it is still a right time for government to take some pragmatic steps. Of the 15 largest countries in the world in terms of population, Pakistan has by far the youngest population. Government should not regard the young population as a burden but an asset. We need to bear in mind that “the destiny of nations is in the hands of youth”.

Three major Issues for Pakistani Youth

Pakistan is among few privileged states having important geographical location, prevalence of all four weathers, tons of mineral resources, and young & energetic youth. All these ingredients are enough to make a successful country, however youth resource is the most essential one.

It is because youth have the ability, commitment and energy to turn the unfavorable circumstances into the opportunity and then grab that opportunity to achieve the desired results for their country.

Youth population of Pakistan is around 60% of the total population, it means out of every five persons three Pakistanis are youth. That’s really great for the country. However that is not the full picture, instead of having great proportion of young population country is unable to get any benefit from it.

Currently Pakistani youth is facing some serious issues, and if these issues are not properly addressed then such a valuable resource will become a burden for the country instead of having blessing of Allah.

Following are the youth issues which need to be addressed only then our youth will able to add their share to the country’s growth.

Education:

The first and foremost problem for Pakistani youth is the prevalent education system of the country. Currently there is no single education standard. There are multiple education standards; one operating as government institutes, another English medium, facilitating the children of upper class families and yet another in shape of madrasas.

If we closely analyze all three education systems so no single system provides all necessary things essential for the development of student. On one side government institutes lack required educational advancements that have took placed in the recent years.

On the other hand English medium institutes having the full fledged facility of modern day sciences promotes western culture and leads secularism which is very dangerous for an Islamic states. Again there are some problems with religious madrasas as they fully neglect the daily sciences equally important for the development of any nation.

So when youth living in one country will come out from three different education systems so they will have different abilities, different apprehension levels and different life approaches. Therefore it is quite essential for the policy makers to give a single education system for the country meeting all the essential criteria so that our youth can get out of the confusion of selecting education system for themselves; and differences in their thoughts and opinions could be minimized.

Opportunities:

The talent of Pakistani youth has been crushed for many years but time is proving that Pakistani youth is the most talented youth worlds have ever seen. Youth around the western world gets grooming from the developed organizations however Pakistani youth is only youth that is making records in the field of technology, computer science and sports without the availability of properly structured learning institutes.

The youth that is making achievements at national and international levels have done so because they got the opportunity. From getting job opportunity to learn the technical skills and from getting admission in the medical college to any other thing; talented youth of the country is facing very tough time.

The current loyalty based (Talent crushing) system working inside each department of the state is compelling our youth to focus on illegal ways instead of further polishing their skills and abilities.

Because the old system has taught them that they will get good job only if they have strong connections with any minister instead of having good skills. If our country is unable to give fair opportunities to the youth then their talent will keep on wasting that will prove disastrous for the whole country.

Entertainment:

Entertainment is an important activity to keep oneself amused for the little time period. Entertainment is important for every person and especially for the youth. However it is equally important to differentiate entertainment from any immodest and immoral practices.

My meaning of entertainment is totally opposite to how it is define in the western societies. For me entertainment means Sports, games, debates that amuse oneself in the productive way.

Unfortunately while living in Pakistan you has no choice to get entertained yourself instead of staying at home watching tv or surfing internet. You don’t have any structured sports grounds, any national or local festivals, hardly any provincial level debates, very few amusement parks and gaming lounges. In this situation youth is susceptible to adopt negative ways of getting entertained their selves.

Therefore it is quite essential to offer youth with required educational system and opportunities along with way of positive entertainment so that youth can work hard and add their share in the growth of their beloved Pakistan.

Unemployment of Pakistani Engineers students especially in IT
Engineers are facing the dilemmas of unemployment in Pakistan these days. This issue made the students compelled to stop their engineering career, and choose other departments, which they are not interested in. In Pakistan, every person utters that engineering means self destruction, because of the growing up rate of unemployed engineers. CPEC( China-Pakistan Economic Corridor) is, on the other hand, not creating jobs for the fresh graduated engineers of the state but providing numerous opportunities to the international engineers, which is an open negligence for the Pakistanis engineers. Also this issue has affected our youth’s decisions, students whose interests were to read engineering have changed their engineering planning towards medical. It is the responsibility of our Prime Minister to have a great action over it in no time.