The youth wings of the political parties also vowed to adopt peaceful means in their conduct.
The youth wings handed the prime minister a ´National Youth Policy Suggestions Report´ that they had jointly prepared during the post-conflict period.
"We worked together under a strict code of conduct for 10 months to come up with a uniform framework and help the government form a youth policy," said Ajambar Kangwang, president of the CPN-UML´s youth front, Democratic National Youth Federation Nepal (DNYFN).
This is the first time that the youth wings of major political parties have sat together for a common task contrary to their mutual contradictions and violent drive against each other.
"The real motive of this project is to at least mitigate conflict among the youth fronts," said one facilitator who sought anonymity. The Norwegian embassy funded the project coordinated by Lead International, a consultancy firm.
The youth fronts had organized workshops in five development regions and 52 different districts to collect suggestions on how the nation´s youth policy should be shaped. Youth fronts involved in the project are DNYFN, Nepali Congress-affiliated Tarun Dal, UCPN (Maoist)-affiliated Young Communist League (YCL), Madhesi People´s Rights Forum (MPRF)-affiliated Madhesi Youth Forum, Tarai Madhes Democratic Party (TMDP)-affiliated Tarai MadhesYouth Front, CPN(ML)-affiliated Progressive Youth Association and Nepal Sadbhawana Party (Mahato)-affiliated Youth Forum.
The youth fronts converging at a common forum comes as a rare phenomenon. Over 10 months they combined their efforts for suggesting a youth policy. They had indulged in skirmishes with the use of lethal weapons including in the Tri-Chandra College incident in which UML´s Youth Force Valley in-charge was alleged to have fired a gun.
"After co-working on a significant job, one would not hold the other at gunpoint," said a consultant connected with the project. "Nothing is possible for youth welfare unless pressure groups, political or social, enjoy strong understanding and a spirit of coordination."
DNYFN president Kangwang said the experience of working with peer organizations reinforced a realization that they should remain distinct from political parties in terms of behavior.
This is the second endeavor among the youth fronts to sensitize the state toward formulating youth policies. A task force formed by the Ministry for Youth and Sports earlier had prepared a similar report and submitted it to the government seven months ago.
The National Youth Policy Suggestion Report focuses on health, education, social welfare, economic involvement, youth participation and development, security and justice as key points to take up in formulating a youth policy. It offers a definition of youth as those between 16 and 40 years of age. It suggests forming a ´National Youth Council´ to lead and oversee implementation of youth policies.
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