In the course of the years I have had the opportunity to work with peers and later with juniors and the one thing that struck me is how promising the youth of Nepal are. They have the drive, the vision, a level of maturity (which some would say comes only with age), intelligence and aptitude for making decisions. [break]The frustrations, however, are crystal clear too. Although the job market has been encouraging, just how much of youth potential is meaningfully tapped and just how many of the young actually get to realise their aspirations? With all the schools and colleges mushrooming in our country, and the number of graduates that leave these institutions, the obvious question for most is: what next? Easily frustrated, the visibility of the youth actively engaging in street protests is rampant and even becomes an eye sore, but each generation, in its youth, always feels that they are never understood, never get a chance to prove their worth. And with the world around us getting extremely competitive there is definitely an urgent need to address issues on a national level. Or else the brain drain will continue and with no solutions in sight we may just have to let go of an important force of society that needs to stay.
It was a pleasant surprise to read the Youth Policy that has been drafted. But like with all policies, there remains some amount of skepticism, especially when the Policy is drafted in a country with poor implementation habits.
The intention behind the Policy seems palatable and the long term vision even appears quite elaborate in its approach. As it reads: The National Youth Policy would help youth to exercise their meaningful participation in economic, social, cultural and political life. Inclusion into mainstream of development through leadership development, youth can be established into leading role. The vision of NYP is to prepare prosperous youth, empowering them to guarantee their basic rights.
The only question that arises here is how they are going to go about implementing such a vision. To put the Objectives in a nutshell the policy makers hope to create a utopian sense of existence for our youth, which I guess is fine. However, what comes next under ´Fundamental Values´ is slightly unnerving.
They start with:
- Prepare dedicated youth to abide by the constitution of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal.
- Establish as a duty of youth to protect the national sovereignty and promotion of national unity.
- Prepare patriotic youth who advocated to end all types of foreign interventions.
It almost sounds like the policy makers are thrusting their values on that section of society who are at an age when they should be allowed to choose what their fundamental values are instead of being conditioned, or, as the Policy suggests, ´prepared´ , to think in a certain way. Shouldn´t they also be given the right to question the constitution, constructively? And more than ´establishing a duty of youth to protect the national sovereignty and promotion of national unity´, shouldn´t we be creating an environment where we help nurture their sense of nationalistic ideas wherein they choose how to go about ensuring that. These points leave little space for dialogue and could be counterintuitive to a policy that tries to acknowledge youth as able and responsible. After all, the policy is addressing a section of society that believes in questioning existing beliefs.
Patriotism in itself is ambiguous and foreign intervention often sought when appropriate and rejected when inappropriate, if you ask me. And ´ending all types of foreign interventions´ as a clause in the Policy itself seems like a rigid thought process. We might as well be living in a well.
Under ´Democratic-People-Oriented Norms and Values´ is the clause: Prepare conscious youth on political awareness and clear vision who can realise their social responsibility.
The good news is that this is already happening in small ways. Youth are actively voicing their thoughts and opinions though various mediums. We even have some who have joined the political system with the intent of bringing necessary positive changes in politics. However, the clause will remain one with no positive implications unless the seniors treat the youth as peers and are open to make way for them and their initiatives. The key seems to be the ability to let go.
The biggest debate that arises from this particular Youth Policy is perhaps the age bracket of 15-40 defining youth. Defining youth can be a futile effort and personal views will vary, however, no matter how young an individual feels, it then just becomes a state of mind. One can´t help but wonder how the policy makers came up with this age bracket.
The Policy continues the promise of fancy rhetoric in various other clauses, the key words being – freedom of opinion, create an environment for development and research, ensure youth participation, empower youth, increase youth participation in policy-making and decision process, mobilise youth by developing them as messengers of change and inspiration, develop hidden talent.
Develop hidden talent? Let´s begin by realising buzz words like youth empowerment, youth participation, freedom of opinion, developing them as messengers of change and inspiration before we start digging into the ´hidden talents´ of the youth at large.
The clauses under Formal Education and Informal Education ring true as it hopes to achieve a well rounded education system for all sections of society. I will perhaps give a thumbs up to the points under this clause. However, the need of the moment is for the points to go beyond the policy declaration – implementation, implementation, implementation!
There seems to be a lot of points related to carrying out youth awakening and awareness campaigns. Awareness campaigns are great but, going by current trends, they often remain as slogans on billboards. If anything, we should realise that awareness works only with genuine intent and will. And might I add that creating awareness campaigns directed to change the mentality of the youth who are ´influenced by western culture´ is a reflection of the policy makers´ misconception about pop culture and the nature of influence.
Employment is definitely a cause of concern but how does ´establishing a youth development bank to create employment and to develop youth entrepreneurship´ to the youth at large, work? One more thing I fail to comprehend is how we create ´opportunities of self-employment in the country of brilliant youth.´ As much as I hope to witness it in my lifetime, the ´immediate stop to sending migrant workers to Iraq, Afghanistan, and other unsafe countries for foreign employed via India and other countries,´ will probably not happen.
Crime and violence is generally a cause of concern and the participation of youth in crime is something that needs to be tackled. More importantly, our policy makers and their respective political parties need to put an end to indulging their ´youth wings´ in criminal activities with political patronage. I strongly feel that it would have been imperative to add a line where it is explicitly mentioned that youth manipulation in politics should be discouraged.
The Youth Policy is all out to ´develop, create, prepare, conduct and provide´ and while I have touched on some points it´s quite impossible to go through each and every one. Still, it goes without saying that most points are rational, is the need of the hour and even commendable. But I repeat, how about the implementation? And so, as I go through the ´Implementing Mechanism and Institutional Arrangement´ clause, it seems all inclusive with everybody and anybody related to ´youth issues´ encouraged to be part of the implementation process, which includes the Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Youth Councils, ministries, local bodies, those in the private and public sectors, and other non-governmental organisations and so on.
The Youth Policy also proposes a 3-year-term period after which it will be revised every term. The grey area here, however, is in the implementation and monitoring mechanisms. Neither is there an indication of how successful results can be quantified, nor is it apparent where and how these ´results´ will be published to encourage a participatory revision process. The policy, designed to ´develop, create, provide and prepare´ the ´Youth´ for a ´New Nepal´ may not be workable without addressing some of these key elements.
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