youth - their dreams and aspiratios

Youth: struggles, aspirations, possibilities
SINCE ancient times, the youth have played a critical, even determining, role in influencing both polity and society. The situation in Bangladesh is no different, perhaps more so than in other countries, because the youth have traditionally constituted the most progressive and educated section of society. Throughout its history, their optimism and courage have helped break through seemingly impenetrable barriers.
By this indicator Bangladesh seems destined for success, with approximately 45 million currently falling under the definition of ‘youth’. 73% of its population is below 35, 58% below 25, and 19% between 15-24 years of age, the most promising periods of one’s life. If only the country’s leadership could appropriately channel the immense potential of its youth, Bangladesh may possibly join the ranks of the ‘Asian Tigers’.
The youth, while appearing omnipotent are also malleable, amenable to being shaped and moulded more than any other strata of society. Many of those who were part of successful youth movements in the past, however, feel that unlike in their time, the present generation is insufficiently ideologically oriented, if not self-seeking. Possibly this may explain why no nationally successful youth movements have taken place since 1991, the relative absence of young entrepreneurs or politicians in Bangladesh compared to India or China, and worse, the continuous infighting, violence and vandalism characterizing the youth associated with various political parties, and so on.
This brief paper attempts to understand the social, political and economic processes that have transformed and are continuously affecting the values, perspectives, dreams and aspirations of Bangladeshi youth. It also tries to assess whether the apparent decline is reversible and, finally, advance some proposals to help channel the immense potential of Bangladeshi youth in nation building.
For the sake of convenience, we define youth as anyone between the ages of 18 and 35, as per the Bangladesh National Youth Policy of 2003. Although it is difficult to accurately gauge the size and characteristics of this segment of the population (since the last census in 2001 used different age brackets: 15-24, 24-59), a rough estimate suggests that about 38.47% of Bangladeshis, and 40% of its workforce, comprise the youth.
Clearly this cluster conceals an incredible diversity, irrespective of the indicators used. Rural youth, close to 70% of the youth population, is largely disadvantaged compared to their urban counterparts with respect to education, health and economic opportunity. Among women, who make up 52% of the youth population, nearly half are married and bear children before they turn 20 (the corresponding rate for males is only 5%). Large variations also exist between youth in different economic classes, mainstream youth vs. minorities, English vs. Bangla vs. Madrassah (Islamic) medium youth, and so on.
While such heterogeneity should caution us from generalizing and extrapolating observations from any subsection of this population, we believe that it is not necessarily a limitation. Historically, it is a relatively small segment of the youth – namely the educated and relatively well-off – who have led most of the movements that have shaped the course of our history. The rest of the youth community has essentially followed the trends set by this segment.
Therefore, though this study primarily covers the interrelationships between youth characteristics/aspirations and societal change in this ‘privileged’ subsection of the population, the results help diagnose the overall condition of the youth. We also argue that achieving success in building a modern Bangladesh will require a greater involvement of this section of the population which, simply by virtue of birth and associated opportunities, is better equipped to drive positive change. Historically, the dominant characteristics of youth – idealism, optimism, activism, virtuousness, and abundant energy – have repeatedly manifested themselves in the Bengal region. Starting from the noncooperation and Swadeshi movements of the early 20th century, students have invariably been a sentinel voice against evil and oppression, and at the forefront of ‘revolutionary’ change. Be it the 1952 language movement, the massive movements of the ’60s leading up to the 1971 liberation war, the anti-autocracy movement resulting in the re-establishment of democracy in 1990 – none of these could have succeeded had the youth not put their energy behind these causes. In several cases, such as the demand for provincial autonomy and later full independence, the struggles were initiated by the student community and only later supported by political leaders. However, after almost four decades of independence, youth have still not been optimally involved in building Bangladesh. It does appear that the idealism and cause-driven character of student politics has been replaced by one dominated by petty interests like money and power. Many analysts even feel that this is a deliberate strategy of the ruling classes to keep the youth divided and distracted.
The education system has also failed to live up to the immense challenge of turning the huge young population into enlightened citizens and skilled human resource. External influences like corporate capital and media have infused society with western-style consumerism, an antithesis to time-honoured values of sacrifice and ‘doing something for society.’ While rapid urbanization has on the one hand further marginalized rural communities by diverting resources, it has simultaneously bred individualism which is increasingly, and for the first time in history, becoming a dominant feature of Bangladeshi society.
In brief, the social and political institutions in Bangladesh have failed to create an atmosphere conducive for youth to thrive. Furthermore, the global and national realities within which today’s youth are growing up and experiencing life have changed markedly, shaping them in ways very unlike that in the 1960s and 1970s. Below we discuss how institutions have failed and how these changing realities are shaping youth values, aspirations, perspectives and behaviours. The aspiration and demand for a comprehensive, integrated, accessible-to-all, secular and scientific education system in Bangladesh has a long legacy. From even before the liberation war, young university students, with other progressives from all layers of society, have struggled for this. Since liberation in 1971, though no less than eight Education Commissions/Committees were constituted by various governments, their recommendations remain ignored.
As a result, and despite Article 17 of the Constitution which promises a balanced, democratic and quality education system for all, the education system in Bangladesh continues to be in shambles. There have indeed been substantial achievements in enrolment at primary and secondary level (nearly universal), and gender equity (girl enrolment is higher at primary level), but persistent high dropout rates negate much of this achievement. Close to 47% children fail to complete primary education, whereas three-quarters of children in the relevant age group do not complete secondary schooling. The Education Commission Report of 2003 stated that the country needed at least 15,200 more primary schools, and also estimated that 100 new schools could be opened every year, which meant that the target would need 152 years to achieve!
The country’s primary and secondary education is marked by a dire shortage of teachers (especially good ones), ill-equipped schools, an outdated curriculum, and teaching techniques relying primarily on memorization, thereby destroying the innate creativity of children. Unsurprisingly, the crucial element of moral education is almost completely ignored. The combined effect is that young people, particularly in rural areas, are growing up with limited knowledge, skills and ill-defined moral values, and therefore entering the real world with little confidence in themselves. They often take the first job that is offered, without any thought of pursuing their interests and passions. They also commonly aquiesce to injustice, oppression, corruption, and the like.
Equity in education remains a serious concern. There are vast differences between the quality of schools in urban and rural areas, and between rich and poor neighbourhoods. The education system is divided into as many as eleven distinct streams (the broad categorizations being English medium, Bengali medium and Madrassah medium), with no common curriculum or coordination between them, thereby effectively factionalizing the entire society by socio-economic and religious background. Poor and rural communities are deprived of quality education, and therefore fail to gain access to the ladder of opportunity which could lift them out of the poverty trap. Tertiary education too has largely fallen through the cracks. Dhaka University, once called the ‘Oxford of the East’, and other public universities have long passed their golden age, and despite maintaining some semblance of quality and inclusiveness, are unable to equip the students with adequate skills and abilities to compete in the 21st century. To fill the void in tertiary education, more than 50 private universities have sprouted up, but given the lack of government oversight and the non-transparent way licenses are given out, few actually provide quality education. Even the number of graduates relative to the total population in the age group is extremely small, particularly in the science and engineering disciplines. Public universities are also plagued with the problem of sweeping politicization at every level. The faculty and administration are factionalized into various political camps, stripping them of the moral stature needed to command respect and obedience from students. In fact, according to all teachers, students and experts interviewed, student and teacher politics goes all the way up to the vice chancellor’s office. With universities serving as just another battleground for power, every regime change sets off a chain reaction – the vice chancellor is a political appointee, who then appoints provosts from his faction to control the halls, and they in turn serve their party by allowing their own student factions to control and abuse hall allotments and admissions.
What perhaps impacts Bangladesh most negatively in the economic sense is the absence of a strong technical education programme. Because of rampant poverty, many young people have little opportunity to continue formal schooling. However, due to an absence of technical training at every level, the young join the workforce, locally or internationally, as unskilled labour, greatly limiting their economic potential. Hence, even though Bangladesh has a large (between seven and eight million) overseas workforce, a vast majority are unskilled and hence work in dire conditions in Middle Eastern and South East Asian countries, contributing only a fraction of their potential as remittance. If only these expatriate workers were skilled, the remittance earned each year could increase manifold from the presently estimated ten billion dollars. Youth involvement in politics, and student politics in particular, often claims a glorious legacy. However, in the post-liberation period, and more so in the so-called democratic rule of the past 19 years, youth have become largely detached from the political system, evident from the fact that even those in their fifties are considered young in mainstream parties. Ideologically oriented student politics has been systematically degraded, and replaced with blatant partisanship and violence.
In the absence of meaningful student union elections in the public universities, student factions of the national political parties have got mired in violent and destructive fights for political control of campuses and residence halls. Armed clashes between the various student factions, killing and rape on campus, unending strikes, beating up of teachers, extortion by so-called ‘student leaders’, and destruction of university property are commonplace. These have not only ruined the educational atmosphere in the public universities, but also bred discontent and, worse, political apathy among the general student population.
It can be argued that unanticipated events and circumstances partially contributed to this situation. After the collapse of socialism, which historically attracted students more than any other ideology, religious politics gained ground, thus effectively polarizing the student community. Equally, rapid economic progress has created a business environment which, in the absence of sound regulatory institutions, has been forced to rely on armed musclemen, often drawn from student politics to protect its interests. Moreover, political parties too have ‘contributed’ to this situation – intentionally politicizing university administrations and faculty, postponing democratic student elections in public universities for the past 19 years, and so on.
In is worth remembering that the 1996 demonstrations which resulted in the fall of the BNP government were led by government officials, not students. More recently, in late 2006, when young party members were engaged in street battles in an increasingly tense pre-election situation, it was the army that had to intervene and take control; no student group resisted such anarchy. What is even more surprising is that the vast majority of the youth actually supported the intervention. It is certainly uncharacteristic of the youth to see the only glimmer of hope in an army-backed coup d’état. At a time when the caretaker government had started losing its popular support and appeal, in part a consequence of some controversial actions, the Awami League released a unique and attractive manifesto, entitled the ‘Charter for Change’, prior to the 2008 elections. In addition to the slogan of a ‘Digital Bangladesh’ acting as a catch-phrase representing a modern, progressive and prosperous country, the demand for honest, able candidates and the trial of 1971 war criminals too indicated the possibility of making a break with past politics and policies. Consequently, young people constituting almost 40% of the electorate turned up in huge numbers to vote for the Awami League, helping it to win a sweeping victory over the four-party alliance of BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Hope, however, is a transient phenomenon. Even within the honeymoon period, the Awami League government has taken some decisions and actions which have disappointed citizens and especially the youth. For example, it has reversed crucial decisions about local government made during the period of the CTG. It has also forged deals with energy companies that might result in nearly all offshore gas reserves being exported. None of this is likely to go down well with the youth and the massive support extended to Awami League may get transformed into wholesale dissatisfaction with its performance. Of course, those likely to be most dissatisfied, and hence possibly disenchanted with democratic politics itself, are the youth. And all that can serve no one but the fundamentalist religious groups. Bangladesh is one of the least developed countries of the world, with the highest population density (977 people per sq km). Even though the private sector is booming and many jobs are being created (admittedly centralized in major city centres), economic opportunities still remain extremely limited. At least 4.3% of a total eligible working population of 49.5 million are unemployed and 24.5% underemployed. Those working abroad are mostly unskilled labour, earning low incomes and forced to live in poor conditions.
The country is unable to create enough meaningful jobs to cater to even the relatively small number of university graduates who enter the job market every year. Just to give an example, over a hundred thousand compete for a few hundred posts in the national civil service examination. For the position of health assistant in government hospitals, as many as 80,000 applicants might vie for 500 jobs. But worse, even in the few jobs that exist, the selection processes are often politicized or rigged with favouritism.
All this gives rise to serious social problems. Many young men and women, frustrated in the search for jobs get addicted to drugs. Eventually, to support their addiction they may even end up using immoral means to make money – stealing, pick-pocketing, mugging, extortion, robbing, drug-dealing or even murder. Many poor women end up as housemaids or sometimes even as workers in brothels.
Perhaps less visible, but more important is the psychological effect of unemployment on youth. The financial uncertainly and frustration associated with unemployment eats away at their energy, breeding disappointment and depression. The frustration also generates anger towards society for not providing their basic needs, contributing to a destructive mindset. This eventually manifests itself in all aspects of a young person’s interaction with their immediate environment – in family relationships, at the workplace, and as citizens. Much more than an economic problem, unemployment in Bangladesh is an endemic social problem destroying hope in the young generation, and thereby undermining the potential the country has of achieving a prosperous future. While seemingly unrelated with their aspirations, rapid urbanization too has a substantial impact on youth development. For one, few urban areas and cities have open spaces, parks and playgrounds, negatively impacting both physical and mental health. Most urban youth have little opportunity for interaction with nature and, according to a prominent psychiatrist, the concrete jungle and lack of green spaces and open skies effectively constricts their minds. Moreover, not only is the degree of interaction between neighbours minimal, urban areas are characterized by nuclear families as opposed to extended ones, both of which makes people less social and more individualistic.
Until only a few years ago, Bangladesh was characterized by intricate inter-relationships and inter-dependencies with a rural lifestyle. With rapid urbanization, not only have the traditional societal arrangements suffered erosion but no alternative value system is in place. Widespread corruption and other immoral practices have become acceptable if not the norm, as young people are being raised in an atmosphere which condones decadent behaviour. It is hardly surprising that the dearth of moral education will create a generation devoid of ethics and principles. Bangladesh has seen substantial growth in the private sector in the past two decades. Multinationals have entered to take advantage of the economic promise of the country, and local businesses have grown in number and size. The rapid increase in financial capital has profoundly impacted on the fabric of Bangladeshi society, in particular its youth.
For one, the capital that has been generated in the absence of sound regulatory institutions, needs armed musclemen to protect its interests in the form of securing tenders, driving away competitors, and so on. It has also divided society into the exploiters and exploited. Socioeconomic inequality between the top and bottom quintiles has increased manifold between 1991 and 2005, according to the latest available estimates. Unfortunately, far too many people have started accepting this situation as inevitable and natural.
Big business has also attempted, with considerable success, to turn the entire population into consumers. Using mass-scale advertising and innovative marketing, corporations have been able to instil consumerist and materialistic values even among the youth. It is not surprising that in our interviews with young people, many dreamed of nothing more than a nine-to-five, highly paid job at a multinational corporation, or a secure and prosperous life abroad.
A new trend that can be noticed is the rise of mass media. Since 2000, when Ekushey TV became the first Bangladeshi channel to launch operations, numerous TV channels have come up. In the last ten years, Prothom Alo has become a widely read newspaper reaching unprecedented levels of circulation – printing almost half a million copies each day and reaching over two million people in print (and another half-million on-line). Several private FM radio channels now offer both news and entertainment, whereas only four years ago the only radio station (which people hardly ever noticed) was the government owned Bangladesh Radio. Most of the mass media – both electronic and print – remains under the ownership and control of political parties and business corporations. It has nevertheless, succeeded in empowering citizens by making information available. Despite the biased information and rampant yellow journalism, citizens can at least choose from a wide variety of news to watch or read, and hopefully develop a more balanced perspective about national issues. More recently, talk shows on TV have become extremely popular as a source of information and arguments on both sides of a topic, although the primary reason behind the sprouting of these shows was the cutthroat competition between various channels.
Apart from traditional media outlets, the new media – internet as well as mobile phones – too is increasingly playing an important role in people’s access to information, as well as enhancing their interconnectivity. Just one Bangla blogging site Some-wherein.net has over 30,000 registered bloggers. Mobile penetration rates are also very high, and with mobile based internet widely available and getting popular every day, it is well placed to become one of the premier sources of information and the means for communication among young people. Youth are by nature active shapers of reality rather than passive recipients. But this requires an enabling environment. As discussed earlier, the circumstances in Bangladesh have only grown more adverse for young people to play a constructive role in society. Little wonder that youth nowadays try to find meaning in the money they earn, or take desperate and perilous measures to flee to unknown countries and live as third-class citizens.
But there are still reasons for hope. Even in such dire conditions, the optimism and activism of youth is noticeable. Many of them step ahead during natural disasters and reach out to affected populations. Equally inspiring is the example of Youth Ending Hunger, the youth wing of The Hunger Project-Bangladesh and a voluntary organization with membership in most parts of the country. Among many other programmes, it has been running a campaign to eliminate illiteracy in Bangladesh by attempting to convince adults to get educated, and then to actually teach them through a specialized curriculum. Through their activities the youth group has helped set up 45 literacy centres at which 850 illiterate people became literate just last year.
Such initiatives and activities are common all over the country, in varying degrees. It is perhaps not unreasonable to argue that such small actions are changing Bangladesh slowly but surely from the inside. Nevertheless, this change would be quicker if the government were to initiate policies favourable for youth.
The first thing the government must realize is that development prospects will only remain a vision as long as the education system does not live up to the task of turning our population from being a national burden into a valuable human resource. This is not possible without a solid and integrated education system which provides equitable access and quality for people from all backgrounds. The system must cater to the needs of developing a skilled workforce, as well as an enlightened and able generation of leaders for the future. The present AL-led government has set up an Education Commission, and while initial reports are positive, doubts remain about the final recommendations and implementation. Next, the government must look into the prospects of enhancing employment opportunities for the young generation. The election manifesto of the AL promised employment to at least one person in every family. Foreign investment to establish joint ownership industries could be effective in this regard. The agriculture sector, which employs the largest section of the population, needs to become more scientific and efficient. Providing access to capital and creating an enabling environment for SMEs could help young people use their creativity in generating employment for themselves and others.
There are many instances of grassroots entrepreneurs who have changed their own lives along with their entire community using innovative ideas. Such initiatives must be identified, supported, and replicated. It is likely, however, that internal initiatives, public and private, might prove insufficient. Therefore, exporting skilled workforce to countries which increasingly need them (e.g. in Europe) could be the key to avoiding the ills of unemployment and achieving economic prosperity. The government needs to develop visionary and effective long-term strategies to develop skills that are demanded all over the world, and to provide easy and safe means for people to migrate and work in other countries. In addition, to instil the values of service and sacrifice among youth what is most needed is opportunity for volunteerism. Currently, there is little scope for youth to volunteer in meaningful activities, mainly because of a lack of institutionalized means for volunteering, and limited access to information about such opportunities. Although platforms such as Youth Ending Hunger, Bondhushova and Jagoree are active, they are not capable of absorbing the vast number of young people in the country. The larger number of student organizations that are under political parties work in a partisan mode and subvert the youth agenda. The recent rise in extremism in the country, especially among the adolescents and youth, can be traced back to these problems.
This lack of constructive volunteering opportunity and access can only be addressed through a national effort. The AL manifesto has pledged to introduce a two year national service period for young people after finishing high school so that they may gain experience and be better eligible for jobs or education. Properly implemented, this should help young people who would otherwise have been unemployed and frustrated to find meaning in serving society. The cumulative impact in both the short (because of so many young people volunteering in communities) and the long-term (because of the change in values and behaviour) could be enormous. Even in the absence of government initiatives, however, change is possible particularly through advances in technology. The wide reach of mobile phones and the internet is transforming the way young people interact with each other and react to national issues. Already, there are signs of an e-revolution taking place. There are numerous Bangladeshi groups on sites like Facebook, debating issues ranging from fashion and entertainment to national socio-political/environmental issues (e.g. one resisting the building of Tipaimukh Dam).
Even though only a relatively small and privileged section of the young population currently has access to this web platform, access is rapidly expanding mainly through mobile phones to most rural communities, and youth are normally the quickest to adopt the latest technologies. It must also be remembered that it is this relatively privileged population that has historically led most movements and articulated the subliminal aspirations of the larger youth community. With a growing middle class, and with internet reaching the masses, one can hope that the more thoughtful and visionary sections of the young generation will use this platform to connect with each other and give rise to successful and effective movements like they have in the past