Believe it or not, the youth of today face endless challenges in every path of the life. The fact that the role of youth is often neglected and members of the young society are the future as well as the present of the society clearly suggests that there is so much to be done to identify and address problems and needs of the youth.
It is really surprising to learn that what is labeled as future of the society is not even considered capable of taking its own decisions. Moreover, young members of the society have to face the brunt of cultural, socio-economic, and global decisions that don’t even consider them as living beings. If that was not all, a big majority of the youth population is fighting daily against poor hygiene, old-age laws, lack of sanitation and basic facilities, absence of education, abuse, etc. Despite tall claims of international epidemiological demographic changes and policy improvements, the concept of youth development has hardly seen any noteworthy measures and the role of youth has been left to that of the followers when they should have been groomed as decision makers of the future.
The list of atrocities does not do any favor to youth and health of the young members of the society has to struggle against acute and chronic illnesses that are compounded or induced by unemployment, poverty, uneven distribution of income, and economic hardship. The cumulative toll of living in an uneducated society, violence, drugs, abuse, and hardship is doing no good.
One of the biggest hurdles that has been in the road to youth development is the fact that most youth promotion agencies focus solely or heavily on health and forget that young minds of the society need equal rights and freedom to speech, privacy, relationships, and make decisions for themselves. In short, these agencies forget to deliver services, affection, trust, healthy behavior, equal opportunities, and skills in the safest and most supportive of an environment that is established on the protective factors of the community and family.
Unless the family and the community realize that the concept of youth development cannot move any further, for the betterment, in the lack of coordination and integration of multiple resources and intentions as well as mechanisms of the society are formulated and executed in such a way that the role of youth is specified and young members of the society are asked to take decisions and learn from them, there would no point in highlighting positive youth news across the media. The worst part is that present day mechanisms and thinking approach are too slow and rigid that they fail to or avoid recognizing the essential value of the intersectoral approach to understand the real needs of the youth.
The list does not end here–some government and other agencies have a habit of making unwarranted choices and decisions that are unfavorable to youth and it is high time that informed decisions are made to promote youth development like never before and stop blaming the youth for every bad incident in the world. It is time for the world to acknowledge the special concerns of youth and adolescents and provide them uninterrupted access to learning and its influence on health, life, well-being, functioning of society, etc. and let the world benefit from the participation of youth. Moreover, youth development programs should be evaluated at regular intervals to stay in line and ahead of the changing times and needs and there should be surveillance systems to ensure that balanced growth and development of young members of the society is not just talked on the papers, but happens in real.
A youth leadership development event on Wednesday 23 June from 8.30-3pm at Lane Park in Upper Hutt is spearheaded by the Upper Hutt Youth Ambassadors.
