A NEWS report on Saturday said that Bangladesh has sharply slided down in the employment of its young people. According to the Youth Development Index (YDI) made by the Commonwealth for the first time in 2016, Bangladesh has ranked 177 out of 183. Such position of the country is highly alarming as it is just above the Pakistan and Afghanistan among Asian countries. The main cause for such fall is that Bangladesh has failed to utilize or engage its youth in different development oriented activities. Apparently, Bangladesh has achieved a mesmerizing development in ICT sector, but its young people’s rate of engagement in this sector is abnormally poor. Experts blamed the authority concerned for their failure to exploit the potentials of the youths in ICT-based activities for fulfilling the cherished goals for the future of youth and the country as a whole.
The YDI is a composite index of 18 indicators that collectively measure the multi-dimensional progress on youth development in 183 countries including 49 of the 53 Commonwealth countries. It has five domains of measuring levels of education, health and well-being, employment and opportunity, political participation and civic participation for young people. The YDI is guided by the Commonwealth’s definition of youth considered people between the ages of 15 and 29, though some countries and international institutions define youth differently.
Although Bangladesh’s youths have engaged minimally in ICT sector; but participation of the youths within the country in other vital or secondary sector is not that encouraging. What is more painful is the government’s failure to generate jobs or self-employment option for the youth within the country. As a result, more and more youths, mostly semi-skilled or non-skilled — are venturing to migrate for ex-country employment even at the risk of life in transit.
Again the experts said that due to lack of coordinated enterprise; the youths of the country are incapable of unfolding their capacities in development activities, although the Bangladeshi youths are much creative and have huge potentials. It is, therefore, important to empower the young people and give them the opportunity to unfold their full potential still untapped. Such goals are only achievable through investing in their skills, harnessing their energy, encouraging their creative drives and providing opportunities to further education and participation in gainful economy activities. Development means the development of the economy both in terms of education and skills of the youths.
For reversing current lower standing in the YDI, what the government should immediately do is to invest hugely in imparting education among the youths including skill development in one particular trade of their choice, raise the health status of the individual young one so as to work hard for contributing in the per capita national productivity and also to encourage entrepreneurship initiatives to venture for self-employment as well open doors of jobs for other deserving youths, the private sector and the NGOs can play a vital role in this regard too.
