There are numerous issues associated with our society namely skyscraping illiteracy, ignorance, unemployment, dominant flawed cultural practices, socio-religious biases, extremism and militancy pressing hard our youth. The other hurdles before the Afghan youths ranges from insecurity, poverty, lack of access to quality education, unavailability of opportunities, ethnic and gender based discrimination. These issues in one way or the other inflict the catastrophic impact on youth’s competence acting as a termite that constantly degenerate their internal potential.
Afghanistan has one of the world's fastest-growing populations with an annual increase of 3.1%, according to a 2012 UN Population Fund report. Roughly 68% of Afghanistan's 30m citizens are under 25, with those ages 15-24 accounting for 40% of the total population, according to credible report. There are around 11m of young people aged 15 and above and adults who missed out formal education or could not complete their schooling to obtain a credential. It is a social debt to be compensated to those who were denied education, got their potential eroded.
The decades of prevalent conflict and war in Afghanistan shambled everything, ranging from infrastructural to socio-political downfall, reasonless bloodshed followed by enormous people rendered physically impaired, counts to be ill consequences of those endless conflicts. Most often, we see people with unpaired body part, sitting at the corner of streets haplessly ask for financial help from every passerby. This is the disappointing picture of neglected section of society, battered by negligence of government unwilling to rehabilitate them.
With exception to handicapped people, children and women are also dragged to begging as witnessed on the street of urbanized cities. Reportedly, some clandestine gangs are renting children of penniless families; drug them with opium to further their malicious design. The wide indifference of government facilitates, begging turn into one of the illegal trade in this piece of land.
The government fallaciously deems putting restrictions, might win a congenial solution to this emerging problem. In this pursuit street-begging was outlawed in November 2008 by government and a commission formed was made up of different government bodies and the Afghan Red Crescent Society (ARCS) - to end street-begging in the capital.
Nevertheless, it did not help, instead the numbers seem to have grown in the last few years, and many of the beggars are women and children. The Afghanistan Human Rights Independent Commission (AHRIC) estimates there are 60,000 child addicts in the country. Opium is the most common drug sown and used in the street of the country unchecked. The addict children are used a tool to earn money for respective gangs. This is alarming figure narrating the grave human rights violation where children subjected to ill-treatment under the very nose concerned departments.
Afghanistan suffers acute poverty as one of the greatest. The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) calculates nearly half of Afghanistan's estimated 30 million people live on less than 1 USD a day. Poverty might serve one of the reason pushing great majorities of young population towards illegal means of earning. Many concerned public officials lack, the requisite data pertaining the underlined figure, depicts the degree of interest of government toward this issue. Viewing the worsening state of affairs, one finds the lack of interest concerning welfare of masses serves the greatest reason for ongoing notorious condition. Some of public official hesitant to take action against may be allegedly involved in the trade.
These youths, if educated in better way and provided with opportunities they require, can play a very effective role in development of our country. They are potent, energetic, zealous but perplexed, disappointed and unmotivated. They suffer emotional degeneration seeing the countless magnitude of apparently irresolvable problems. Young people in any country represent the future of that country. They have a vital role to play in the development of the country, a duty they must perform, given they are provided standard education and conducive learning atmosphere –the educational institutes designed to translate societal needs into mandatory achievable goals.
Formerly, Afghanistan National Youth Policy (ANYP) was drafted by Deputy Ministry for Youth Affairs and is expected to get endorsed soon is a welcoming step forward. According to the officials, the policy's main objective is to design and implement strategies and programs to promote the talents, skills and potential of young women and men from various economic, social, cultural, and political backgrounds. Absolutely, the formation of policy is a bold tread to propel ahead nevertheless, the golden sayings framed in a decorated brochure will not resolve our problems unless practicable measures are taken to reframe them in doable frames.
It is agreeable that Afghanistan's first-ever national youth policy outlines initiatives to help young Afghans face challenges and explore opportunities. The policy's main objective is to design and implement strategies and programs to promote the talents, skills and potential of young women and men from various economic, social, cultural, and political backgrounds.
However, countless efforts are required to undo socio-political and cultural restraints that have established firm basis in our societies hindering our collective progress. As Afghanistan prepares to enter a transformative decade (2015-2024), it is critical to make strategic and well-organized investments in its youth now, so they can realize their full potential.
The ruling class relies on day dreaming, making intangible if not impracticable futile pledges which are of no use at all. The masses are asked to wait and hope for the betterment and are instructed to earn faith in supreme creature deciding something good in their fate, at the end of day. We have been practically changed into a nation who is to just wait and hope for the best. The government and ruling elites relies on making promises, as if their hollow and fuzzy assurances could solace the relentless issues related with unemployment and poverty. The high degrees of disappointment are reflected from their sun burnt faces which are the timely manifestation to the underlying facts. It is an uncompromising reality that the escalating graph of poverty made it difficult for an ordinary person to make the ends meet. Consequently the circle of vagabonds enlarges irreversibly.
Studies from countries affected by conflict have shown that large youth population combined with poverty and inequality conserve as a fertile ground for radicalization of youth and the spread of extremism. Militancy, insurgency and radicalization are negatively effecting our youth, they can only be reversed when rational policies are framed and decoded, enforced and implemented with its full spirit.