Challenges Pakistan Youths Face

In most of the developing countries young people are growing up without opportunities, information and services they need to reach their full potential. There is mounting evidence to prove that lack of investment and an indifference to the needs of youth incur a high cost in terms of lost development opportunities, ill health and social, physical, mental disruption. And it means failure to fully support our present "asset" as well as next generation of parents and leaders. There is no doubt that the youth have been at the centre of socio-economic and socio-political changes taking place in Pakistan and elsewhere. The period of the life under which the youth fall, is the most productive and energetic. If their energies are not channelled they fail to captivate opportunities that come their way. At this moment, the youth in Pakistan find themselves in a far better position than many of their peers in other countries because of the demographic advantage they enjoy in Pakistan. As a matter of fact Pakistani population is very young. The census of 1998 counted 56 million children under the age of 15. There were another 13 million adolescents between the ages of 15 and 19, and 11 million youth aged between 20 to 24 years. In other words, in 1998 children, the very young and the youth accounted for 62 million of the total population. (Census Report of Pakistan 1998, Table 5, Population by Selected Age Group) Of the 15 largest countries in the world in terms of population size Pakistan has by far the youngest people. Should such a young population be regarded as a burden or an asset? I believe that our demographic situation provides our young with an extraordinary opportunity to compete in whatever sphere they chose. We have an opportunity to turn our very large and very young people into a productive asset.