Youth Bulge: We would not want to miss out on this

By: Zulfiqar Ali Shaikh
Seems like the Youth Potential in Pakistan is up in everyone’s mind and yet it remains highly under-surfaced. It is a giant force that the country’s managers are yet to start considering any utilization to its fullest, and effectively so. Many active NGOs have highlighted the enormous potential, that is mostly untapped, and yet everyone believes strongly (and rightly so) that its only the the government sector which can come in partnership with the private sector to avoid missing the precious opportunity. There is no doubt that this great opportunity can completely turns the heads, and lead us to a giant glut of dependent population in coming years, if it is let gone.
More than 60% of the population in Pakistan is in the age group below the 25, the official youth age being 15-24 as per the UN criterion. This bulk of population in the youth and about-to-get-in-the-youth age group is a great resource which can be employed to wonderful tasks of rebuilding the social and economic infrastructure of this country, which has been shattered almost to devastating levels in the past few years. Simultaneously by exploiting exploiting the entrepreneurial streaks in the youth, training them for various capacity building skills, the gigantic Youth Force in Pakistan can be employed for amazing new initiatives towards a prosperous Pakistan. This Youth Bulge can simply not let be wasted in ruins. We all have to raise voice and join hands with other civic society organizations to poke the sluggish and self-interests-driven government bosses around us. We simply can not take the chances of any improvements at their own. Nothing is going to be yielded on its own from these hollow corridors of powers without any appropriate pushing from the public, more so form the educated lot like us who can see the severity of problems more clearly than others in this globally competitive world.