Youth involvement in policymaking still low

Youth's involvement in higher and important policymaking is still unsatisfactory, although they share a large part of the country's population, speakers said during an online discussion yesterday.

Many youths are involved in different sectors, professional bodies, and businesses. However, when it comes to take decisions, elderlies are being preferred for, they said.

They added learning democratic practices and knowing different governance systems for children at schools could help bring a change to such scenario.

ActionAid Bangladesh and The Daily Star jointly organised the discussion on the topic "Youth: Larger share of population, what share in making decisions?"

Referring to Inter-Parliamentary Union's 2018 report of "Youth Participation in National Parliaments", Korban Ali of ActionAid Bangladesh said representation of MPs less than 40 years of age in the Bangladesh National Parliament was lowest among the South Asian countries (5.71 percent).

The scenario of youth participation in decision-making in Bangladesh is that the higher is the level the lower is their participation, Korban said.

Zonayed Saki, chief coordinator of Ganosamhati Andolon, said whenever an individual is being appointed in bureaucracy or any other profession he or she usually starts at the young age.

In that sense, no profession can survive without youth's participation, he said.

But the point is what role youths can play in policymaking which is predominantly a function of the political or bureaucratic institution, Saki said. So, one question is when policymaking of a ministry is being underway, whether youths can take part in it, he added.

Farah Kabir, country director of ActionAid Bangladesh, said youths constitute a larger part of Bangladesh's population.

However, the practice is that whenever there is need for doing some serious jobs or taking a decision, experienced or elderly people gets the priority, she said.

She recommended for upholding democratic values and practices among students at schools, and introducing issues like mock parliament in their curriculum to overcome the situation.

BNP reserved seat lawmaker Barrister Rumeen Farhana said one common practice in present society is that elderly people are thought to be better in decision-making because of their age and experience even they lack other qualities such as courage and honesty.

But it should be those, whether young or not, who have better virtues will be preferred for decision-making, she said.

Tanbir Hasan Shaikat, a representative of Dhaka University Central Students' Union (Ducsu), said it is important to include youths in the policymaking for future Bangladesh.

Shammy Wadud, president of United Nations Youth and Students Association of Bangladesh, said as a young female leadership, she faced challenges because the society was yet to accept such role of a woman.

The stigma could have been averted with practice and learning within family as well as at school, she said.

Chadra Tripura, a young rights activist, said it was easy for her to be included in social activities. However, to have a "meaningful" contribution in the decision-making for social work was tougher, she added.

Awami League lawmaker from reserved seat Khadizatul Anwar, Sabittre Hembram of ethnic minority community, Irfan Ahmed, a young social activist working for underprivileged children, and Minhaz Ahmed, a Dhaka University student involved in student politics, among others, addressed the discussion.