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Where is our youth?

04 Dec 2021

By Gihani Perera At the fifth-year anniversary convention of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna Party (SLPP), Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa made the following statement: “I remember in the early days of our victory, the youth of this country painted murals on walls everywhere. They used paint they had themselves paid for. It was a voluntary effort by patriotic young people with no affiliations. Today, we have no idea where those youths are…the youths’ appeal to us, with their art, was to not sully the country with the brand of politics they had seen thus far. We must understand that message. We need to find out if those youths are now in the queues of people at the passport office waiting to leave the country. We need to engage in the kind of politics that will make them want to come back.” It is a statement he should have raised with his family first, considering that the Rajapaksa family easily controls over 50% of the national functions. The youth only asked for an opportunity, an equal platform to thrive and achieve their goals. The most common notion that we are tired of hearing is that young people are not as committed, not as driven, or that they always complain and want the easy way out. But the current youth generation is the most educated and most qualified compared to previous generations of youth in Sri Lanka. They are just tired of lowering their heads and keeping quiet. They no longer accept the fate of not being born into the correct pedigree like their ancestors did. They try to have a better quality of life in Sri Lanka, failing which, they pick a country that serves them well. Being an ambitious young person in Sri Lanka is not an easy task. Administrative red tape and lack of political influence mean that even if you take one step forward, you’re pushed two steps back. It is worse being a young woman, where you are treated as if you are at the lowest level of social hierarchy. While having to work and study as equals, young women must fight unequal treatment in educational and professional environments, sexual harassment offline and online, violence at the hands of intimate partners, and sometimes even face the wrath of the society if they do a little better than their male counterparts; all while maintaining their sanity, “smiling a little more”, and “being motherly”. This Government came to power with the aim of giving equal and better opportunities for women. They pledged to make this country safe and secure for all citizens, especially for women and children. Page 13 of the “Vistas of Prosperity and Splendour” policy framework of the Government went on to say that they will assign high priority to increasing the labour force participation of women by promoting women entrepreneurs and promised to put a mechanism in place for women to be able to report violence or harassment to the nearest police station through their mobile phones (page 27). The most ironic of all was the promise to recognise the invaluable effort and involvement of the village women in farming and to provide relief to the victims of the predatory microfinance loans (page 77). Keep all that in mind when looking at the 2022 Budget. Almost all the industries and informal economic activities that women are dominating faced a major hit due to the pandemic. Migrant workers, the plantation sector, apparel sector, and agricultural sector are the obvious few. The 2022 Budget granted no relief for women in these sectors, other than proposals to establish hi-tech agro parks and a mini supermarket chain for women. In fact, the allocations made for women and children (including for primary education) were further reduced by 25%. There was no plan to facilitate workforce expansion to retain graduates, where 68% are female; no plan to upskill the workforce in the informal sector. The provision of creches, maternity benefits, and public transport, making workplaces free of sexual harassment, and providing flexible working hours and care facilities are essential for women to contribute to the economy more realistically. When basic facilities are lacking, women too migrate to places where the grass is greener, to places where their contribution is valued. Many youth-centric opportunities stem from policies rather than enforceable laws in Sri Lanka. Even where some policy frameworks are supportive of youth empowerment, discrimination still exists in the values and attitudes of adults as against young people, especially young women and girls. Young people are viewed as a problem and unable to take care of themselves rather than an active part of the population capable of participating in shaping communities and the future of Sri Lanka. The entire world is moving towards technical advancement and in no time, all ordinary activities will be digitised. Investment in tech plays a central role in poverty reduction, by increasing the productive capacity of the economy and generating increased employment. If we want to compete with the world, we need to invest in tech – not launch rockets but create digital citizens. There seems to be no interest or solid plan, which is what we see when a budget such as this is presented every year. In a context of economic instability, chaotic institutions, questionable authoritarianism, lack of faith in justice, and the deterioration of law and order, asking questions from the public about where the youth are today is nothing short of amusing. The ones who can, have already left. A much larger group is trying to leave. The ones who are here want to fight the system, because they owe it to the country and are growing increasingly tired of the madhouse. Unless some serious changes are made to the way of governance, there won’t be a generation that can critically think in this country to pick up the reins. (The writer is an Attorney-at-Law and a member of the Progressive Women’s Collective)  


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