Pandemic makes youths more disengaged from social, economic activities: Experts

The youths, a driving force for the country’s sustainable development, are becoming more disengaged from social and economic activities amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, experts have said.

“The ongoing pandemic is leaving an adverse effect on their education, employment situation and mental condition, adding a new form of disengagement to the youth cohort.”

They came up with the observation at a virtual programme titled ‘Disengaged Youth in Bangladesh: Who, Why and How’ on Wednesday.

The Citizen’s Platform for SDGs, Bangladesh and UNDP Bangladesh organised the event marking International Youth Day 2021 on August 12, said a press release.

Convenor of the Citizen’s Platform for SDGs Dr Debapriya Bhattacharya, Resident Representative of UNDP Bangladesh Sudipto Mukerjee, and Researcher and Activist Maha Mirza spoke at the event.

Debapriya in his speech analysed the validity of the exploration of youth disengagement as a substantial analytical concept for empirical substance as well as policy dimensions.

He also stressed the need of exploring who belongs to the disengaged community of youth and reviewing their issues.

“We need to explore an effective solution outside the existing youth-centric institutions and policies,” said Debapriya, also a distinguished fellow at the local think-tank Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).

The existing failed to bring any visible success in capturing the youth's aspirations and challenges in Bangladesh, he added.

Sudipto Mukerjee said the youth community needs to come forward to achieve responsible consumption and production from the perspective of SDGs.

“We need to find more innovative ways to accelerate efforts to address the skills and information gap, which have become more visible during the pandemic,” he said, adding that the digital divide, access to information and its incurring costs were the key challenges.

“We are experiencing a lack of policy discourse to address the huge number of the youth population disengaged from the country’s socio-economic development process,” said Maha Mirza.

Tashnuva Anan Shishir, transgender rights activist and news anchor of Boishakhi Television, also points out the absence of specific policies and other legal facilities.

“Also, the lack of awareness and social stigma for the transgender community is leaving the community behind,” she said.

Joshiah Sangma Chibol, a disability rights activist at the Physically-challenged Development Foundation (PDF), mentioned that people with disabilities are not a homogenous group.

“Different types of physical disability and social stigma prevents them from accessing general education and basic rights, which needs to be addressed for future development,” he said.

Shamim Ahmed, executive director at the Youth Engagement for Sustainability (YES) Bangladesh, said more focus should be given to youth skill development and employment to ensure their contributions to the economy.

He suggests that the policies should not be urban-centric only.

The programme was moderated by Towfiqul Islam Khan, a senior research fellow at the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD).