By: Rabia Aslam
Pakistan is counted among a few blessed countries having vital geographical location, mineral resources, all four weathers, and above all a robust and dynamic youth that comprises 63% of the total population. One can, only, wonder if the country still is lagging behind in many aspects. Let’s just talk about youth only that has the enthusiasm, ability, and determination to turn adversity into opportunities and then seize that ability to achieve the desired results for their country. However, this is not the whole truth; despite having a large proportion of young people, this land has been unable to benefit from them. The situation can turn even graver if the issues faced by Pakistani youth are not addressed and tackled right in the time. Allow me to delve not into a debate where everything is blamed on others or let’s simply call it community and state.
Pakistan has by far the youngest population among the world’s 15 major countries in terms of population. Society should view the young population as an asset rather than a burden.
The problem starts at home. Yes, home – the first domain an individual is surrounded with-after he is born. Where in this age of technology, we are benefitting from many digital gadgets, there has been an adverse effect too. From a very young age, a child sees the grownups around him engrossed in the mobile phones and passing their time using tablets, iPhone and android phones. Everyone has become so mechanical that a healthy environment of a home is losing its charm. As technology is progressing, people are getting devoid of emotions. Gone are the days when parents would spare time to play with there young ones. Father would come back home in the evening and children would tell them what they had been doing whole day. They would sit, chuckle, laugh and giggle together. Looking at the present, the picture looks bleak. Adults are too busy and tired to sit and listen to kids. They hand mobile to children and feel themselves absolved of all the responsibilities. They prefer sitting in couch and letting android do their job. As a result, the trust and the bond that was supposed to thrive between the child and his adults, got weakened or has a very shallow basis. There has blossomed a yawning communication gap between them. The gadgets would provide all the necessary information and directions to the individual as he is ripening in age but they never provide an emotional and spiritual guidance and support to him.
The technology will never provide a moral support, inner satisfaction and a belief that his loved ones are around him and he can rely on them. Something remains missing in his personality as he grows up. When he is encountered with any problem, he feels hesitant and doubt to discuss it with elders or people senior to him. He seems to lack something in him and fee perturbed. This is the cost that the youth (and all of us at large) has to pay for having themselves indulged a bit too much in the technology. Anxiety and frustration are the current issues faced by our youth and this start developing before a child steps out of home. This thing is gently but surely eating our youth. Considering this state of affairs, it would be foolish of one to expect a healthy progress of country, where the youngsters of today have been massively trounced; they do not appear to be too young to be cosseted, and yet not old enough to assume responsibility for themselves. To utilize the resource, we have been blessed with, we need to work from a very tender age. If the base of the building is set right, the whole structure will stand strong.
Technology must be used for information and to pace with the modern era but it should not be allowed to an extent where it starts gulping emotions and trust. Child is a father of man, what we teach him today, he will practice tomorrow. So, the roots need to be strengthened so that he can grow up in shape a robust and enthusiastic youth of the country. Our main responsibility is to guide them in a direction that would later be fruitful for him as well as society. We must devise ways to equip them with the approaches that would lead to accomplishments. This calls for fostering the trust among the adults and right guidance at the right age so that we don’t lament later for the time we have wasted a long ago. We must allow our youngsters to recognize their identity. To restore the youth’s confidence in their hidden potential, restorative endeavors must be attempted at individual, and social levels. We must prepare our youth to face and combat the difficulties of the future with unwavering courage and exuberant optimism.
Pakistan has by far the youngest population among the world’s 15 major countries in terms of population. Society should view the young population as an asset rather than a burden. In the end, remember Quaid’s words that “Pakistan is proud of her youth…who are nation builder of tomorrow.”
The writer is an educationist, content writer, and freelance columnist with nearly more than a decade of experience in the field of education. She is an eloquent commentator on women’s rights, education, peace and interfaith harmony. She can be reached at [email protected]