English - Support to Participatory Constitution Building in Nepal ...

Chapter10Militarisation of the youth:Hindering state-building inpost-conflict Nepal1. IntroductionAnjana Luitel 1Bishnu Raj Upreti 2Ashok Rai 3Rapid, massive and coercive mobilisation of youth by political partiesto achieve vested interests has posed a serious challenge to the statesecurity mechanism as well as the Nepali society. With increasing coerciveactivities, the country is militarised. The situation is extremely vulnerableand could enter into the vicious cycle of conflict and confrontation. Thedecade long armed conflict ended with the signing the CPA in 2006.Though, it opened a new chapter in Nepali politics, youth mobilisation incoercive activities has militarised the youths and radicalised the society.On one hand, the state is facing difficulties to deal with federalism (inform, type, level, name, boundary and resource), integration andrehabilitation of ex-combatants and democratisation of the state army,power sharing arrangement, providing peace dividends, socio-economictransformation and social justice. On the other hand, large number ofyouths is unemployed, under-employed and ultimately being mobilisedfor coercive activities. This has seriously pushed the productive cohorts ofyouths into the net of militarisation.The youths are regarded as the backbone of a nation as they are theagents of change and the leaders of the country. No society and nationdreams of youth groups getting involved in coercive act, destruction andweakening the state thereby creating fear and insecurity in the society. Ina situation of crisis and transition, the youth should have been involvedin constructive works and become the agents of peace, harmony andcollaboration. In contrary to it, majority of youth in Nepal seem to beengaged in confrontation, fights and violence to fulfil certain vested1Master’s Student, HNRSC, Kathmandu University; luitelanjana@hotmail.com2South Asia Regional Coordinator, Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR North-South); bupreti@nccr.wlink.com.np3Master’s Student, HNRSC, Kathmandu University; asocrai@hotmail.com193