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

Militarisation of the youthinterests. Consequently, the gaps among the youth groups are wideningand they are divided on the basis of ethnicity, geography and politicalideology.Why are the youths being involved in coercive activities? What is the reasonbehind them to tie up with one group or the other? What consequencescan it bring to the society and the state? This chapter attempts to answerthese questions. The objective of this chapter is to examine the causesand consequences of coercive engagement of youth and the process ofmilitarisation of the youths in Nepal.The perspective on youth differs in every context but basically it isdefined in terms of age group. The National Youth Policy-2010 definesthem as “those from 16-40 years constituting of 38.8 per cent of the totalpopulation”. 4 Similarly, the National Action Plan for Youth EmploymentNepal (2008-2015) states, “In Nepal, young people of the age group 15to 29 are generally referred to as youth. They are about seven millionin numbers, and constitute 28.3 per cent of 24.8 million Nepalese in2004. This encompasses a larger group than that covered by the usualinternational definition of youth, which refers to that age group of 15-24years which constitutes 18 per cent of the Nepalese population”. 5For the purpose of this chapter, the term ‘militarisation’ is defined asa social process of engagement in coercive activities, use of threat ofviolence, creation of fear in society, carrying out the activities that areprevented by law, systematic denial or obstruction of basic rights of otherpeople to fulfil own vested interests and abuse of political power andresources to gain personal benefits. Contrary to what many scholars onmilitarisation do, this chapter has defined ‘militarisation’ from the societalperspective rather than from the military one.Geyer (1989, p 79) defines militarisation as “The contradictory and tensesocial process in which civil society organises itself for the production ofviolence”. Militarisation is a discursive process, involving a shift in generalsocietal beliefs and values in ways necessary to legitimate the use of force,the organisation of large standing armies and their leaders, and the highertaxes or tribute used to pay for them (Lutz 2007). Kumar (2006) has definedmilitarism as a situation in which the propensity to use military power, orthe threat of it, for political settlement is prevalent. These definitions aremore focused on state militarisation (use of official armed forces).4National Youth Policy-2010, Ministry of Youth and Sports, Government of Nepal.5National Action Plan for Youth Employment Nepal (2008-2015), National Planning Commission,Government of Nepal.194