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

Militarisation of the youthone in which the military has taken ascendancy over a civilian institutions.It is predominantly and visibly relied upon the security forces to regulatecivilian movement, solve political problems and defend or expandboundaries in the name of national security.Thus, the culture of street struggle and to violently fulfil one’s desirehas resulted in the militarisation of the entire nation. As violence andyouth energy is taken as one of the means to get political consensus,the country is becoming prone to a militarised state. With an easy andimmediate benefit with the help of coercion, the frustrated youths havebeen attracted more to these activities.4. Reasons behind militarisationYouths in Nepal have been misused and mishandled time and again bythe political parties and other interests groups. They are always mobilisedduring protests which has given youth a negative crown in the society.But worldwide, only few have analysed the reason behind this. We, here,attempt to find out the reasons behind such engagements. In doingso, psychological, socio-economic and political dimensions of youthmilitarisation are discussed in the following sections.4.1 Psychological reasonsYouth is the stage at which a person becomes productive andresponsible thus nurturing a different psychology. This is the process ofindividualisation when a person starts to identify oneself with differentideologies and orientation. Recognition becomes a key factor in their livesat this time. They intend to challenge the traditional values deep-rootedin the society and get affiliated with those who have the courage to defysuch social systems. They are less analytical for the implication and moreaction-oriented. So, they could be easily mobilised with attractive slogansfor anyone’s interests.In societies where there is more youth population, there are imbalancesbetween the education and the employment system. It results in largernumber of unemployed youths. Thus, the youths have more leisure. Thus,they get time to be engaged in different groups for either constructive ordestructive purpose. As at this stage they do not have more inclinationtowards constructive activities, majority of them are involved in destructiveones. During this stage, they tend to listen to more to their peer groups.Because of the peer pressure, they get involved in activities they would200