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

Militarisation of the youthState building is not possible with vacant and unproductive youths. Withthe more militarised form of youths, it is near to impossible to realisethe state building. Youths with threatening voices are getting their wishfulfilled. This turns them more lethargic. Today, the youth psychology isshaped in such a way that they are enjoying the power on the basis of thebarrel of gun they are armoured with. Thus, they are not inclined to puttheir labour on anything harder than this. Indeed, it is a sincere challengeto the development of the society we live in.6. State response in addressing youth concernsWith most of the youth population involved in militarised activitiesand more than that migrating to the foreign state to pursue furthereducation and career, Nepal today is at a very crucial stage with limitedproductive youths. The state has tried to address youth issues by beingone of the signatories of the International Conference on Populationand Development, World Programme of Action on Youth, but little hasbeen done so far in addressing such issues. The youth population hasbeen marginalised on the basis of not only caste, culture, ethnicity andgeography, but also their age as well.With the increasing trend of militarisation, youths have always beenassociated with the violent groups and have never been thought of asthe agents of peace. They have been affiliated to groups to put up theirvoice which is why they tend to get militarised. Even if they get involvedin constructive works now, the society looks at them with suspicion. Thus,understanding the state of youth groups, the Government of Nepal hasnow formed a Youth and Sports Ministry to handle such issues. In thesame way, this ministry has successfully come up with a comprehensiveNational Youth Policy-2010. Though it discusses youth empowerment inlength, it is still not out of criticism for its definition on youth that has awide range, i.e. from 15 to 40 years. There seems to be the huge gap inpolicy formulation. Besides, it discusses about providing voting rights tothe youths from 16 years but the country till date regards the people below18 years as minors. Hence, providing voting rights to the people of this agegroup itself intrigues against the national law. Thus, the policy-makers arenot aware of the consequences of including wider range of people intoone group forcing the real youths to be deprived of the opportunities andpushing them towards the criminal activities.Equally, the youth chapter in the Three Year Interim Plan (NPC 2007) hasbeen formulated precisely covering all the concerned issues. The problemsand challenges formulated in these issues are quite generic. They fail206