Sunday Oct 06, 2024
Sunday Oct 06, 2024
Friday, 29 November 2013 00:00 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
We have seen globally in the last 10 years youth voicing out their views, and demanding justice, inclusion and equal opportunities. This status change is not only limited to developing countries, it is sweeping across the West to East, North to South and from well developed countries to developing countries and from the streets of New York to streets of Cairo. It was very recently that the French youth took to the streets of Paris demanding that the unjust and unfair deportation of a Roma girl by French authorities be revoked and she and her family allowed back to France.
Aspirations of Sri Lankan youth
Coming back to Sri Lanka, thanks to the free education availed we have a youth population with a high literacy rate. Through this free education system, which is a great blessing to the country, it has given access to millions of youth of the country from the year one up to the university education to a multitude of benefits spanning over six decades. However, this has greatly created a wider aspiration only for white collar jobs for the youth when there are greater opportunities and demand for technical and skilled jobs across the country due to more and more young people shunning learning opportunities in those areas for many reasons. 
Whilst Sri Lanka needs doctors, engineers, architects, administrators and business managers, the country also needs farmers, masons, electricians, plumbers and carpenters, etc. There are a number of Government-sponsored technical schools across the country, inducing youth to enrol in such institutions to acquire skills, which are challenge by the reason of recognition of the qualification by the society at large, thus diluting ‘dignity of labour,’ which dissuades many young people to pursue careers in the skilled and technical fields.
Still, thousands of youth who go through the process of passing Ordinary Level (OL), Advanced Level (AL) and even completing their university degrees are at the crossroads, not knowing what to do next to find suitable employment or become employable. This huge uncertainty has resulted in unemployment and underemployment of youth across the country over the last three decades.
The country has faced three violent youth uprisings
It is only now that the West, Middle East, Africa and Asia are seeing the youth demanding justice, inclusion and equal opportunity from their respective authorities and at times we have seen very violent confrontations and conflicts emerging when such rights are denied. Sri Lanka has seen and experienced this with greater bloodshed over the decades.
The country, thanks to the forthright vision and leadership of President Mahinda Rajapaksa, has been able to steer the country out of three decades of war and terrorism. However, many have forgotten the two previous violent youth uprisings that took place in the country. The very first youth uprising which took place in 1971 was well-organised, island-wide and violent. However, it ended as a failed attempt to topple the then Government, which had no option but to crush it militarily. In the process, thousands of youth lost their lives for a vain cause.
This scenario was repeated again almost after 17 years in the 1988 and 1989 period, now referred to as the southern youth uprising, this time with greater violence, wrecking disturbance, destruction and havoc across the country, which many times resulted in public and private sector institutions shutting down for days, weeks, and even months. Again the then Government for the protection of society and to prevent unwarranted destruction of property had no option but to crush it militarily, leading to loss of life of many thousands of youth, most probably three times more than the first uprising. It was the youth from both sides that paid the heavy price, even at the recently-concluded three-decade war, which economically set back the whole country.
Sri Lankan youth have spoken loudly and clearly
In the last 50 years, the country has faced two violent and destructive southern youth uprisings and one dangerously destructive and violent northern youth uprising, resulting in not only loss of lives of thousands of vibrant youth, but tremendous lost opportunities for the country to progress economically.
The one thing that’s very clear, unlike in any other country in the world in Sri Lanka in the last 50 years, is that the youth of the country have spoken very loudly and clearly and that too by shedding blood and losing their own lives. But the question is whether all the stakeholders responsible for youth empowerment economically have heard the message properly because the kind of solutions surfaced and the kind of framework created are far from matching with the complex youth economic empowerment needs in the country.
Again, this not the sole responsibility of the State or the Government alone, but key public and private sector stakeholder engagement is absolutely necessary for viable solutions and to create a more sustainable framework for inclusion of youth in economic empowerment.
Does the current academic educational system support wider youth empowerment?
Every year thousands of students sit for the Ordinary Level and a significant number of them do not cross the hurdle to move towards the Advanced Level and likewise thousands of students sit for the Advanced Level and only about little over 20,000 get the prestigious opportunity of entering the university system. At each stage thousands of dropouts get stranded, not knowing where to go. This is more prominent in the rural areas and among the lower middle class and among the poor population of the country.
To a certain extent the youth who cross each hurdle are able to find avenues for economic engagement. However, the vast majority of thousands and thousands of energetic youth are on the lookout for opportunities for economic empowerment. This is where all the stakeholders in Sri Lankan society need to wake up and recognise the critical role they have to play with responsibility and accountability.
The start would be the parents themselves as the initial empowering agents. For example, only 11 people can play in a cricket team, but at times 200 to 300 parents fight tooth and nail to get their sons to play for the school team. Since only 11 can play, naturally its disappointment for the majority. It’s the responsibility of the parents to identify the skills and talent of the children and guide them at an early stage to place them on the right path for empowerment. Not every child can be a doctor, accountant, engineer or a manager, but some have other technical skills to explore for greater opportunities.
The country, as much as it needs white collar professionals, also needs skilled masons and plumbers, etc., to maintain the social fabric. But the question is, who wants their son to become a mason? This is where the dignity of labour has become a huge issue in Sri Lankan society in comparison to more developed countries. There needs to be a significant change in our mindset to create positive awareness creation of the dignified status for such blue collar skills for an abundance of future opportunities in each profession and field to be vigorously pursued. There are many success stories of many who have started as masons who have become sub-contractors, main contractors and construction firms even employing qualified accountants, managers and even architects.
Does the private sector labelled the engine of growth have the pulling power?
Many say that the private sector is the engine of growth; in a free and liberal economy it is true indeed, but if it were to become meaningful and for society as a whole to feel the its impact, this engine should have enough pulling power to pull all the segments of the society towards economic inclusion and empowerment, particularly the youth segment of Sri Lankan society.
The private corporate sector of the country needs to move away from the idea of making hay while the sun shines, towards catalysing more responsible and sustainable revenue generation where they would walk the talk of triple bottom line mandate. When you think of the 3Ps – Profit, People and Planet – even in the global context it would be a rarity if at the board level numbers relating to people and planet are discussed and deliberated upon. Mostly, it is centred on numbers relating to the first P, profit. Therefore it is timely that numbers relating to the other two Ps too are embedded in the profit loss account and balance sheet and strategy papers for board discussion formulated for the organisation to be really identified as the true triple bottom line company. 
These statements should indicate how the respective organisation has contributed directly and indirectly to the reduction of poverty head count and alleviation of poverty and contributed to direct and indirect employment opportunities for the youth of the country, which are some elements that should indicate referring to the second P, people. With regard to Planet, how the organisation has contributed to conservation of energy, protection of nature, and reduction of harmful effects on the pollution are some areas where key numbers should be discussed. Currently I have no idea of any of the Sri Lankan public and private sector corporates practicing this.
Private sector should walk the triple bottom line talk
There has to be a very clear visionary strategy with strong collaboration and engagement between the public and private sector to work towards a more sustainable and inclusive framework for youth empowerment in the country and a framework for economic inclusion and empowerment of youth in Sri Lanka.
The next generation of farmers in Sri Lanka should be agri-entrepreneurs (agropreneurs), taking advantage of technology and innovations for product quality, creating markets for produce by a very effective value chain mechanism. Then, more and more rural youth will take to agriculture and will enhance commercial produce of agriculture, whether it is rice, vegetables, milk or fish. To a certain extent, CIC, a well-established corporate, is showing the way by setting a mechanism to graduating rural famers to commercially viable agropreneurs, which is commendable in the current context. But a single entity alone cannot provide solutions to the complex needs of the rural agri society of Sri Lanka.
We also see a few agri produce exporters and some super market chains too coming out supporting this community with buy back arrangements and creating a value chain mechanism. However, if we are to induce more rural youth who are educated to move progressively into the agri sector for employment or self-employment, one has work with multiple stakeholders in creating more attractive and sustainable revenue generating models for the youth who need to see the way forward for their aspirations and dreams to be fulfilled being in the agri sector.
A commendable initiative was taken by Holcim, Sri Lanka’s largest cement producer, in partnership with the National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA) in training over 600 ex-LTTE combatants on masonry for three to six months with a professional certification at the end of the training period. Around 30% of these trained masons wanted to move into subcontracting to build houses that were built in the north and east. Holcim then linked them to their registered major contractors and financial institutions to get the working capital for them to commence business. This is a classic example of private-public partnership for economic inclusion and economic empowerment of youth. The same could be applied in fields like plumbing, carpentry, electrical work etc.
There need to be 1,000 such partnerships and collaborations to properly harness youth empowerment as Sri Lanka is blessed with a dynamic and talented youth population. While we appreciate the opportunities our youth get in countries like South Korea, these are just a drop in the ocean. Very recently, nearly 200,000 youth across the country applied for just 10,000 Korean jobs; 200,000 youth came to Colombo and sat near the Police Park in Colombo for two days only to collect the applications and only a fortunate 10,000 had the opportunity to be selected for Korean jobs and the rest of the 190,000 youth were disappointed. This shows the magnitude of the problem underneath and unless the public and private sector begins to walk the triple bottom line talk, unrest of the youth seeking empowerment will increasingly become an issue for concern.
Creating the right framework for youth inclusion for economic empowerment is not rocket science
As I have mentioned in my previous advocation, the public and private sector should see the big picture and also see eye-to-eye in creating programs and platforms for the youth of the country to be economically included for economic empowerment. This cannot be done through short-term measures but by a more sustainable viable solution taking into consideration the ownership for youth empowerment as the key responsibility of all stakeholders.
If the right measures are taken at the right time, in the right way, at the right places, our country will never see another youth uprising as witnessed in 1971, 1989, and throughout the three decades ending in 2009. Therefore, it is our collective responsibility at any cost to prevent the slightest room that will give rise to another youth uprising.
The State and the Government need to ensure more proactive and productive bureaucracy to facilitate much faster capacity building of infrastructure that will create an enabling environment for youth economic inclusion and empowerment. The corporate private sector needs to wake up if they are the engine of the growth to see if they have enough pulling power for greater youth inclusion in their corporate agendas for youth economic empowerment.
(The writer is the Project Director of Hatton National Bank and the Chairman of Asia’s largest microfinance network BWTP. He also serves on the boards of a number of national and international financial institutions that advocate and practice financial inclusion. The thoughts and comments expressed here are his own and are in no way connected to the organisations he represents. He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].)
