Speakers at a webinar have said that Bangladesh’s youth needs to be motivated to go back to the villages and start working from there.
This is because they have been fed the idea that they can succeed only in an urban setting, they made the observations during the webinar, titled “Today’s Youth in Active Citizenship Role,” on Wednesday.
The virtual discussion was organized by Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF) and Eco Social Development Organization (ESDO).
Speaking as the chief guest, Home Minister Assauzzaman Khan Kamal said that there were opportunities for young people in the country’s rural areas.
“In order to dispel the differences between the village youths and urban youths, this government is working on providing all the facilities of the urban areas into the villages,” he said.
He also said that young people were easily misled by propaganda and this needs to be addressed as the nation’s future would be at stake if the youth goes astray.
Syed Manzur Elahi, MJF’s governing board chair and former caretaker government adviser, echoed his remarks, and added that many opportunities lie in the rural areas but a major problem that blocks them is the access to capital to start a business.
“Access to small funds will help these young entrepreneurs a lot. Private organizations and NGOs should set up a system to provide small funds to them.
“Entrepreneurs should submit their ideas to get the fund,” he said.
British High Commissioner in Dhaka Robert Chatterton Dickson said: “Young people need a common platform to come together and work for the development of the country.
“These kinds of platforms will give them a sense of agency.”
Md Anwarul Islam Sarker, additional secretary of Ministry of Youth and Sports, said: “There are only 150,000 jobs in the government sectors. Meanwhile, every year, around 2,200,000 are entering the job market.
“People who went back to the villages because of Covid-19 should not return. We are providing training on various skills such as driving so that 4,000,000 people do not have to come back and can find a better living in their villages.”
Shomy Chowdhury, a representative of the country’s youth, expressed that young people in the rural areas did not get to enjoy the advantages of technology amid the Covid-19 pandemic because there was a “digital divide.”
She said that an entrepreneurial mindset should be constructed among the youth.
Gender sensitivity is another issue that the youth today is lacking, she also said, adding: “For that, some serious work needs to be done to promote gender sensitivity.”
