Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, June 14: A group of prominent political and economic experts today underscored the need of political engagement and empowerment of youth for shaping the future of the State.
The experts say that youth comprises 40 percent of population in Jammu and Kashmir and it is important that they should be engaged politically so that they can guide the political parties and will shape the future of the State.
Former Vice-Chancellor of Islamic University of Science and Technology, Prof. Sidiq Wahid while speaking in a seminar organized by a Non-Governmental Organization titled, Kashmiri Youth: Anxieties and Aspirations,’ said that the youth in Kashmir lack opportunities and said that there is a need to take pragmatic steps for their future. “We should stop re-employing retired officials because we are not giving opportunities to our youth then,” he added.
“It is the youth of Kashmir, who need to decide his/her future. Today, we have youth who are educated but not politically engaged and empowered,” said Dr. Haseeb Drabu, former Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Bank.
Dr Drabu further noted that by virtue of sheer numbers, the youth of the state should and can decide the future of the nation. “No nation can prosper unless its youth are politically empowered, socially responsible, ethically aware and economically independent citizens. “To reach there, we must educate, employ, engage and empower our youth,” he said.
Dr. Drabu said: “Jammu and Kashmir is the only place where our aspirations have become our anxieties and why is it that our individual and social aspirations do not match? In discussing our anxieties and aspirations, we have lost many generations.”
A civil society member, Shakeel Qalander said that it is unfortunate that Government of India never made the Kashmiris, a part of their developmental trajectory particularly during the past three decades. However, he said:”We need to segregate political aspirations from the economic and social aspirations and should rather achieve them individually.”
Political expert and Professor of Political Science at Kashmir University, Professor Gul Wani while talking on the issue said that the political parties including separatists and civil society should engage youth and make them part of the policy making which would help the larger interest of society. He also said that the problems of the Kashmiri youth needs to be connected with the youth in the larger region which would determine the future society, we are going to have in the sub-continent.
Rajni Shaleen Chopra, Director of the NGO, said the social contact between the Kashmir youth and the policy makers is of prime importance now. “This contract can be possible in a society which is resilient and committed to justice. On the positive side, there is rise of an assertive civil society and vibrant mass media which can be helpful in rebuilding society and other institutions,” she said.
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