At times, concerns about young people’s ‘disappearance’ from Nepal sound barely convincing. The young occasionally show unpredictable public presence. They emerge all of a sudden in fairs, fanfares, and festivities. When there are political gatherings in the town, they swarm in thousands (or lakhs if we go by the claims of their mentors) by the roofs of old vehicles. During election times, they are in the mainstream stories by clashing with one another almost every day. They are here to padlock offices, and there to punch offenders.
But, where does this mass exist? The mass is destined to be unidentifiable but existent. The creatures walking along the side of Rani Pokhari are as normal as the creatures in its water. Kathmandu is a big Rani Pokhari, and the infinite crowd keeps emerging and disappearing. What Kathmandu itself seems to experience is the ripples, momentary but eternal because the mobility is endless. Who brings the crowd here? Who helps their reproduction and population growth? Where does it go? I am sure most of these mysterious faces have landed here to be small fishes in a big pond, Kathmandu, and have lived trying to accumulate little size and space over the years. Some are only on a sojourn before scaling greater heights elsewhere. So, while the former take the face of a consistent mass in the mist of Kathmandu, the latter evaporate day by day. But I am only a little curious to think about the flying. The mass deserves mention.
I suppose any bright, agitated, or chagrined face I chance to see at Ratna Park, Gaushala, or Gongabu reaches one of the five destinations at the end of the day. The destinations, as ever, happen to be political parties, educational institutions, ‘study-abroad’ consultancies, manpower agencies, and families. There may be more, though.
Political parties need young people to barricade their frontline. Ironically, leaders would like to see them active and aggressive, but ideologically submissive. Old leaders keep on chanting the cliché that youths are tomorrow’s pillars. Young leaders keep complaining that their elders are never letting the helm of politics come to the younger generation. Young followers, possibly unaware of this oft-mystified conflict between the old and new leaders, continue to serve the interests of both.
Educational institutions naturally need young learners. Many of them claim to ensure that the youths thrive. The society judges their standard on the basis of their graduates’ successes in entering into a high-paid job or in achieving foreign opportunities. This more or less gears them towards ensuring success beyond the country’s frontiers. Their claims of supporting national development sometimes appear ambiguous.
Study abroad consultancies promise to provide ultimate destinations. They target ambitious and affluent young people though their mantra appears to be to boost the spirit of every youngster. They are in any sense facilitating disappearances.
As industrial development is too slow or downward within the country, a large number of under-educated people do not get job opportunities inside. Manpower offices and agents address the needs of such a group of young people. For a person with SLC or below, the possibility of earning about twenty thousand rupees on average at a foreign employment company is a major incentive for leaving the country.
Families are primary caretakers. They are affected both by the deviation and devotion of the younger generation. In villages, young people shun farming or give it only a tertiary value. They have a general tendency to leave the village either for cities or foreign countries. In cities, most young people are more prone to material pursuits than to show activism towards humanitarian causes. Parents like to prevent their children from ‘messing’ in public activities and try all means to ensure excellence in their upbringing inside a limited circle of trainers and groomers. Common in villages and cities, young ones are spiritually detached from home looking towards a relatively more colourful future. Besides, parents either promote or cannot check individualism. They rather seem to inculcate in the youths an escapist tendency showing that the country has little to offer.
Nepali youths have several immediate demands, which our slow-paced development does not meet. The demands range from basic needs to a plethora of advanced amenities. As aspirations are high, small lapses look big. Failures are frustrating, and frustration is attributed to the unstable political situation. Politics thus has often taken a pessimistic move. Politics and politicians command only little trust despite being inevitable. Youths are not trained to tolerate unexpected changes. Instability and economic decline have been the highly disseminated everyday realities. Elders greyed with these realities and transferred resignation and pessimism onto their progeny. Hardworking parents have failed to teach their children the value of hard work. More counseling has been provided for personal growth, which has led to individualism.
Who can help? First, young leaders and entrepreneurs can act as role models for independent growth. Second, parents, teachers, and counselors can show that such leaders emerge from honest and committed youths. Third, policymakers grown from these role models can and must make development plans as per the needs of the new generation. Otherwise, unnoticed amidst more serious issues at present, the crowd will gradually evaporate and our dear leaders will lack cheerleaders soon.