Presently about 2 Crore 70 Lakh youths are jobless, or do not have any earning, 75 percent of them are females. Every year 445000 youths graduate from the Pakistani universities. About 25000 youths graduate in computer science but their majority could not get proper employment.
Karachi
The youths, hailing from different walks of life, have formed a new organization named as ‘Alternate’ to struggle for their rights, equal opportunities to education and jobs.
“It is better to uproot the rotten education system that does not provide the youth jobs and equal opportunities to education,” the leaders of new organization said addressing a press conference at the Karachi Press Club on Friday.
Leaders of Alternate said that the youths comprise 63 percent of the total population of Pakistan, and their number as per an estimate is about 14 Crore.
They are 50 percent of 7 Crore labor force of Pakistan and more than 33 percent of total voters of the country. However, there is no policy or planning for development of this active part of the national population.
They said presently about 2 Crore 70 Lakh youths are jobless, or do not have any earning, 75 percent of them are females. Every year 445000 youths graduate from the Pakistani universities. About 25000 youths graduate in computer science but their majority could not get proper employment.
They said Pakistan is amongst the countries where educational conditions are the worst. “Today about 2.25 Crore children are out of the school and after Nigeria this is the second largest number of the out of the school children. In Pakistan literacy ratio is just 56 percent, which means that after passage of 75 years of its independence the half population of the country is still illiterate.”
This sad state of affairs presents a worrisome scenario for the present and future of our youths. “To cope with the situation in an organized manner the youths belonging to different walks of life have decided to organize them on a platform of Alternate. It would provide an alternative thinking and struggle to uproot decaying society. Under the banner of this organization conscious youths of this country would wage an organized struggle against social, economic, cultural and political injustice in the country.”
This organization would launch a struggle to resolve the issues of the youths working in factories, industries, offices, shopping malls, markets, government and semi-government organizations and other workplaces and help getting their legal rights.
This organization would give a voice to the youths working in fields and farms. It is included in the basic objectives of this organization to foil the conspiracy of the elite class to distribute the youth on regional, linguistic, communal, and religious and gender lines so that their attention is diverted from the oppression of this class. It would organize the youths on local, city, province and national levels to wage struggle to attainment of basic facilities of clean potable water, electricity, gas, public transport, schools, hospitals, parks and sewerage treatment.
The speakers said that the departments responsible for providing basic facilities to the masses have become dens of corruption and Alternate would raise a strong voice against this corruption. It would fight for the rights of the downtrodden sections of society like women, transgender people and religious minorities. It will strive to fight growing hopelessness, mental issues and lack of purpose in the youth and arrange healthy activities for them like sports, cultural, literary programs. It would fight against injustice being meted out to all nations and cultural entities living in this country.
They appealed to the Pakistani youths to join Alternate to become a purposeful and organized force against all injustices and hatreds in our society.
Alternate demanded that education from primary to university level should be free and purposeful and available to all citizens. Curriculum should be revised as per modern needs and on scientific basis.
All work eligible youths should be given respectful jobs and till provision of jobs they should be given unemployment allowance. They should be given vocational training on the expenses of government.
The employed youths should be given all facilities as per law including official minimum wages, right to make labor unions and registration with social security and pension institutions. They should not be forced to work more than eight hours a day and they should be paid double overtime.
They demanded to cut non-development expenses and allocate a big share of budget for education and healthcare. All discriminatory laws and social practices against women, children, transgender and religious minorities should be ended.
All citizens should be considered equal citizens irrespective of their faith, caste and creed. Inhuman treatment being meted out to religious minorities should be ended.
All policies and projects that are danger to environment and threat to life on earth should be done away with. Solid steps should be taken to end the arms race in this region.
It is included in the program of Alternate to hold study circles, seminars, youth conferences, press conferences, youth rallies, literary programs besides sports activities, cultural programs, local and foreign study tours and picnic programs for the youth to develop their social and political awareness.
Those spoke included Aqib Hussain, (National Trade Unions Federation), Shehzad Mughal (student), Zainab Nasir (student), Anee Yaqoob (home-based worker), Owais Jatoi (factory worker), Ashfaq Roy (teacher), Aiman (home based worker), Shaima (teacher), Liaquat (Factory Worker) and others.
___________________
Sindh Courier
