Youths, if educated in better way and provided with opportunities they require, can play a very effective role in development of our nation. They are energetic, zealous and motivated. Young people in any country represent the future of that country. They have a vital role to play in the development of the country, a duty they must perform.
When it comes to Afghanistan, there is pressing need to support the young generation. Most of the individuals who lead the nation can be called generation of the war. In the next 2-3 decades they will no more be alive and here is where more talented, more educated and more professional Afghans should fill the gap. The Afghan youths have shown extraordinary performance in sports, many of them are involved in politics, civil society and other important areas while thousands are getting higher education inside Afghan and abroad.
Based on data from a Central Statistics Office report published in 2011, 68% of Afghanistan's 26.5m citizens are under 25, with those ages 15-24 accounting for 40% of the total population. Therefore, the young Afghans need more investment and focus.
The Afghanistan National Youth Policy (ANYP) that has been drafted by Deputy Ministry for Youth Affairs recently and is expected to get endorsed soon is a welcoming step forward. According to the officials, the policy's main objective is to design and implement strategies and programs to promote the talents, skills and potential of young women and men from various economic, social, cultural, and political backgrounds.
There are many hurdles before the Afghan youths ranging from insecurity, poverty, lack of access to quality education, unavailability of opportunities and unemployment to critical issues such ethnic discrimination. Among many problems, ANYP should address, one is ethnic discrimination in education, sports and some other areas. An example of this in Afghanistan's Taekwondo Federation (ATF) which led Rohullah Nekpa, country’s first and only Olympic winner to boycott taking part in this year’s World Taekwondo Championships (WTF) in Mexico. Nekpa has even indicated that unless the federation changes its discriminatory attitudes, he will never represent the country on the international stage again.
The ANYP is a crucial step ahead and through such policies the government must eradicated problems facing the youths of Afghanistan and let them nurture in a sound environment free of all kinds of hatred. The more our government invests in the abilities the youth, the more hopeful we can be about future of the country.