Prime Minister Youth Affairs Programme (PMYAP) in collaboration with the National Database and Registration Authority has planned to launch the Youth Empowerment Card to make them economically independent and empowered.
This initiative would be a subsidy card for the youth to avail of civic services like travel tickets, passport fees, and the national identity card on subsidized rates. NADRA will collect the basic data of youth across Pakistan and Rs4000 to Rs5000 will be provided under this card.
The government is committed to providing paramount opportunities to young people so that they could contribute to national development. A comprehensive National Human Development Report (NHDR) report, launched by UNDP in 2018, stated that Pakistan currently has the largest population of young people ever recorded in its history. Currently, Pakistan is one of the youngest countries in the world and the second youngest in the South Asian region after Afghanistan.
EMPOWERING YOUNG PEOPLE: Of the total population, 64 percent is below the age of 30, and 29 percent is between the ages of 15-29 years. The report presents Pakistan’s human development challenges and opportunities from the perspective of its youth. It focuses on how to improve human development outcomes by empowering young people, addressing the root causes of the obstacles they face, and by proposing innovative ways to overcome these challenges.
NHDR lead author Dr. Adil Najam said the future of Pakistan one way or the other would be determined by those who are between 15 and 29 years of age today. He said that the most useful thing that could be done is to create meaningful opportunities in education, employment, and engagement that could empower young people to unleash their potential. Pakistan needed to create 4.5 million new jobs over the next four to five years and enroll millions of it’s out of school children in the coming years to properly utilize 64 percent of the youth bulge that provides a unique opportunity for its economy to grow faster and sustainably.
GREEN YOUTH MOVEMENT: An official also said that the Prime Minister Youth Affairs Programme has also planned to start the Green Youth Movement (GYM) for tackling environmental and climate crises. The main aim of the initiative is to financially support youth in spearheading eco-innovation in the country.
Under this program, the young people would be offered small grants to bring eco-innovative solutions for climate crises like waste management, solid and liquid waste management, water conservation feature icon, renewable energy, agriculture, and forestry feature icon eco-tourism.
The Model Green Campuses – living labs – will be established in all provinces for the promotion of best practices in renewable energy, solid and liquid waste management, water conservation, agriculture, forestry, and eco-tourism. A network of GYM clubs will be established around 110 HEC-recognized public sector universities. The Young Eco-Innovators will be mentored and their innovations will be marketed.
Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Youth Affairs Usman Dar said that the government is committed to uplift youth as they are the actual asset and without strengthening them the country could not progress. He said that many programs are initiated to support young people and it also linked to those policies that would help to stabilize the economy.
He said that Pakistan is moving in the right direction and by passing every day it is achieving goals besides fulfilling ‘all’ promises to the country’s youth. He said the leadership would make Pakistan a welfare state. “We hope that our government will empower young people through different initiatives,” he said.
