Public health experts, development activists and journalists, among other speakers, at a roundtable on Tuesday emphasised youth engagement in policymaking to promote their effective empowerment and ensure the country鈥檚 sustainable development.
At the event held in Dhaka city, they said that although youths aged between 18 and 35 years constitute around one-third of the country鈥檚 total population, they were not aware of the country鈥檚 development policies, not even of those directly related to them.
Population Services and Training Center, a non-governmental organisation working for the development of the poor and socially disadvantaged communities, organised the discussion on the 鈥楨mpowering young people to create the families they want in a fair and hopeful world鈥� theme ahead of World Population Day to be observed on July 11.聽
Saying that youths had the strength to control the society, Bangla daily Ajker Patrika editor Md Golam Rahman emphasised coordinated efforts for youth employment and observed that with youths being empowered solving social problems became easier.
The speakers said that the government should ensure proper education and healthcare for the youths which, in turn, would help best utilise the demographic dividend Bangladesh was currently enjoying.聽
They said that the July uprising in 2024 proved that the youths, if they were empowered and motivated, could change society.
In the keynote speech, PSTC head of programme, Md Mahabubul Alam underlined the need for more investment in the health sector.
He said that better exposure to information must be ensured for the youths to enable them to take informed decisions and contribute more to the national development.
Child marriage and unemployment, he mentioned, still remained major barriers to the country鈥檚 democratic dividend.
Nafisa Lira Huq, adjunct faculty at BRAC James P Grant School of Public Health, said that young girls still faced social pressure for conceiving children although they were not physically fit leading to health hazards.
Several speakers said that while girls got some education on adolescent health, boys had no exposure to such education that often led them to engage in unsafe sexual practices.聽
Citing a study, Alok Kumar Majumder, director for programme and operations at Red Orange, however, said that in Bangladesh 64 per cent girls were found unaware of menstruation before they experienced it in their life.聽聽
Abu Hasanat Md Kishowar Hossain, professor and chairman of the department of population science at Dhaka University, Md Shahidul Islam, senior manager of HIV Programme, Save the Children International, Md Moshiur Rahman, general manager of field implementation, Social Marketing Company, and Kazi Golam Rasul, senior director and head of Health, Friendship, also spoke among others.
PSTC executive director Noor Mohammad moderated the roundtable, with Ajker Patrika and 抖阴精品 being the media partners of the event, also supported by International Planned Parenthood Federation South Asia Region.
