Our youths in the post Gulshan-tragedy phase

The future of Bangladesh depends upon the youth community. Therefore, instead of imposing continuous surveillance framework and social exclusion process, we need to reinforce an inclusive approach in our family

A local online news portal  recently reported that the house-owners in Sylhet city shut down their doors for the single youths as tenants. It also reported that a house-owner, who runs a mess business at Madina market in Sylhet, issued a verbal notice to all unmarried men currently residing in his mess-building, to leave immediately. From the same report, we also came to know that most of the youths in the city were in a great fear about their accommodation in their city life. This is not the only story that we heard about so far. Many other similar stories are being continuously disseminated by both electronic and print media including online news portals in the country. A student of the Eastern University attending a roundtable meeting also mentioned that the house-owners in Dhaka became hesitant to accept unmarried young folks as renters. These stories clearly indicate that our youths, especially in urban areas, have started facing an unprecedented phase of social exclusion as an outcome of the dreadful incidence at the Holly Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016. This first-time heinous incidence reasonably stimulates the people from all walks of life to continuously express their concern at different platforms. Unfortunately, the ongoing discussions and debates on religion-based violent extremism repeatedly point the fingers at the youths recommending putting them under a special surveillance. The fear and perceptions that already have been created through news and views, discussions and debates, stories and propaganda, start having negative impacts on the daily life of our youths and contributing towards creating an unexpected social exclusion process for young generation in the country. Increasing unwillingness among the house-owners to accept the youth folks as tenants is one of the examples of new form of social exclusion. The evolving perceptions around religious extremism also lead us to consider indiscriminately the students from the private universities or English medium schools as potential perpetrators. Our attitudes towards the youths illustrate that we are collectively establishing an extended platform of mistrust in youth power. Although to lose trust in youth power or youthfulness is perhaps the biggest social sin and political crime. This is a new form of social, political and cultural disease that has never existed in Bangladesh society but seems to appear soon as an epidemic.    

It’s absolutely true that all militants of the 7/1 tragedy were youths. Of course, the attackers at the Solakia in Kishoreganj district were also youths. Yes, the terrorists, who were killed during a successful operation by the law enforcing agencies in Kalyan­pur in Dhaka city, were youths. And obviously majority of those, who either remain missing for a long time or in the list of the law enforcing agencies as Jongi, belong to the young group. This is also an inevitable fact that increasing trends in violent extremism in the name of Islam has created an unparalleled challenge for Bangladesh in many aspects including trade and business affairs both the national and the international levels. The Gulshan tragedy has definitely put a great question-mark on its image as a peace-loving secular country or on the much-pronounced tagging- so called ‘moderate Muslims’ country’. It has of course led the expatriates in the country to deconstruct their sense of safety and security. The year 2016 has been declared as the year of tourism. As a direct consequence of the incidence, Bangladesh may not be able to achieve the goals of this project. It will definitely have multi-dimensional adverse impacts on many other projects. Despite above statistics and projected negative consequences, is it fair enough to blame on the youths as whole? Is it justified to replace the positive lens of our eyes with negative ones that provokes an initiation of a fulltime surveillance system for our young folks? Are we advocating for using the ideas of the ‘Panopticism’, which was originally developed by Jeremy Bentham, the English Philosopher and Sociologist, for prison reform in the 18th century in England and later elaborated by France Social theorist Michel Foucault, to turn the whole society into an extended and invisible prison for the youths? What should be in our collective focus; enforcement of the social exclusion approach that somehow already in place or reinforcement of the social inclusion and reintegration? Should we develop a tendency to consider all youths as potential terrors or a tendency to come forward with our sympathy and empathy to erase all possible reasons of their alienation from the spirit of the mainstream society?              
 I would like to reiterate here that, damaging our trust in the youth-power is the biggest social and political sin. Each civilization irrespective of time and place considers the youths as the most potential human resources. Youths always lead to shape the path of progress in economy, society, politics, culture, science and technology. Youths are used to come forward to tackle any crisis or unexpected situation in a given society. Youths naturally bring candles with them to show the way forward while people are in dark. We should not forget the roles of our youths in 1952, 1969, 1971 and 1990, which are the great milestones in our history, the history of our unbroken struggle to achieve people’s rights, freedom, democracy and development. Whenever Bangladesh was affected by any kind of disaster, either natural or men-made, this is the youth folk, who immediately responded to the situation. 
We have certainly not forgot thousands of those youths, who spontaneously  gathered at Sahbagh on 5 February 2013, formed the Gonojagoran Mancha and set an unparalleled example of a very colourful non-violent movement, which later extended to all over Bangladesh, even many other countries. We should not be unable to recognize the fact that this youth-led movement successfully forced the state to change its law to ensure a maximum punishment for the atrocious killers in 1971. Thousands of such examples could be mentioned here which characterize our youths. And obviously they are the real representatives of Bangladesh youth community. 
Considering the demographic perspective, this is the right time for Bangladesh to concentrate on proper investment in youths, who consists of more than 30per cent of the total population, to broaden the possibility of using its demographic dividend for a sustainable socio-economic development. 
A total of 47.6 million people within the age bracket of 10-24 in the current demographic structure of Bangladesh indicate that our youth folk present a massive scope to transform the future. They just require a proper care in every aspect including their physical, mental, social, political and cultural development. 
To make it happen, we need an inclusive holistic approach in place. We also need to consider the push and pull factors that get some of the youths deviated and radicalized. As mentioned earlier, the future of Bangladesh depends upon the youth community. 
Therefore, instead of imposing continuous surveillance framework and social exclusion process, we need to reinforce an inclusive approach in our family, community and society that will promote youths’ creativity, keep our youths attached with the spirit of 1952, the spirit of 1971, our tradition, our culture, and of course with a constructive political socialization process. Otherwise, a destructive defeat is just waiting for us. We should not let it happen. 

The writer is working in a bilateral technical project on justice reform as National Project Coordinator.  
E-mail: [email protected] 

 

Our youths in the post Gulshan-tragedy phase

The future of Bangladesh depends upon the youth community. Therefore, instead of imposing continuous surveillance framework and social exclusion process, we need to reinforce an inclusive approach in our family

A local online news portal recently reported that the house-owners in Sylhet city shut down their doors for the single youths as tenants. It also reported that a house-owner, who runs a mess business at Madina market in Sylhet, issued a verbal notice to all unmarried men currently residing in his mess-building, to leave immediately. From the same report, we also came to know that most of the youths in the city were in a great fear about their accommodation in their city life. This is not the only story that we heard about so far. Many other similar stories are being continuously disseminated by both electronic and print media including online news portals in the country. A student of the Eastern University attending a roundtable meeting also mentioned that the house-owners in Dhaka became hesitant to accept unmarried young folks as renters. These stories clearly indicate that our youths, especially in urban areas, have started facing an unprecedented phase of social exclusion as an outcome of the dreadful incidence at the Holly Artisan Bakery on July 1, 2016. This first-time heinous incidence reasonably stimulates the people from all walks of life to continuously express their concern at different platforms. Unfortunately, the ongoing discussions and debates on religion-based violent extremism repeatedly point the fingers at the youths recommending putting them under a special surveillance. The fear and perceptions that already have been created through news and views, discussions and debates, stories and propaganda, start having negative impacts on the daily life of our youths and contributing towards creating an unexpected social exclusion process for young generation in the country. Increasing unwillingness among the house-owners to accept the youth folks as tenants is one of the examples of new form of social exclusion. The evolving perceptions around religious extremism also lead us to consider indiscriminately the students from the private universities or English medium schools as potential perpetrators. Our attitudes towards the youths illustrate that we are collectively establishing an extended platform of mistrust in youth power. Although to lose trust in youth power or youthfulness is perhaps the biggest social sin and political crime. This is a new form of social, political and cultural disease that has never existed in Bangladesh society but seems to appear soon as an epidemic. Its absolutely true that all militants of the 7/1 tragedy were youths. Of course, the attackers at the Solakia in Kishoreganj district were also youths. Yes, the terrorists, who were killed during a successful operation by the law enforcing agencies in Kalyanpur in Dhaka city, were youths. And obviously majority of those, who either remain missing for a long time or in the list of the law enforcing agencies as Jongi, belong to the young group. This is also an inevitable fact that increasing trends in violent extremism in the name of Islam has created an unparalleled challenge for Bangladesh in many aspects including trade and business affairs both the national and the international levels. The Gulshan tragedy has definitely put a great question-mark on its image as a peace-loving secular country or on the much-pronounced tagging- so called moderate Muslims country. It has of course led the expatriates in the country to deconstruct their sense of safety and security. The year 2016 has been declared as the year of tourism. As a direct consequence of the incidence, Bangladesh may not be able to achieve the goals of this project. It will definitely have multi-dimensional adverse impacts on many other projects. Despite above statistics and projected negative consequences, is it fair enough to blame on the youths as whole? Is it justified to replace the positive lens of our eyes with negative ones that provokes an initiation of a fulltime surveillance system for our young folks? Are we advocating for using the ideas of the Panopticism, which was originally developed by Jeremy Bentham, the English Philosopher and Sociologist, for prison reform in the 18th century in England and later elaborated by France Social theorist Michel Foucault, to turn the whole society into an extended and invisible prison for the youths? What should be in our collective focus; enforcement of the social exclusion approach that somehow already in place or reinforcement of the social inclusion and reintegration? Should we develop a tendency to consider all youths as potential terrors or a tendency to come forward with our sympathy and empathy to erase all possible reasons of their alienation from the spirit of the mainstream society? I would like to reiterate here that, damaging our trust in the youth-power is the biggest social and political sin. Each civilization irrespective of time and place considers the youths as the most potential human resources. Youths always lead to shape the path of progress in economy, society, politics, culture, science and technology. Youths are used to come forward to tackle any crisis or unexpected situation in a given society. Youths naturally bring candles with them to show the way forward while people are in dark. We should not forget the roles of our youths in 1952, 1969, 1971 and 1990, which are the great milestones in our history, the history of our unbroken struggle to achieve peoples rights, freedom, democracy and development. Whenever Bangladesh was affected by any kind of disaster, either natural or men-made, this is the youth folk, who immediately responded to the situation. We have certainly not forgot thousands of those youths, who spontaneously gathered at Sahbagh on 5 February 2013, formed the Gonojagoran Mancha and set an unparalleled example of a very colourful non-violent movement, which later extended to all over Bangladesh, even many other countries. We should not be unable to recognize the fact that this youth-led movement successfully forced the state to change its law to ensure a maximum punishment for the atrocious killers in 1971. Thousands of such examples could be mentioned here which characterize our youths. And obviously they are the real representatives of Bangladesh youth community. Considering the demographic perspective, this is the right time for Bangladesh to concentrate on proper investment in youths, who consists of more than 30per cent of the total population, to broaden the possibility of using its demographic dividend for a sustainable socio-economic development. A total of 47.6 million people within the age bracket of 10-24 in the current demographic structure of Bangladesh indicate that our youth folk present a massive scope to transform the future. They just require a proper care in every aspect including their physical, mental, social, political and cultural development. To make it happen, we need an inclusive holistic approach in place. We also need to consider the push and pull factors that get some of the youths deviated and radicalized. As mentioned earlier, the future of Bangladesh depends upon the youth community. Therefore, instead of imposing continuous surveillance framework and social exclusion process, we need to reinforce an inclusive approach in our family, community and society that will promote youths creativity, keep our youths attached with the spirit of 1952, the spirit of 1971, our tradition, our culture, and of course with a constructive political socialization process. Otherwise, a destructive defeat is just waiting for us. We should not let it happen. The writer is working in a bilateral technical project on justice reform as National Project Coordinator. E-mail: [email protected]