Situational Analysis of Marginalized Youth of Urban Areas and Youth Policies in Pakistan

Abstract

Though most of the developing countries have their youth policies in accordance with UN guidelines, still youth, in general, face problems and marginalization. The youth of Pakistan, a developing country, face the same difficult situation; the partnership in war against terrorism making this situation more bad. In this study Pakistan?s youth policy is examined by situational analysis of youth problems and their marginalization. The tools used were interviews, focus group discussions, with relevant literature review. The universe of this study is two major cities of Karachi and Peshawar. Demographically, these are heterogeneous cities with different types of ethnic groups, sub-ethnic groups, religious groups, and sectarian groups, with mix ethnic and sectarian groups of various characteristics. The specific objectives of this study were a) to find out the causes behind marginalization of youth in urban areas of Pakistan, b) to analyze the youth development policies of Pakistan, and c) to find out solutions of problems of marginalized youth of urban areas of Pakistan.