Youth in Bangladesh democracy

Kazi Haque

Youth is harbinger of any change. It's particularly

true of democratic transition and consolidation. Our
democratic revival in 1990 was achieved mainly
through widespread student movement. Most
recently, the 'Arab Spring' or the sweeping collapse
of authoritarian regimes in some countries of the
Arab world can largely be attributed to youth
outburst against autocratic repression.
Demographically, Bangladesh is a predominantly
young country. So, youth aspirations and demands
are important in demand side of governance.
Simultaneously, how government policies and
initiatives bear upon the country's youth should be
an important consideration in the supply side of
governance. But we generally see that issues of
concern to the youth are not given as much
importance as warranted.
In this write-up, I draw upon 'The Daily Star-Nielsen
Democracy Poll 2011' to explore how our democracy
fares among the country's youth. It's important since
the future of democracy will rest on their shoulder. If
the Bangladesh youth do not find the existing
political system responding to their needs then we
can't exclude possibility of youth revolt like Arab
Spring. It should be noted that the above poll didn't

highlight youth as a specific survey population. But it

divided the respondents into two groups -- those
aged up to 30 years and those who were above
30years of age. The first group can be considered as
youth and their ratio of the total survey population is
43 percent. So, this write-up deals with responses of
the up to 30 age group.
Let's begin with what the youth understand of
democracy as a political system and hence what are
their expectations of it. The single majority response
was 'do not know' or 'cannot say' made by 24
percent altogether. This might be lack of awareness
or not caring enough. But overall awareness about
democracy is not so hopeless since collectively 60
percent defined democracy in ways that somewhat
meets standard definitions: right of free expression
(18 percent), equal rights of all (15 percent),
freedom of movement (16 percent) and casting
ballot (11 percent).
But when the youth are asked about 'the essentials
for democracy,' they emphasise more on some of
the above issues but include couple of other things.
Major responses in this case are: free and fair
election (66 percent), freedom of religion (48
percent), freedom of expression (43percent),
maintenance of law and order (43 percent),
fulfillment of basic needs (40 percent), equal

rights of all (38 percent) and absence of bribe (35

percent) and no violence against women (31
percent).
The latter findings of 'The Daily Star-Nielsen
Democracy Poll 2011' show that there is gap
between what youth expect out of our democratic
system and what they experience of it. Above 80
percent youth agrees that governments can be
changed through free and fair elections.
But their response about state of other essentials of
democracy (on a 5-point scale from 'completely
false' to 'very true') is not generally in the affirmative.
In some cases, while 'very true' and 'true' responses
are singularly majority, they are out-weighted when
negative responses are added together.
For example, when asked whether 'government
institutions and officials (court/police/bureaucracy)
serve the poor' -- collectively 50 percent youth
responded affirmative and 49 percent responded
negative. Opinion that 'the government is responding
to meet the basic needs of people' is also a close
call when broadly divided into affirmative and
negative, 49 percent and 50 percent respectively.
So, about half of the youth surveyed do not find
government working for poor and do not see their
basic needs fulfilled.

Some other responses reveal more dissatisfaction.

Majority 79 percent youth said that officials have to
be paid bribe. Another large number, 63 percent do
not believe business/economic activities can be
carried out without fear of extortion. Only 37 percent
think that they can complete their education without
disruption while majority 59 percent do not think that
is possible. Majority 68 percent feel that police and
security services harass people as opposed to 30
percent who feel the opposite. While 95 percent
youth feel safe at home, much lesser 62 percent feel
safe in the street. Insecurity is worse for young
women half of whom (52 percent) do not feel
safe to go out after dark.
With the institutions' inability to deliver, youth are
losing interest in democratic participation. Although
59 percent feel close to a political party, 94 percent
are not member of any. While 77 percent voted in
the last election, 89 percent didn't participate in any
protest or demonstration in life. Majority of them also
did not participate in solving community problems
(69 percent) and attended any political meeting (85
percent). It seems that democratic participation of
the youth is still mostly ritualistic i.e. supporting
a political party and voting them in general
election. The country's youth are still far from a

wider exercise of democratic participation that

manifests active citizenship.
The writer is Senior Research Associate of
BRAC University's Institute of Governance
Studies (IGS).