IN A mixture of plain rationality and vivid optimism, former US president Franklin D Roosevelt once said, ‘We cannot always build the future for our youth, but we can build our youth for the future.’ Regardless of the many years that have passed since he made this statement, it still echoes the same innately realistic idea — our limitations barely ever stop us from opting for a better tomorrow. And our youth is one of the essential driving factors towards one such tomorrow.

For anybody with a decent grasp of the history of Bangladesh and its path to sovereignty, it should not be difficult to assess the height of the stakes beyond which a nation could finally stand fearless. In fact, in 2021, perhaps no more than a handful of nations can truly claim to be ‘fearless’ and ‘indifferent’ to contemporary global influences. Although more uttered than understood, globalisation disseminates an extreme lot of sequences and consequences, creating a ripple effect across the world. Hence, in today’s world, no individual shall claim to be part of any singular ecosystem, which would be distinctive and disassociated from the contemporary global trends.

The dots do not necessarily connect in a straight line; rather, they take curves to outline the picture of Bangladesh’s ups and downs (downs and ups, in this case) over the nation’s 50 years of independence. The country is first devastated by war, and then presented with various difficult challenges. It had been anything but easy for the citizens to gaze at the horizon and anticipate something extraordinary. Yet now, when the world observes the evolution of Bangladesh, the eyes are rather caught to some incredible national accomplishments. And most of it is fuelled by the immense potential of the Bangladeshi youth.

The ever-expanding domain of social media has been the catalyst for countless formations and reformations. Exceeding the limits of mere day to day catch-ups, various virtual platforms are now being obtained by the youth to make impactful alterations to their society and surroundings. The last decade especially has demonstrated youths’ genuine ability to utilise the potential of social interconnection that has been proven over the past decades again and again. More interaction means more augmentation of individualistic ideas, more elaboration of concepts otherwise limited to niche groups. With passing time, it is becoming more and more evident that such easy and effective dispersion of ideas among the newer generations has gifted Bangladesh with various advantages.

‘Demographic dividend’ has recently become a term that is generating hope among the concerned population in Bangladesh. It basically indicates a population-status where the portion of working-age citizens (15–64) is higher than that of non-working-age (below 14 and over 65). Bangladesh has been fortunate to enjoy the key benefits of demographic dividend — efficient supply of the human resource, better financial solvency among the mass, skilled human capital, and domestic market expansion. The effective inclusion of the youth to the total economic infrastructure fed by the sweet fruit of demographic dividend has been bringing along these bright outcomes, part of which can also be attested with the growing rate of Bangladesh’s GDP. As mentioned earlier, globalisation and its encompassing nature leave our youth no longer detached from matching their momentum to the rest of the world and prepare their own selves with the very timely demands.

Now we often see social media being used by the youth to establish a common ground in regard to any massive social alteration. Hashtags have come a long way, segregating posts with certain notions and starting chain-reactions to promote or highlight anything that, as per the youth, requires special attention. The demographic dividend naturally indicates to the fact that now Bangladesh has more youth in the position to take a stance for their beliefs, more than ever before in history. The #MeToo movement, the #NoMeansNo campaign by Likee, and other more widely popular protests like ‘He for She’ etc, have seen incredible participation from the youth. This adaptation of universal perspectives and tonality is indeed helping the talented Bangladeshi youths to become global citizens. Thus, the trait of leadership is inherently developed among them for the benefit of their motherland in the coming days.

Besides, another largely popularised utility of social media applications is the presentation of individual skills and talents. Many talented youths pick up their social accounts to post audio and video content consisting of their creative participation. Be it a song, a mime act, a piece of painting, or a handicraft item — there is always some audience to whom their contents are valuable and prospective. The confidence gained through such practices soon helps the youth to evaluate their capabilities better and prepare themselves accordingly to serve much bigger purposes.

We gladly observe that the government of Bangladesh has taken numerous extensive measures to prepare the best of future leaders by continuous improvement among all the sectors in Bangladesh. Many national initiatives are now terminating the mass despairs, making the youth keener to turn every rock. Their resilience is eventually embracing the blessings of the digital era for giving their nation the best by reaching measures, unexpected and unparalleled.

 

Joy Qiao is senior operation manager of Likee Bangladesh.