The major cities in the world are growing fast, as well as their problems. What are the problems that young people living in cities are facing with? Give solutions to these problems.
The world is steadily becoming more urban, as people move to cities and towns in search of employment, educational opportunities and higher standards of living. Urbanization creates opportunities and challenges on one hand and gives rise to different types of stresses and problems on the other. Rapid urbanization is coupled with the fact that nearly half of this population is below the age of 25. This essay shall deal with the problems faced by the youth in the cities and also suggest some ways forward.
The main problems faced by youth and everyone else in the rapidly expanding cities are because of pressure on the resources such as land, water and infrastructure like public transport, places, health care, law and order etc. There is an increased demand for land which pushes the property prices. This also leads to encroachment of pavements and creation of slums. There is little basic infrastructure for youth to access, ranging from parks and community centres, to basic services such as health, training and education. That is why there is an increase in crime and drug addiction.
Furthermore, there is increase the demand and consumption of water. Limited access to drinking water poses serious health hazards and easy spread of water borne diseases across the masses. Health hazards resulting from urbanization are also connected to air pollution, as well as crime, traffic and lifestyle. The increase in urbanization throughout the world has been accompanied by a sharp growth in urban traffic and the public transport system of the urban cities is choked. The youth in particular are severely stressed by these problems.
The problems faced by youth need to be tackled on a war footing. After all our youth are our most important resource and the time has come to address their problems. Youth can be engaged, not as leaders of tomorrow, but as leaders of today, through methods such as youth led development, and through international agencies working with local government to create safe and positive spaces in the cities in which youth are increasingly living in. The youth need to have safe urban based places in which they can call their own, where they can receive important information on issues such as HIV AIDS prevention, where they can receive job and entrepreneurship training, where they can practice and meaningfully engage in local governance, and where they can most importantly meet and co-exist peacefully with other youth.
To put it in a nutshell, I pen down saying that rapid urbanization has brought many problems for our youth but their problems can be addressed by engaging the youth in local governance and providing them proper education and job training so that they do not fall victim to the stress of urban life.