A Miracle Drink

Adolescents contstitute 40% of the population

The number of adolescents and youth in the Maldives has increased substantially in recent years, and is rapidly approaching 40% of the country's total population. The percentage of adolescents and young people between the ages of 18 and 35 recently peaked in 2004, and now constitute approximately 25% of the country’s total population, while the 10-14year old age group was  expected to peak in 2011. These statistics clearly show that the current period is crucial for policy interventions and strengthened programmes that meet the needs of Maldivian youth, who represent the future and are an inexhaustible resource for the nation. Tapping into and nurturing young people's talent and energy in a positive way will enable the Maldives to achieve her national potential and boost her competitiveness in the global economy in years to come.

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Maldives youth population

Similar as the other countries in the region, the Maldives is experiencing a youth bulge with young people between the age of 15-24 years comprising of almost a quarter of the population of the country. This is potentially an advantageous situation as youth are a highly productive group.However, access to equitable opportunities is important for youth to reach their full potential and be productive members of the society. In this regard the impact of disparities in access to opportunities are particularly harmful for youth as they are particularly sensitive to exclusion. The manner in which youth respond or challenge their situations could range from activism, to withdrawal from mainstream society and/or having increasingly cynical views of the society.

As mentioned previously, the geographical make up of the country impedes the delivery of services and facilities across the atolls in an equitable manner.As with the rest of the population, this affects the opportunities and options available for young people.For instance, not all the islands has access to higher education opportunities or tertiary and reproductive healthcare services, and young people have to depend on the atoll capitals or Male’ to access these services. Unemployment is also a serious issue with43% of the youth population being unemployed. In addition, differentiation in development of various regions takes it toll on employment opportunities of youth, particularly of rural islands, which makes young people migrate to urban centres, resorts and the capital for better or relevant positions of employment, leaving small islands almost devoid of young people to take up important roles and responsibilities in the community.

Another area where youth face serious challenges is access to housing, primarily in the more urban islands and at quite critical levels in the capital. In Male’ the majority of the residents live in extremely crowded conditions at exorbitant rental prices. These conditions cause claustrophobia both physically and psychologically, causing young people to spend a large part of their time outside of their homes. Coupled with the issue of youth unemployment this then creates a breeding ground for anti-social behavior, crime and drug use.

Nevertheless, the opening of space and freedoms with the new Constitution has been beneficial for youth in the area of civic engagement. Young people have always been at the forefront of organizing communal activities in the islands of the Maldives,organizing the marking of cultural and religious activities, as well as volunteering in communal tasks such as clean ups and restoration of public assets.With the introduction of the political party system and rights such as freedom of speech and association young people are also participating in large numbers in civic activities such as campaigning, voting, and establishing and leading civil society organizations related to areas of good governance and human rights.

Youth constitutes a high percentage of the population of Maldives

Youth constitutes a high percentage of the population of Maldives. Recent governments have increasingly been targeting their policies and programmes on the development of young people. Youth features heavily on the present Government’s manifesto as well,with a specific chapter devoted to youth,as well as youth considerations included in chapters related to other areas. However,as with most other facilities and services in the country, entrenched and systemic illegal and corrupt practices impede equal access to these opportunities for young people.

The social environment

Our social environment consists primarily of systems that groups of people have organised to satisfy their needs. It includes all skills, all artificial structures, all means of agricultural and industrial production, all tools, all means of transport and communication and all social activities. In others words: socio-technical systems. When we speak of the social environment, we generally think of such things as social and cultural institutions (families, religion and values, law, education, economics and politics) together with what is referred to as our built environment.

Our built environment is created by people and includes buildings and other infra-structural works such as towns, cities, roads, seawalls and drainage and irrigation schemes. There is no single social environment; there are many. Each event, such as proposed legislation or construction of a major facility, as long as it is located in an identifiable place or time, has its own social environment.

Gender concepts

The concept of ‘gender’ is a valuable tool for you to use to investigate
social relationships and problems such as social class. There are
several other concepts that will aid you in that investigation:
􀁺 gender relations
􀁺 gender analysis
􀁺 gender equality
􀁺 gender equity
􀁺 gender discrimination
􀁺 gender socialisation
􀁺 gender mainstreaming.


 

What is our environment?

Our environment means our surroundings. At the most basic level, it refers to our home, our community and our workplace. Ultimately, however, it includes the whole world, which is a unified physical and social system. The term ‘environment’ refers to the natural and social surroundings and conditions in which people, animals and plants live. This includes all the living and non-living things that affect the life of an individual organism or population.

The family

Most individuals learn their social roles (the roles of being a son, daughter, brother, sister) and acceptable social behaviour in the family setting. This kind of informal learning enables children to change their behaviour from being at first self-centred, to becoming more being socially aware, and eventually to caring for the needs and rights of other family members.

At its simplest level, the family uses a system of rewards and  punishments, and from that the behaviour of the child is shaped until it is socially acceptable. It is at this level that parents or parent substitutes can use behaviourist tactics (e.g. ignoring bad behavior where possible, and rewarding good behaviour). However, the child learns much more than this from ‘observation’, ‘imitation’, ‘memorising’, ‘modelling’ and ‘participating’. Through these learning processes, plus the key one of taking on the roles of other family members, or through empathy with their situations, the child learns to understand the deeper levels of accepted norms in social groups, especially adult-child relationships, gender roles, and social skills and cultural values.

There have been significant changes in these processes as the extended family has been eroded through industrialisation, urbanisation, migration of labour and poverty. More recently, this process has broken down much further with even the nuclear family being threatened due to changes such as ease of divorce, the growth of single-parent families and the threats from accelerating global economic processes.

The good news is that the loosening of traditional gender role-taking means that gender stereotypes can be broken down. This must be seen as a precondition for involving men and boys in achieving gender equality. This is very important, particularly when we consider that the process of socialisation begins in the family. Thus, the new social attitudes and norms that are transferred to both boys and girls will influence their perceptions of their own roles, as well as the roles of others.

The contemporary home needs to become a more consciously educative environment. This is partly because of the need to support the learning of the young people who are faced with the challenges of making their way in a demanding adult world, and partly because the parents are facing more complex financial and occupational challenges which mean they need to keep upgrading their own knowledge. The home can also provide an important setting for the education of both boys and girls on issues of sexual and reproductive health, as well as alcohol and drug abuse. There is an urgent need for the family to increase the awareness of boys and girls of the consequences of uninformed sexual behaviour and the spread of HIV/AIDS.