DOI: 10.12924/johs2022.16020179 |Publication Date: 18 November 2022

Fragile Future: Youth Insecurities and Their Relations with Police in Afghanistan and Pakistan

Jaishankar Ganapathy 1, * , Ajmal Nimruzi 2 and Shakirullah Dawar 3
1 Department of Post Graduate Studies, Norwegian Police University College, Oslo, Norway
2 Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Norwegian University of Life Sciences (NMBU), Ås. Norway
3 Department of Development Studies COMSATS University Islamabad (CUI), Abbottabad Campus, Pakistan
* Corresponding author
Abstract: Youth are the backbone of any nation, and they are decisive in its development or destruction. A considerable portion of the population in both Afghanistan and Pakistan consists of youth. This paper discusses the impacts of unemployment, poverty, drug abuse, corruption, conflicts, and extremism on the experiences of young people in these countries. Vulnerabilities can become risk factors that, in turn, can increase the likelihood of youth being involved with the police. Although vulnerability and insecurity are common to both young women and men, girls and young women face additional challenges that increase their vulnerability to insecurities, such as gender-based violence. This article details how livelihood and personal insecurities are closely intertwined and further considers how these insecurities involve the police in one way or another. It argues that local community-oriented police initiatives and civil society organisation contributions can increase cooperation between youth and law enforcement agencies in addressing these challenges in a collaborative and trustful manner.

Keywords: community-oriented policing (COP) initiatives towards youth; corruption; CSO initiatives towards youth and human security drug abuse; gender-based violence; Youth insecurities

Citation


2012 - 2024 by the authors; licensee Librello, Switzerland. This open access article was published under a Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).