Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina addresses a function at Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the capital on Thursday.
Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina on Thursday urged the youths of the country to
determine their aim and philosophy for themselves, their families and
for the nation.She also called upon the country’s youth force to make combined efforts for building a self-reliant Bangladesh “turning their hands into the hands of workers.”
The prime minister said this while inaugurating the National Youth Day-2012 at a function at the Osmani Memorial Auditorium in the city.
Hasina also said that the youths would have to come forward with their dynamic forces to make a poverty-free country.
The prime minister suggested the youths to be entrepreneurs instead of wasting time seeking jobs and create opportunities for self-employment as well as employment for their neighbours.
In this connection, she mentioned that the youths could involve themselves in the agricultural based activities. “The old mind set should be changed… having some education does not mean that one can not involve in agricultural activities,” she said.
Hasina said that the demand for food grains will never decrease as the population of the world is increasing rapidly. “So, if we produce more food it will be beneficial for the country and for the person concerned."
She emphasised using modern food packaging system for the agricultural products to earn valuable foreign exchange.
The prime minister said that the prime job of her government is to keep away the country’s youths from going astray.
"Nowadays youths get addicted to drugs so easily. This is very much painful for the family. We’ve to involve the youths in games and cultural activities apart from providing them with jobs."
She also put emphasis on educating the youths about the cultural heritage and real history of the liberation war and about the thousand years of old family bondage and values.
The present government, she said, took adequate measures to involve the country’s unemployed youths in productive activities as well as creating self- employment opportunities for themselves with the help of the Department of Youth Development.
Highlighting various steps of her government for the development of youths, Hasina said the youth forces are being imparted with institutional training on computers for building a ‘digital Bangladesh’.
She mentioned that the Department of Youth Development has so far provided training to over 38,50,000 youths in various trades, and of them, about 19,56,000 have become self-reliant along with creating employment opportunities for others.
The prime minister also noted that apart from other scheduled banks, Employment Bank and Ansar-VDP Bank have been established to create employment opportunity and to provide loans on easy terms to the youths.
She recalled the contributions of the youths in various movements including the country’s war of liberation in 1971, great Language movement in 1952, Education Movement in 1962, and the 6-point movement of 1966. “The nation will never forget their contributions and sacrifices,” she said.
Strongly criticising the past military rulers, Hasina blamed them for “derailing the youths, keeping them unemployed and frustrated instead of utilising their capability for the development of the country.”
Referring to the introduction of the National Service Programme, she said that initially it was started as a pilot programme in Kurigram, Barguna and Gopalganj districts in the 2009-10 fiscal and it has been extended to seven more districts in Rangpur division recently.
This programme will be further expanded nationwide in phases she said, adding that more than 56,000 educated and unemployed youths have so far been involved in nation building activities with an outlay of about Tk 599 crore.
Earlier, the prime minister distributed National Youth awards to 12 successful self-employed youths and three best youth organisers.
State Minister for Youth and Sports M Ahad Ali Sarkar presided over the function, organised by the Youth Development Department of the Youth and Sports Ministry. Youth and Sports Secretary Nur Mohammad gave the welcome address.
Among the award winners, Tahmina Begum Mukul and TA Raju spoke briefly expressing their feeling of joy and accomplishment.
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