Three-wheelers and neglected youth

When Deputy Minister of Vocational Education Nalin Hewage recently proposed that the minimum age of those driving three-wheelers for hire should be restricted to those 40 years and above so as to discourage young people from taking it up as a vocation, there was the expected outrage and criticism. 

Hewage’s argument is that many young men turn to three-wheeler driving soon after a basic school education, thus leading them to be stuck in a job that sees no career progress or stability.

Recently, Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya, who is also the Minister of Education, Higher Education and Vocational Studies, told Parliament that the emerging pattern in the country is the steady decline in the number of boys continuing their school education beyond the age of 16.

She said that while compulsory education up to age 16 had been established by law, retaining children in the school system remains a growing challenge, adding that school dropouts who leave without completing 13 years of education and enter the workforce without adequate skills and qualifications are exposed to exploitation and other risks.

The problem faced by the youth in this country goes back a long way, and it has been these rudderless and neglected young men and women who were drawn into two youth uprisings in 1971 and 1988-1990.

After the second JVP-led insurrection, then President Ranasinghe Premadasa appointed a Presidential Commission to study the problems faced by the youth and make recommendations. That was in 1990, and more than three decades later, the youth of the country face many of the same problems, or maybe even more, in a social media-saturated society where the gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ is more glaring and leads to a higher level of frustration among those who feel like outsiders in a system that remains a bed of roses for the ‘haves’ and a thorny bush for those on the other side.

The desperation of young men and women to go overseas for any kind of employment shows that they are keen to make a living overseas rather than face the many obstacles that lie in their path if they are to progress in life in the land of their birth.

Premadasa’s Youth Commission identified education as an area where a national policy should be determined through a national consensus and not a policy to be affected by the “vagaries of transient political majorities.”

It recommended that a National Commission on Education Policy be established aimed at achieving a consensus with regard to educational policy. While such a Commission was established by an Act of Parliament in 1991, there is little consistency in the education policy of the country, with each change in government meaning another education system change.

The three-wheeler issue highlighted by Deputy Minister Hewage is the elephant in the room which no one wants to bring up, knowing it’s an unpopular move and there would be a backlash from a significant section of the population.

But the reality is that many young men eligible to get a driving licence turn to three-wheeler driving as an occupation, but this isn’t healthy for them or for the country. There is no job stability, nor is there a chance for them to enhance their skills and get ahead in life. It’s a day-to-day earning job, which means many will live hand to mouth as long as they can run the three-wheeler but are left with little to fall back on when they are in advanced years, suffer health issues, or accidents leave them unable to work.

There is no job security, no social acceptance, and many youths have been drawn into anti-social activities while engaged in three-wheeler jobs.

Hence, Hewage’s proposal, though unpopular, needs some attention. But it’s not something that can be done abruptly. There should be plans in place to draw the youth towards other forms of employment which recognise each one's talents and put them to best use so that the youth and the country can both benefit.