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(ALLAFRICA, TIMES) Rural-Urban Drift - No Longer Profitable for Young People?

Zambia: Rural-Urban Drift - No Longer Profitable for Young People?
The Times of Zambia (Ndola)
18 March 2008
Posted to the web 18 March 2008
Doreen Nawa
Ndola

IN many developing countries, including Zambia, extensive poverty has continued to drive millions of young people towards cities in the hope of a better life! Being at a critical stage in their lives, the youth are particularly vulnerable to exploitation, underemployment and poor health as they gather in crowded informal settlements with insufficient infrastructure.

In economically 'stagnant' rural areas of Zambia like Sinda town of Eastern Province, many young people such as 17-year-old Derrick Mbuzi are forced to migrate to town in order to find their way out of poverty.

"After failing to go to grade eight because of financial constraints, my parents decided to send me to Lusaka in order to join my elder sister who is selling cigarettes, sweets, bubble-gums and other stuff on the street," says Mbuzi.

In the face of the current shortage of jobs in the country, Mbuzi represents the growing number of young people who leave their villages, only to end up adopting worse lives.

For many, the dream of getting an education or a good job often vanishes as they join the armies of thousands of other unemployed youth hunting for the scarce jobs in the city.

The Central Statistical Office estimates that there are currently just about 500,000 formal jobs in Zambia, which renders job-searching a fruitless mission for many young people.

"After spending my childhood in the village, I was so excited when my parents decided that since I could not further my education, I should go and join my sister.

"Because my sister could not afford keeping me since her husband did not want to keep anybody besides their children, I then decided to look for any kind of job that could make me afford a meal each day," recounts Mbuzi, who now fends for himself helping out his friends in part-time jobs.

"I sometimes find piecework to do on a daily basis but sometimes it is difficult," says Mbuzi. "So, I have friends who invite me to help them work anywhere they find piecework and at the end of the day, they would give me something after they are paid by whoever contracted them."

Ever since the rural industries were privatised in the early 1990s, resulting in many companies dying out, Zambia has been experiencing an upswing in urban population that has by far exceeded the rural numbers.

For instance, the capital city, Lusaka, and the economic heartland, the Copperbelt Province, are estimated to be home to nearly five million of the country's 11.7 million people.

According to the Jesuit Centre for Theological Reflection (JCTR), the most significant changes are taking place in developing countries like Zambia, whose urban areas are growing four-to-five times faster than in the developed world.

High poverty levels and joblessness seem to be major pulling factors for the rural dwellers!

Last year, the World Development Report (2007) showed that developing countries were hosting an extraordinary number of young people, totaling 1.3 billion, "the most-ever in history".

JCTR executive director, Pete Henriot, notes that the youth are often particularly determined to escape remote or economically stagnant areas because for the majority, being young also means greater freedom from family responsibilities and, consequently, more flexibility to migrate to urban areas and build better lives.

In the case of Zambia, the concentration of economic growth along the line of rail has impacted negatively on the development of rural areas, says Father Henriot, adding that there is need for an equal distribution of economic development.

"Development efforts have been skewed in favour of urban areas: infrastructure development like schools, houses and shops are in a deplorable state in rural areas as compared to the ones in urban areas," he says.

It is feared that the accelerating rural-urban drift could lead to a possible formation of new enclaves of poverty and instability.

The United Nations agency for human settlements, UN-HABITAT, estimates the proportion of slum-dwellers to reach 72 and 60 per cent of the urban population in Africa and South Central Asia, respectively, by 2030 as the proportion of urban slums is expected to double.

Speaking at the members of Parliament and Civil Society dialogue on the 2008 national Budget organised by the ZCTR at Mulungushi International Conference Centre recently, Fr Henriot said that commitment to poverty reduction also called for commitment to empowering rural areas in all sectors of the economy.



Other than the breakdown of the rural industries, lack of empowerment to farmers in rural areas has also contributed to urbanisation, leaving rural areas with insufficient human resource to enhance development.

But the large numbers of unemployed youth in cities could be quite explosive.


"Many of those rural people come to the cities and become bandits. They wander the city, incredibly aggressive, holding knives and machetes. The slightest thing makes them become violent," comments Fr Henriot.

A recent UN World Youth Report stated: "Crime rates tend to be higher in urban areas than in rural areas, which may be attributable to differences in social control and social cohesion.

"Many of the urban poor live in slum and squatter settlements with overcrowded, unhealthy housing and a lack of basic services Where unplanned urban growth has become a central component of urbanisation, crime seems to be a near-constant threat."

Internationally, most crimes are committed by males between the ages of 15 and 30, says the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) in commenting on the age group that is also said to constitute most of the victims.

"The new, globalised world is not necessarily a safer one for the youth," reads the UNODC report in part.

A Lusaka-based police officer who sought anonymity said "the majority of violent acts involving the use of sharp objects and other dangerous objects are committed by youths targeting other young people.

"Strangely enough, regular harassment and frustrations seem to also be contributing factors to the numbers of young people joining gang youths in order to get revenge against those that seem to live a better life."

Whereas youth involvement in urban crime is not a new phenomenon, there has been a growing awareness of the dangers posed by youth violence in urban environments, especially in the 1990s when gang cultures became more popularised through the media.

Many countries now view the youth as a matter of internal security!

"There is a central irony surrounding urban youth, that they are a demographic majority that sees itself as an outcast minority. The implications of such alienation and distance from civil society are considerable," Fr Henriot says.

But over and above all, the youth as future citizens are an invaluable asset to every country. If properly equipped with technology and the technical know-how, they could bring about knowledge revolution and become a catalyst of change.

Efforts should, therefore, be directed towards empowering young people even in rural areas to tackle issues of education, social change, poverty alleviation, health awareness, entrepreneurship, conflict resolution and peace building.

Labels: RURAL AREAS, YOUTHS

posted by MrK @ 8:56 PM