Breathe
By Mafer Olvera
Yesterday I shared with you on this site, my observations on the youth vote; today I continue and conclude my analysis for this first installment in Opinion 51.
Several studies, such as those conducted by INE itself, local electoral institutes, UNAM, INEGI and other academic institutions coincide and explain the low participation of young people after their first participation at the polls, with fundamental factors such as: political disenchantment, corruption, lack of accountability, because their vote did not translate into a significant change in their living conditions and/or because they do not associate the work of public servants with a promising future.
In other words, young people feel that they have nothing to gain by exercising their right to vote. Thus, it is better to abstain or actively participate in spaces of social and public opinion such as social networks. In which nothing happens beyond a discussion.
The youth issue in our country is serious and here are some of its main challenges:
1. Their incorporation into the country's development under unfavorable conditions due to difficulties for their insertion in the labor market under decent and attractive conditions according to their level of intelligence, capacity, studies or territorial condition.
2. Deficient training and development of updated skills that allow them to perform competitively and personally.
3. Poor sexual and reproductive education that leads to a higher incidence of teenagers pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections.
4. The immediacy of information and access to unreliable voices of information or disinformation.
5. Substance abuse or the need to evade reality. Attention to new forms of consumption and substances such as fentanyl.
6. Suicide as the second leading cause of unnatural death among young people aged 15-29 years in Mexico.
7. The disarticulation of actions, local and federal social programs, and the lack of continuity.
8. The lack of current studies, surveys or consultations that allow us to know more closely what their concerns, trends, desires, needs, difficulties, habits and preferences are today.
9. The high incidence of crime by and against young people.
10. Historic levels of youth homicides and disappearances.
11. The inequalities and violence to which they are subjected and subjects. Attention to rural and remote contexts.
12. Poverty and precariousness that makes them invisible and excludes them from society.
13. Insertion of young people into organized crime, criminal activities or drug dealing.
14. Lack of safe living conditions, mobility, recreation and leisure.
15. Lack of timely, universal and quality care for their mental and psychoemotional health.
16. The scarce representation of young people in public policies and decision-making spaces. Beyond quotas.
17. The increase in labor informality.
18. Violence against young women: harassment and feminicide.
19. Educational backwardness and school dropout. It is not enough to create public schools or universities just to generate enrollment; it is a matter of ensuring that they receive quality and competitive education in decent spaces.
20. The impact of climate change and the current and future water crisis.
In the face of all this, I have not been able to identify a robust agenda with a trans-sexennial vision in accordance with their current realities. It seems to me very serious that the image of young people is more of a burden than an opportunity, as a clientele that only receives without contributing, as a risk factor or as one more group of the population that will eventually cease to be young.
What kind of adults will they be? It will depend largely on what is done or not done today.
What do our future governments and representatives say and what will they do? Will they be able to understand the size of the challenge beyond their possible mandate?
We have failed young people as a country, as governments and as a society - with few exceptions. The fact that today they find more affinity, refuge and opportunity in criminality, in narco-stereotypes or in the excessive consumption of substances reflects the distance between their feelings and the hopelessness of an adult world that listens little to them or wants to involve them.
Let us do what we can today so that young people have hope for their future with governments and representatives that are equal to them.
*Mafer Olvera is a specialist in youth public policy. She was director of the Youth Institute of the CDMX, 2012-2018. Creator of the Hospital de las Emociones Model. UN Awards, 2017 and CHIUKU MTV Latin America, 2016. Speaker at the UN High Level Forum, NY, 2016 and 2017. Advocate for the right to wellness and mental health.
The opinions expressed are the responsibility of the authors and are absolutely independent of the position and editorial line of the company. Opinion 51.
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