CHALLENGES FACE BY YOUTH IN URBAN VS RURAL AREAS : HOW CAN THE

DIFFERENCES BE SIMILAR?

The title above might make one wonder, but first, let us take a look at the definition of
the word in the title itself. thefreedictionary.com defined teenagers as a person between
age of 13 until 19; which we can say is the critical age of ones life. According to the
Ministry of Youth and Sport, teenagers or youth is 49 percent out of overall population in
Malaysia, equivalent to total of 13.73 million residents. This eye-opening statistics show how
important teenagers are to the nation and the effects if proper attention is not given to this
special part of the society. Furthermore, as we are moving rapidly towards the modernisation
and development, the teenagers are facing uncountable problems and challenges in their life.
However, the challenges vary between the youth in rural and urban areas.
Im going to start off with the challenges faced by youngsters in rural areas. Rural is
defined as the country and in Malaysia, we often associate rural areas with kampung.
Nevertheless, the challenge faced by the teenagers that is on top of the list is technology. Do
you know technology? Im pretty sure you can name all of them consequently, if you are
staying in the urban areas. But, the youth in rural areas may not be very much skilled in this
aspect. In urban areas, cyber cafes are everywhere. Even a 7 year-old would know what is
cyber cafe. On the other hand, cyber cafes are not easily found in rural areas. One might need
to travel far up till 20 kilometres just to get a piece of the technology which made some of
them giving up on using them. This challenge should be seen as the most crucial one because
a developing country (like Malaysia) should never have this kind of issue.
Lets move on to the second challenge faced by rural youth which is the lacking
facilities. Those living in urban areas, have you ever wondered if the electric that powered
your lamp would light the bulbs in rural areas? Have you ever thought if the flowing water
from your tap would flow from theirs? Regardless how advanced the country if, were still
having the issue of facilities. These problems might prevent the teenagers in rural areas from
maximising their own potential as they have to worry about so many other things.
The next challenge faced by the teenagers is conservative-minded community. Yes,
you heard that right. A scenario of teenagers excelling in schools and then continuing their
studies in a higher education institution is pretty common in urban areas but not rural. There
is some part of the community in rural areas who view this achievement as something taboo
as its their norm to start working after finishing high school. They dont see the need of
having more knowledge, let alone knowing the life-long learning concept. This affects the
teenagers there deeply as their enthusiasm to keep on learning is crushed by this kind of
perspective and mentality.
Moving on to issues faced by urban youth. People always think that urban youth does
not face any challenges in life as they are completed with every single needs and necessities.
The discoveries coming up will definitely be shocking to some. Its a known fact that urban
areas are well-equipped and always updated with the latest technology. In spite of being
something positive, the situation is actually a challenge that is need to be faced by them
youth. They are having too much of technology that it makes them socially impaired or
antisocial. How? One might wonder. Imagine seven teenagers going out to a mamak
restaurant to catch up and spend some time together, but none of them are having
conversation. Instead, their eyes, mind and soul are only focused to the gadget or technology
in their hands; smart phone, tablet or phablet. This situation makes them unable to
communicate well and build soft skills.
The next challenge will be independency matter. Do you realise that the youth in
urban areas are spoon-fed everything. For instance, the facilities in urban areas are so
complete that the youth cannot be independent. Furthermore, the independency also occurs in
school where teachers are giving all the information without letting them explore them by
themselves. How can this kind of teenagers be the ones who rule our country in the future one
day.
The next challenge is single-parent household. Statistics have proven that divorces are
higher in urban areas. In Malaysia, there is one divorce every 15 minutes. One of the factor of
this worsening problem is the economy and living cost in the city. Consequently, the children
are affected. Yes, not all single-parenthood give bad effects to the offspring but most of the
problematic teenagers are from single-parent household.
One more challenge that is need to be faced by the youth of urban is environment.
Being compared to rural areas, the urban cities have lesser greenery. Synthetic plants are
replacing the plants and trees day by day. Skyscrapers are built higher and higher. At the end,
so many environmental issues are happening in urban areas, affecting the community,
especially the youth. They have to go through The Heat Island phenomenon most
importantly. This situation may somehow pressure the youth in the city.
Last but not least, the challenge that is need to be faced by the youth of urban is high-
expectations. Adults, community, even the government always have higher expectation for
the youth in urban area rather than the teenagers in rural area. May it be in education,
economy, or politics, youth in city has to work hard everyday to make live up to this
expectation. At the end, the only thing that is achieved is higher-stress level among the
teenagers which then leads to greater rate of suicide. The National Suicide Registry Malaysia
(NSRM) states than in 2012, there are 500 suicides in Malaysia, particularly in urban areas.
The age group of 16 to 25 has more tendency to commit this inhumane act.
As a conclusion, there is no exception for youth in any areas to not have difficulties
and challenges in their life. In comparison between challenges faced in rural and urban areas,
I think that theres not so much different as they are only viewed from different perspectives.
For instance, the youth in rural faces the lack technology and the teenagers in urban are
having too much of technology. The same goes for facilities. The rural areas are short of this
while complete facilities in urban areas make the youth independent. Furthermore, I solemnly
feel that family plays important role in helping the youth getting through these problems.
Looking at the challenge, even though some are caused by family itself, but family is the only
way out as everything starts at home. Thus, the nation needs to be united in forming and
growing better youth, in both rural and urban areas because Dr. Sheikh Yussof Al-Qardawi
once said, the future of the country is potrayed in todays youth.