Barriers to Youth Political Participation in Pakistan: Examining the Role of NGOs and CBOs

Abstract

This study investigates those obstacles that discourage youth to participate in politics in Pakistan and role of Non-Governmental and Community-Based Organizations (NGOs and CBOs) to overcome them. Data were collected from 191 university students, the results reveal that the primary limitations are the safety concerns, academic workload, and distrust to the political institutions. Though NGOs and CBOs offer avenues of civic learning, correlation and regression analyses indicate that there is no significant relationship or effect of engagement and perceived barriers. There were no significant differences in terms of demographics or gender implications that would suggest that political disengagement is a feature of youth, in general. Civic awareness is promoted by NGOs and CBOs but has no power to eliminate systemic and psychological obstacles, which indicates that institutional cooperation and increased civic education are needed.