BEIJING, May 23 -- There's a "young crisis" brewing in a village in the port city of Xiamen, Fujian province. That village is where I was born and brought up, and I see it as a microcosm of China's countryside.

    Many of those born in the 1980s and 1990s in the village couldn't make it to college. But the problem does not end there. These youngsters have neither had the luck nor shown a drive to find a job. They stay at home and eat into their parents' hard-earned savings. A rough estimate shows about 40 percent of the village youth - between 16 and 30 years of age - have fallen into this trap. Girls, however, are better because they are ready to take up assembly-line jobs, the most common ones available in the area.

    Officials, economists and sociologists have been racking their brains to find ways of how to accommodate the millions of university graduates into the job market. But the rural underprivileged youth could become an even bigger problem because of their sheer numbers, their lack of skills and their disconnection with the fast-moving world.

    Personal observation shows most of these youngsters while away their time sleeping, drinking tea, having idle conversation, gambling and heckling their parents.

    Urbanization and industrialization have touched the surrounding areas of the village and spawned manufacturing units of all kinds. The jobs they offer can fetch an average of 1,000 yuan a month for 12 hours work a day. But most of these jobs are snapped up by industrious migrant workers from other parts of the country. Young local job aspirants are low on competitiveness, and only the middle-aged villagers fight hard to get a job.

    Many of the villagers pinch their hope and future on the government, waiting for it to requisition their farmland (and even houses) for industrial use. Requisitioning of land has been going on for some years, and compensations have become the lifeline for many families. Rumors have been flying for the past two years that the entire village could be relocated. One mu of farmland (666 sq m) fetches a compensation of 88,000 yuan, and relocated farmers get a house of the same size at another location. But such has been the pace of requisition that per capita farmland today has fallen below 1 mu.

    The village used to be rich in agriculture. Till the early 1990s, it produced enough rice and vegetables to feed the entire population, with sugar cane and fruits raking in a decent income. But the economic transition and globalization have changed that equation. The sugar-cane business grounded to a halt after the local cane factory declared bankruptcy and shut down. Fruits have become a non-factor. And only part of the farmland is still productive, with the rest turning into fallow land. The proud tradition of toiling on the land and harvesting the returns is fast giving way to a wait-and-see attitude among the youth.

    Arguments and fights among villagers have become common, especially when money is at stake. Everyone tries to make the most from contracts to build a road or to dredge and clean a creek. Tense relations have replaced the good old rural camaraderie.

    Who is to blame for this crisis? Some factors come readily to mind: the comparatively poor education system in rural areas, unequal opportunity for rural and urban residents, lack of proper flow of information from urban to rural areas, gap in income distribution, erosion of traditional values and a highly competitive job market. Irrespective of whether they like or not, youngsters in rural areas have to compete with their peers in other developing countries. So do we blame globalization for pulling down the old protection wall? The problem is so complex that it needs well-planned, effective policies and mechanisms to solve.

    Since the youth have hinged their hope mostly on urbanization, land requisition policies have to undergo further reforms. Long-term responsibility and obligation should be built into the land requisition system. Experience shows many families don't know how and where to invest the compensation amount to get a healthy return.

    To rectify the situation, the government should stop paying the entire compensation amount in cash and instead tie land requisition with offer of jobs, professional training, children's educational fund and social welfare benefits such as unemployment relief. Villagers should be educated in financial planning, too. This may put a heavy task on the government. But do we have a better way of ensuring that millions of our rural youngsters don't go astray?

    I met with the father of an 18-year-old boy, who had been staying at home for the past one year. "He (the son) will not work for 1,000 yuan a month," the father said. "I do my best to feed and clothe him. But he has to work after he gets married." The father is a security guard in a nearby factory and earns 1,000 yuan a month. His son's marriage will surely bring smile to some faces in the family.

    But the nation can smile only when the young generation treads the right path and doesn't get lost.

    (Source: China Daily)