Teen gang culture has been a serious issue both in urban and rural areas in recent years. Adolescents involved in those gangs are mostly intolerant individuals. The gang activities lead to crimes like eve-teasing, hijacking, bullying, mayhem, extortion, drug abuse, and sometimes even murder. We encounter numerous news related to this activity.
Although gang culture is mostly city-centered, nowadays it’s spreading in rural areas as well. Gangs in these rural areas follow particular ancestry or locality. Mostly they try to be a part of a superior clan or preserve the influence of their locality. Unlike big-city teen gangs, they don’t want to be recognized by any names. Mostly they are controlled and patronized by the local political leaders to preserve their political colonial power. My target is the youth of these rural areas.
One of the resilient youths Shahriar Shishir initiated the project in his community for creating tolerance, and peace among the vulnerable youths. His basic strategy was to reach the youth before the gang influences. Firstly, he started the campaign of practicing tolerance and peace in educational institutions where the targeted adolescents are. He explained to them the importance of these kinds of activities and their long-term future impacts. Then he arranged some seminars and lectures for the teens. An expert conducted a session on tolerance, conflict, and other negative consequences of gang culture.
He also arranged a short pitch cricket tournament on the field they cleaned and made suitable for playing. Two teams from the targeted audiences were created. They played several friendly cricket matches between them. It was a two-day-long cricket match. Abu Naser Kakon, an employee of the Bangladesh Army worked as their game instructor for these two days. On the last day, they measured the overall performances and selected the winning team. The winning team and man of the match were rewarded crest for their amazing performances. Shahriar Shishir is working relentlessly for helping the vulnerable youths by engaging them in different local development works so that in the long run they don’t engage in any kind of conflict-prone activities.