Marxist youth union in Sri Lanka wants to include a programme in 2011 budget to provide employment to youth

Sri Lanka's Marxist party Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) affiliated Socialist Youth Union (SYU) has called for the inclusion of a programme in the 2011 budget to provide employment to youth in the country.

SYU National Organizer and former JVP parliamentarian Bimal Ratnayake told the local media that the youth unemployment rate was much higher than the 15.6 percent shown in statistics.

He said the SYU would therefore hand over a petition to the Finance Ministry calling for the inclusion of a programme in next year's budget to provide employment to the unemployed youth.

Ratnayake said the Organization would also hold a protest march from Fort and proceed towards Finance Ministry today (26) to hand over the proposal.

According to him, the SYU had decided to make such a demand from the Finance Ministry as no government had included any effective programme to provide employment for the youth for the past 15 years.