The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) released a report on Friday, Oct. 10, for World Mental Health Day called A Generation on Edge: Youth Safety and Well-being in Myanmar about how prolonged insecurity, economic hardship, and fear have inflicted “deep” psychological harm on Myanmar’s youth population.
“This is the all-too-familiar truth for much of Myanmar’s youth,” Kanni Wignaraja, the U.N. Assistant Secretary-General and UNDP Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, wrote in the report. “If trauma becomes the norm with little hope for peace, the consequences on the health and well-being of an entire generation could be irreversible.”
The U.N. report estimates that nearly 2.5 million young people in Myanmar — one in seven — live in near-constant fear for their personal safety. It adds that over six million, or four in ten youth, said they do not feel safe walking alone at night.
“Young people are living in survival mode,” Kanni Wignaraja added in the report, which follows other U.N. youth-related reports after the military coup on Feb. 1, 2021, which have been based on the responses of over 7,000 youth from all states and regions across Myanmar.
“Supporting mental health is not separate from restoring dignity — it is central to it,” wrote Wignaraja in the UNDP report.
Nearly one in three Myanmar youth report living with “persistent” anxiety or stress. Rates spike to more than 60 percent in Karenni State and 40 to 45 percent in Chin and Rakhine states, where fighting and poverty are most severe.
Males aged 18 to 35 reported higher levels of insecurity due to fear of abduction or forced recruitment by the military due to its conscription law enforced on Feb. 10, 2024. However, young women with disabilities were identified as the most at-risk group.
“Recruitment occurs across different armed actors and conflict contexts,” the UNDP report stated. There have been recent reports of the forced recruitment of both male and female youth by ethnic armed groups across Myanmar since the 2021 coup.
Despite the worsening conditions, nearly half of all youth surveyed said they remain hopeful about their personal futures, and two-thirds still believe peace is possible.
The U.N. warned that such optimism remains fragile without investment in safety, mental health services, and economic opportunities for youth in Myanmar.
It called for community-based mental health support, protection systems for at-risk youth, with special focus on young women, youth in conflict-affected areas, and persons with disabilities.
