For the most part of the past seven years, Myanmar has struggled with civil war, martial law, and common hunger. However, today’s youngsters have never experienced such serious threats to their future or survival.
Some young people in Myanmar who had hoped for a better and more stable coming under their democratically elected leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, were shattered by the military coup in February 2021.
Taus of young people eluded the forests as violent reprisals on peaceful protests started to take place. More than tens of thousands of people enrolled in the civil disobedience activity and resigned from their studies to use strikes and demonstrations to oppose defense rule.
The military has seized vast tracts of land from Myanmar’s military opposition, which has gained a lot over the past year, even though the latter also holds key cities like Naypyidaw, Yangon, and Mandalay.
Young people in Myanmar are increasingly being forced to submit and are extremely denied opportunities in the midst of the rising crime.
Myanmar’s junta mandated defense support for men between the ages of 18 and 35 and women between the ages of 18 and 27 in February 2024. Those who don’t agree could spend five years behind bars.
The defense has reportedly increased its recruitment travel in recent months. For instance, reports of young men being kidnapped to increase the number of military troops are becoming disturbing.
As a temporary exemption from conscription, outside education is the only option for some, leaving them without. However, the prosperous still have the luxury of choosing this path. With Myanmar’s coin falling in value, the majority of students are now paying prohibitive tuition and living expenses overseas.
The now constrained funding scenery has quickly deteriorated for those who cannot afford to go abroad to school. The development and inclusive scholarship program, which is a lifeline for Myanmar’s financially troubled yet qualified students, has been suspended as a result of the funding freeze by the United States Agency for International Development ( USAID ).
In consequence, more than 400 Myanmar students studying in Thailand, Cambodia, Indonesia, and the Philippines are then questionable about their future. Returning house is risky as the dictatorship militarizes the youth further.
Honest objection and evasion erupted after required conscription was announced. At least 100, 000 young people had attempted to dodge recruitment within the first two weeks of the news, according to a study by the non-profit Burma Affairs &, Conflict Study party, which was published in April 2024.
The government’s recruitment efforts were then expanded by creating lists of eligible women in the first half of 2025. Women were now ready for recruitment, but they had not yet been commissioned. As young women fought their way out of the forced recruitment, this led to a new wave of furious movement.
Conscription is a complete ban on leaving the country for job, even for those who are available. The aircraft in Yangon has turned into a hub for surveillance, coercion, and corruption, and Myanmar’s international airports, especially the airport there, are now known as nerve centers. Unregulated strength is exerted by officials over young people, creating a system in which bribery controls who can leave and who stays trapped.
Internal movement, or hiding out from recruitment, or unusual border crossings into neighboring Thailand have become their sole options for many younger people.
Myanmar’s armed opposition has been making striking statements of a 2025 coup. The head of Myanmar’s exiled state, Duwa Lashi La, said in an interview with Al Jazeera in January,” We have to reach a final blow ] against the coup.”
Young people have been urged by opposition parties to avoid recruitment and join their ranks in the fight for freedom. And some people reportedly responded to the call.
However, the terrible truth persists despite the fact that this may seem like a determined response. How many ten persecuted young people absolutely see combat as their only option in a war that is getting more brutal?
causing severe injury
Young folks in Myanmar are particularly affected by compulsory recruitment. Additionally, it has severely and permanently damaged their families and communities.
According to a study by Hurfom, a non-profit dedicated to individual rights, forced selection has ruined areas in the Tanintharyi region of southern Myanmar’s Mon State, Karen State, and Tanintharyi. Years have been traumatized by the persecution and murder they have experienced.
In an effort to prevent their children from falling into the hands of the military, I’ve been able to find more and more compelling anecdotal reports from Myanmar’s population that families are urgently selling assets, putting up valuables, or accumulating crippling debt at exorbitant interest rates.
For young and old Rohingya cultural Rohingya people living in Bangladesh and Myanmar, the condition has become even more dangerous.
These people now face movement, shortage of paperwork, and statelessness. In the conflict between the Myanmar military and several opposition groups, they then run the greater danger of being kidnapped, forced to join, and entrapmented.
The long-term effects of forced enlistment are equally, if not more, grave. In a determined effort to secure a future that is increasingly out of reach, young persons are being robbed of their training, jobs are being lost before they begin, and people are being depleted of assets.
A study from the UN Development Programme‘s April 2024 study revealed that Myanmar’s middle class had fallen by 50 % in the first three years following the coup, highlighting the country’s rapid economic decline.
The escalating military discord in Myanmar and the worsening humanitarian crisis are verständlichly the focus of world attention. However, it is crucial to bear in mind the higher social charges of Myanmar’s tumult.
The country will be left with a lasting legacy for generations as a result of the country’s youth’s loss.
Nyi Nyi Kyaw is a Marie Curie Research Fellow at the University of Bristol’s School of Sociology, Elections, and International Studies.
This content was republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Study the article’s introduction.