No system to monitor youth centres: Youth Minister

Minister of Human Resources Youth and Sports Mohamed Hussain Shareef has said that there is no system in place to monitor the youth centres that are established in various parts of the country.

In an interview to Sun Online, Youth Minister said that there first needs to be a good system to monitor them in order to provide good services from the youth centres.

“We have to monitor the places better in order to provide better services from these Youth Centres. We have to be able to know who accesses these facilities. A lot of unlawful things take place in the youth centres in Male’. Drugs are being used. Gambling happens. A lot of other things unlawful things too,” Minister said.

Minister said that the main challenges in monitoring these facilities are caused by their designed. He said that these places were built based on very open designs, in such ways that a number of people can obscurely access the facilities.

“There is no security service for the youth centres in Male’, so anybody can enter these places. The biggest challenges to maintaining security is the way these places were designed. A number of unlawful things to happen in these places because of this,” said the Minister.

The other challenge the Minister noted was that, while there were Ministry offices established in these facilities, these offices were not separate and that this causes a variety of security threats for the employees who work in these offices.

Speaking on the current condition of the youth centres, Shareef said that facilities had seen extensive wear and deterioration by the time the current government took over. He said that most of the equipment in these facilities were damaged beyond use.

The Minister also said that fire alarm systems in these centres are outdated and that they do not fit the current criteria prescribed by regulation. He noted that none of the youth centres were maintained or repaired during the past three years.

Speaking on the way forward for the youth centres, Minister said that they will install air conditioning in the Male’ Youth Centre indoor hall and that a new alarm system will also installed in the centre. He said that there are plans to repair the youth centre in Galolhu ward as well, and that they will discuss an arrangement where the facility’s security can be monitored by the police.

He said that the youth centres will be opened for membership so as to monitor the places better, and said that they will also device a way to separate the offices of ministry employees from the facility itself, for security reasons.

Speaking about the cafés operated in the youth centres, the Minister said that the lease period for all cafés has now expired and that they have now announced to seek new parties to run the cafés.