KATHMANDU: A majority of youths want Nepali to remain as the official language, a research has shown.

According to the research entitled “Youth in Transitional Nepal: Issues and Perceptions” conducted by Alliance for Peace, most of the people in the country are able to communicate in Nepali so this should remain as the official language.

Fifty-four per cent respondents voted for keeping Nepali as the official language, while 22 per cent went for another major language and 24 per cent stood for recognising a dominant regional language as the official one, the report stated.

The research also showed that 48 per cent Nepali youths are unaware about federalism. Thirteen per per cent of the respondents had little knowledge on the state structure.

“The rural population -- 86 per cent of the total -- needs to understand the issue and participate in the state restructuring process to make federalism a success,” said the report. It explained that a failure to achieve this would nullify all the efforts made to set up the new structure.

Out of the respondents who have little or

adequate knowledge on federalism, 49 per cent preferred it on the basis of geography while 26.4 per cent went for region-based federalism and 17 wanted states carved on the basis of ethnicity.

The level of education also contributed to the

understanding of federalism, it was reported.

Forty-two per cent youths supported the presidential system of governance while 41 per cent youths preferred the prime ministerial one, with the rest confused over the issue.