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Health Schooling Employment Article-Introduction To Pakistan-Handout, Exercises of Pakistan Studies and Culture

This handout is for Introduction to Pakistan course. It was provided by Prof. Ahmad Shah at Nalanda Open University. It includes: Health, Schooling, Employment, Resource, Shortages, Population, Demographic, Matters, Development, IT, Military

Typology: Exercises

2011/2012

Uploaded on 07/22/2012

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Pakistan is beset by critical resource shortages.
Water bodies are drying up, electrical power
outages are rife and arable land is disappearing.
Such deficiencies make the great abundance
of another important Pakistani resource its
population – all the more striking.
In an era increasingly marked by ageing and
contracting populations, Pakistan’s is young
and rising. Currently about 180 million, it is
projected to reach 275 million by 2050. However,
if fertility rates remain steady, this figure could
soar to 380 million. Two-thirds of the nation’s
population are under the age of 30, a third is 14
or younger, and the median age is 21. The 15-
to-24 years age bracket is projected to spike by
20% in the 2020s.
With millions reaching working age over the
next few decades, demographics will be a
major determinant of Pakistan’s development
trajectory. If these young masses are properly
educated and absorbed into the labour force,
the impoverished nation could finally attain a
measure of prosperity. Infusions of new labour
would galvanise Pakistan’s key sectors
including the powerful textile industry, the up-
and-coming IT field and housing construction,
already in high demand. A new generation of
engineers and scientists could unlock the vast
potential of the country’s underground mineral
reserves largely untapped, yet estimated to
be worth trillions of dollars.
Alternately, if Pakistan’s young masses are
not educated and fail to get jobs, and if fertility
rates are not significantly reduced, then the
nation’s existing problems will likely deepen.
Natural resource shortages could become
scarcities; teeming cities could collapse from
a lack of services and security; and legions of
disillusioned and unemployed young people
could add to the already swelling ranks of
extremists.
With Pakistan’s future tied to the fate of
its mushrooming population, a timely new
volume edited by the Woodrow Wilson Center,
Reaping the Dividend: Overcoming Pakistan’s
Demographic Challenges, examines what
Pakistan must do to bring about a favourable
demographic outcome for itself and why
attaining such an outcome constitutes such a
formidable challenge.
An initial step toward improving Pakistan’s
demographic scenario is simply to raise
awareness among Pakistani policymakers and
the general public alike about the country’s
population issues. Outside of occasional
conferences and the obligatory speech on World
Population Day, demographic matters have
largely been neglected in Pakistan. Zeba Sathar,
a Pakistani demographer, writes in Reaping the
Dividend that “at no point has serious attention
been devoted [in Pakistan] to studying Pakistan’s
large population numbers, their distribution,
and the implications they hold for the country’s
development, politics, and ultimate stability”. To
redress this neglect, government ministries with
population-related portfolios should be obliged to
release annual status reports on new policies and
be held accountable for the results. Pakistan’s
government and media can play advocacy
roles by issuing public statements about the
importance of family planning, and reporting on
the urgency of demographic challenges and the
need to act.
Pakistan must also invest more in human
development. In order to overcome its
population challenges, the country must make
its masses healthier, better educated and more
employable.
Health: Chief among the country’s human
development needs is improving women’s
reproductive health. According to one
contributor to Reaping the Dividend, investing
more in family planning could save hundreds of
millions of dollars and several million lives.
Schooling: Educational challenges can be
addressed by forming a non-partisan task force
charged with developing a universal education
plan one that pledges to attain universal
primary school enrolment within a five-year
period. Reaping the Dividend argues that
Pakistanis especially girls – are more likely
to make responsible decisions about family
planning and birth spacing if they are sufficiently
educated.
- 2 -
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Pakistan is beset by critical resource shortages. Water bodies are drying up, electrical power outages are rife and arable land is disappearing. Such deficiencies make the great abundance of another important Pakistani resource – its population – all the more striking.

In an era increasingly marked by ageing and contracting populations, Pakistan’s is young and rising. Currently about 180 million, it is projected to reach 275 million by 2050. However, if fertility rates remain steady, this figure could soar to 380 million. Two-thirds of the nation’s population are under the age of 30, a third is 14 or younger, and the median age is 21. The 15- to-24 years age bracket is projected to spike by 20% in the 2020s.

With millions reaching working age over the next few decades, demographics will be a major determinant of Pakistan’s development trajectory. If these young masses are properly educated and absorbed into the labour force, the impoverished nation could finally attain a measure of prosperity. Infusions of new labour would galvanise Pakistan’s key sectors – including the powerful textile industry, the up- and-coming IT field and housing construction, already in high demand. A new generation of engineers and scientists could unlock the vast potential of the country’s underground mineral reserves – largely untapped, yet estimated to be worth trillions of dollars.

Alternately, if Pakistan’s young masses are not educated and fail to get jobs, and if fertility rates are not significantly reduced, then the nation’s existing problems will likely deepen. Natural resource shortages could become scarcities; teeming cities could collapse from a lack of services and security; and legions of disillusioned and unemployed young people could add to the already swelling ranks of extremists.

With Pakistan’s future tied to the fate of its mushrooming population, a timely new volume edited by the Woodrow Wilson Center, Reaping the Dividend: Overcoming Pakistan’s Demographic Challenges, examines what Pakistan must do to bring about a favourable

demographic outcome for itself – and why attaining such an outcome constitutes such a formidable challenge.

An initial step toward improving Pakistan’s demographic scenario is simply to raise awareness – among Pakistani policymakers and the general public alike – about the country’s population issues. Outside of occasional conferences and the obligatory speech on World Population Day, demographic matters have largely been neglected in Pakistan. Zeba Sathar, a Pakistani demographer, writes in Reaping the Dividend that “at no point has serious attention been devoted [in Pakistan] to studying Pakistan’s large population numbers, their distribution, and the implications they hold for the country’s development, politics, and ultimate stability”. To redress this neglect, government ministries with population-related portfolios should be obliged to release annual status reports on new policies and be held accountable for the results. Pakistan’s government and media can play advocacy roles by issuing public statements about the importance of family planning, and reporting on the urgency of demographic challenges and the need to act.

Pakistan must also invest more in human development. In order to overcome its population challenges, the country must make its masses healthier, better educated and more employable.

Health: Chief among the country’s human development needs is improving women’s reproductive health. According to one contributor to Reaping the Dividend, investing more in family planning could save hundreds of millions of dollars and several million lives.

Schooling: Educational challenges can be addressed by forming a non-partisan task force charged with developing a universal education plan – one that pledges to attain universal primary school enrolment within a five-year period. Reaping the Dividend argues that Pakistanis – especially girls – are more likely to make responsible decisions about family planning and birth spacing if they are sufficiently educated.

  • 2 -

Employment: To hasten the entry of Pakistanis into the labour force, jobs must be created, which will necessitate expanding and diversifying an economy long dominated by the textile industry. Employment opportunities should better reflect Pakistan’s urbanisation and emphasise non- farming positions in growing sectors such as health services, electronics, the arts and IT. (One contributor to Reaping the Dividend estimates that a million new IT employees could generate $20 billion in export revenue.) Pakistan’s private sector can help not only by generating jobs, but also by investing in vocational training programmes tailored to the needs of the employment market.

Finally, Pakistan must revamp the design and coordination of its population programmes, which have largely failed to achieve targets for fertility rate reductions and contraception rate increases. Islamabad’s population policies should eschew traditional top-down models and instead embrace more participatory efforts built around actual needs and the situation on the ground. This involves not only gauging the needs of women and incorporating input from young people, but also getting buy-in from the two groups that most often resist family planning efforts – the clergy and men. One chapter in Reaping the Dividend points out that the success of Iran’s family planning programme can be attributed to the religious leadership’s staunch support for it. Meanwhile, in Pakistan, husbands’ views on family planning are a chief driver of couples’ decisions to use (or not use) contraception. Outreach and advertising campaigns that promote contraception should target men more emphatically.

In Pakistan, 25% of women’s contraception needs are unmet. This suggests that millions of women desire, but do not have access to, family planning. The private sector and civil society, which already offer 50% of Pakistan’s family planning services, must increase contraception provision in urban areas, while the government must expand access in rural Pakistan, where non-governmental organisations and businesses have less of a presence. Population policy planners should also establish links with untapped institutional

resources. Pakistan’s national airline and rail service, for example, oversee a nation-wide network of health outlets, and can form the basis of new family planning centres. Furthermore, a 2010 constitutional amendment devolved most central government functions to the provinces

  • yet the latter suffer from major funding and capacity constraints, and are not in a position to absorb population programmes previously managed by Islamabad. Therefore, provincial population-related responsibilities should also be allocated at the district level, where officials would enjoy a sense of ownership over population programmes wanting in central and provincial settings.

Unfortunately, many of these correctives will be difficult to introduce. Achieving universal primary school enrolment is a highly ambitious objective, given that 40 million of Pakistan’s 70 million 5-to-19-year-olds are not in school. The same goes for expanding access to family planning, as many rural women must presently travel up to an average of 100 km to obtain such services. The odds of expanding the economy are even more daunting. Pakistan’s Planning Commission has estimated that 9% gross domestic product (GDP) growth will be needed to employ Pakistan’s 80-90 million people under age 20 – yet current GDP growth sits at 2.4%. In fact, with only half of Pakistan’s population fully active in the labour market today, some demographers reject any possibility of the labour economy accommodating millions of additional workers in the coming decades (by 2030, Pakistan could have 175 million potential new workers).

Pakistan’s troubled security climate and powerful military also constrain efforts to boost demographic prospects. Launching new family planning centres is a perilous task in Pakistan’s remote areas, many of which are wracked by militancy. Meanwhile, Pakistan’s health, education and economic challenges are continually eclipsed by defence and security imperatives – and given short shrift in decisions about national budgetary allocations.

Yet the most formidable obstacle to brightening Pakistan’s demographic future may be political

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