Perspective - Page 15

Insights From the 2023 Census Report

The 2023 Census conducted by the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics released its complete report in July 2024 indicates that the total population of Pakistan is 240 million out of which the population of children under 18 is 112 Million (47% of the total population). Children Population (under 18) Population under 18 Total Male Female Transgender Pakistan 112,472,700 58,099,978 54,370,121 2,601…

Grace Marks by Sindh Government

In a move as surprising as it is contentious, the Sindh provincial government has decreed a generous 15% grace mark for students who faltered in their class XI examinations last year. The decision, prompted by an investigative committee report on the Board of Intermediate Education Karachi’s controversial results, comes as…

Juvenile Offenders in Punjab

The total number of convicted and undertrial juveniles imprisoned in various borstal…

deficiencies in Pakistan's education system

The Impact of Pakistan’s Education System

What PM Shehbaz Sharif blurted out recently isn’t quite a national secret.…

Child Rights Crisis

As the planet bakes in the hottest summer ever, with each passing month warmer than the last, the climate crisis is depriving children of some of their basic human rights and reducing opportunities for them to secure and live a decent life. Extreme weather events linked to climate change disproportionately…

Babies Galore

OURS is a society where parents start planning their daughter’s marriage soon after she is born. Here the social compulsion for couples to prove their fertility is so great that they have their first child within a year or so after tying the knot. Worse still, women are desperate to…

Conference of Parties (COP) in Pakistan

As the climate crisis continues to escalate, the pressure to implement sectoral policies will also increase. It is often said that climate change is multi-sectoral therefore making it difficult to implement policies after the 18th Amendment. However, beyond that, no mention is made of how to bridge the gap between…

Climate-driven Child Marriages

The prevalence of child marriages in certain parts of Pakistan, as exemplified by the recent reports of 45 underage girls being married off in Khan Muhammad Mallah village of Dadu in Sindh province, is utterly unacceptable. The directive issued by Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah to launch a thorough investigation…

Upcoming Film Spotlights Plight Of Kids In Brick Kilns

‘Under the Blaze’ presents a compelling tale of a child forced to trade his future for perilous conditions Rawalpindi. A child extends his skinny arms to place a warm, rust-coloured brick in a long line of freshly baked blocks laid out to dry under the blistering sun that glares upon…

Malnourished Future

Almost half of the children in Pakistan experience stunted growth, while nearly a third are underweight and suffer from wasting. The long-term consequences of these issues for the future of the country are significant. In Sindh, infant and young child feeding practices are inadequate, with approximately 98 percent of children…

Skills and Success

Someweeks ago, the Federal Directorate of Education and Professional Training organised a wonderful summer fiesta for schoolchildren, with a wide range of skill-based workshops, seminars, lectures and activities. This kind of immersive experience with creative writing, financial literacy, digital technology, and so forth, is the urgent need for students who…

MDCAT: A False Hope On The Horizon

The costs of depriving meritorious individuals of entry into the healthcare system manifest as healthcare breakdowns. Though the announcements of academic opportunities and exams in a transparent socioeconomic and political setting might elicit excitement among prospective aspirants, the same in our part of the world ignites cascades of desperation and…

Labour Codes For All Working People

THE provinces of Sindh and Punjab have, with the assistance of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), prepared draft labour codes. These new codes refashion the current fragmented labour laws. The codes are designed to comply with international labour standards by extending protection to all people who work for the first time in Pakistan’s history.…

When Education Meets Land Grab

Imagine this: A bully enters a man’s dwelling and forces him to sign over ownership of a large piece of his land at gunpoint. To lend this theft the thinnest air of legitimacy, the bully throws the landowner a bone and puts a sale price on the papers that is…