Perspective - Page 2

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…

Permitted age for employment of children as domestic workers

Do you know what the minimum age is for children in the different provinces of Pakistan to be employed as domestic workers? Child labour is a provincial subject in Pakistan after the 18th Constitutional Amendment in 2010. The 18th Constitutional Amendment devolved the issue of labour and employment to the…

Juvenile Offenders in Punjab

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

Transport For Schooling

A JUDGE at the Lahore High Court recently ordered that schools should arrange for…

Failure to save Newborns

The pain of losing a newborn child cannot be explained, only felt. The risk of this tragedy is regrettably exacerbated by both an inadequate healthcare system and dangerous social norms that push people into untimely parenthood. Proof of this inadequacy lies in recent findings relating to Tharparkar Civil Hospital –…

Better learning

IN mainstream schools in Pakistan, challenges abound. From resource constraints to technological barriers, from limited professional development opportunities to high teacher turnover, the teaching and learning landscape has been contending with several issues. Perhaps the most urgent concern is the large classes that preclude getting to know students personally. The…

Nourishing Pakistan

PAKISTAN’S nutrition crisis is not short of diagnosis. What it lacks is the machinery and political discipline to act on what is known. That was the most useful message to emerge from DawnMedia’s two-day Act for Nutrition conference in Islamabad, where experts argued that malnutrition cannot be confined to the…

The Silence that kills

Sometimes, far away in the night, a wolf howled. Then he came nearer and howled again. It was a scary sound. Laura knew that wolves would eat little girls.” — From Little House in the Big Woods. In her classical children’s book, Laura Ingalls Wilder used these words to describe…

The World is No Longer Safe for Children

In the present day, we hear about everything from children being eaten, sexually abused and murdered to cyberbullying, online predators, explicit content and the terrifying possibilities opened up by artificial intelligence. The dangers surrounding children seem to have multiplied beyond anything previous generations had to contend with. And while the…

Hospital tragedy

WHERE does one begin? The mind goes first to the parents of the 14 newborns who died early on January 26 in the Mother and Child Health Ward of Islamabad’s Pims Hospital. The heart falters at the sheer scale of their loss. Their grief is shared across the country by people…

PIMS Tragedy

A horrible tragedy has occurred at the heart of the capital city, shaking the nation to its core. Fourteen newborn babies are dead after a fire tore through the Mother and Child Hospital at PIMS. They were among the most helpless patients imaginable, incapable of fleeing or calling for help.…

School Children’s Safety

A child’s journey to school should never be a gamble. Yet in Pakistan, thousands of students travel every day in overcrowded vans, ageing Suzuki vehicles and rickshaws that are often poorly maintained and sometimes fitted with dangerously installed LPG cylinders. That this has been allowed to become routine is itself…

Rabies Awareness and Prevention

Sindh currently operates hundreds of rabies prevention centres that offer free vaccines, available to anyone who simply walks in. Yet, despite this apparent vigilance, the province has already neared the tally for last year’s rabies’ deaths with four months still to go. In 2025, as many as 22 people lost…

Child Stunting is Pakistan’s Hidden Economic Crisis

KARACHI: Pakistan’s economic debate rarely strays far from familiar territory. Inflation, public debt, exports, taxation and the energy crisis dominate political speeches and newspaper headlines alike. These are undoubtedly pressing concerns for a country grappling with recurring fiscal instability. Yet beneath these visible economic challenges lies another crisis – less…