Daily Times

On 2 May 2018, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), Pakistan launched its second report on National Human Development Report (NHDR), entitled: ‘Unleashing the potential of a young Pakistan’. The focus of the report is on the youth of Pakistan between 15 to 29 years of age. The report also provides district-level profiles of Human Development Index (HDI) based on long and healthy life, knowledge (education) and a decent standard of living. The report was authored by two adept academicians: Dr Faisal Bari, Associate Professor of Economics at LUMS and Dr Adil Najam, the dean of the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University in the US.

According to the data, 29 percent of Pakistani population is between the age group of 15 and 29, and the report provides intensive insight about their hopes and fears; health and social facilities; educational and employment status and the overall socio-economic pattern of young people in Pakistan. The report is a mixture of fear and hope. Fear, when the data is looked upon, for instance: 78.6 percent of youth does not have access to parks; 94.5 percent do not have the facility of libraries; 93.9 percent do not have the chance to participate in a sports event,and 97 percent do not have the opportunity to watch a movie in a cinema. However, hope can overcome our fears when we witness that if investment in three very import ‘Es’ as recommended by Dr Najam: “with education, employment and meaningful engagement, youth bulge can transform Pakistan into an educated, peaceful and prosperous country.”

However, fear can again withhold you once you specifically analyse the situation in Balochistan. As per the latest population census data provided by the official website of Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, 19.5 percent of Balochistan’s population is between 15 and 29 years of age, out of its total population of 12.3 million. In the table of National Human Development Index, as provided by the report, out of the 30 districts included in the report, only Quetta, being the provincial capital, manages to be categorised in Medium Human Development category, while all other districts are categorised in very low and low Human Development Category.

Affected by militant insurgency, sectarianism, terrorism and general marginalisation, the youth in Balochistan is exasperated, frustrated, discouraged, and suffocated

The report can further sink your heart as you scroll down to other tables which deal with youth affairs, projecting a very gloomy state of affairs in this deprived province of Pakistan. According to the report, the youth literacy rate is 50 percent. It is important to mention here that in Pakistan, to qualify as literate (educated), you need to read a newspaper and write a simple letter in any language. Despite such a loose definition, approximately 50 percent of youth in Balochistan remains illiterate. Divided further, only 18 percent female and 56 percent male population of ages 15 and older can read and write with understanding. Percentage of youth with a membership of any social organisation and participation in the activities of that group at least once in a month is just 2.3 percent. Such low social participation demonstrates that as far as youth is considered, society in Balochistan is at the point of stagnation.

Similarly, the participation of youth in physical activity is only 26.5 percent, which manifests that 73.5 percent of youth does not take part in any physical activity, where the chief reason could be the unavailability of proper facilities and sports grounds. In most parts of Balochistan, sports grounds are open muddy and stoned terrains. Likewise, the percentage of people who are multi-dimensionally poor is such high as 71.2 percent.

In an era where global connectivity shrinks the universe, and we are amid a technological revolution, in Balochistan, only 5 percent people have access to a computer. Apart from this, very few districts have the internet facility. The ratio of unemployment rate among the population 15 years or above is 0.575, which makes almost 60 percent of youth in Balochistan. However, interestingly, despite such hardship and marginalisation, the percentage of youth who voted in the past or wish to vote in the future is 49.3 percent, which illustrates the political awakening in youth. In a nutshell, youth in Balochistan is deprived of quality education, employment and meaningful engagement.

Apart from these figures, the general thinking of youth in Balochistan can also be gauged by detail analysis of the said report. A table summarising the youth sentiments manifest that the hopes and fears demonstrated during the National Youth Consultations held as part of NHDR process. For example, the consultation process in Quetta where the Baloch youth responded their fear as “Securitisation and lack of trust in the state. Similarly, the fears of Hazara youth were: “Lack of security and difficulty for women to work,” while the Paskhtun youth’s fear was: “Education not preparing young people for jobs”. If looked upon as a whole, the fears of youth in Balochistan are the deprivation of peace, education and employment.

Affected by militant insurgency, sectarianism, terrorism and general marginalisation, the youth in Balochistan is exasperated, frustrated, discouraged, and suffocated. Thus, amid these conditions, the youth is indulged in drugs, extremism, terrorism, tribalism and other criminal activities. Given such a bleak scenario, it’s high time to mend our paths and formulate youth-oriented policies where the youth is provided with quality education, gainful employment and meaningful engagement.

The blames for such unfortunate youth affairs can be shifted between federal and provincial institutions, but the time is not to ponder over the past thus let us focus on future.

As the moon of elections has been sighted in Pakistan, the political parties would beat the drum of their empty promises for youth development. As the active political participation of youth suggested, the youth in Balochistan needs to utilise its democratic right of vote constructively and must opt for the party which has a youth-driven manifesto.

In addition to this, the perfect Pakistan or developed Pakistan — mostly Punjab — as suggested by the HDI tables in the report needs to integrate and interact with this deprived part to generate a sense of empathy and compassion. Let the youth of Pakistan be united by breaking the icons of regionalism, provincialism, ethnic identity and sectarianism.

The writer is a freelance researcher from Balochistan and can be reached at hammalbaloch11@gmail.com

Published in Daily Times, May 25^th 2018.