Category Archives: Development and Poverty

Education in a quandary

Development and Poverty, Education, Human Rights

By Zubeida Mustafa

IN today’s age “of the one per cent, for the one per cent, and by the one per cent” (to quote Joseph Stiglitz) to seek equality — especially in education — amounts to looking for utopia.

Therefore the South Asian Forum for Educational Development, Idara-i-Taleem-o-Agahi (ITA), and other partners were brave to have ‘quality-inequality quandary’ as the theme of the regional seminar they organised in Lahore earlier this month. The idea was to get proposals to resolve this quandary. Continue reading Education in a quandary →

Empowering Pakistani Women through Education and Family Planning

Development and Poverty, Education, Population, Women

Source: The WIP

A happy family: Zahoora with husband Rahib Ali and three children at their ‘Safe Space’. Photograph courtesy of the Indus Resource Centre.

Empowerment is opening up new spaces for personal development for women in Pakistan. As opportunities for education come within their reach women are learning how to upgrade their lives. This has brought the realization that a big family may not be a blessing, and can actually handicap women. This is a big leap from where women were a few years ago, when motherhood was widely regarded as a status symbol. The more male children women had the more respect they could command. Sons brought a sense of security as they consolidated a woman’s position in the household and ensured that a second wife would not displace her.
As women become empowered through education and work, some are opting for small families.
Continue reading Empowering Pakistani Women through Education and Family Planning →

The polio story

Children and Youth, Development and Poverty, Health, Terrorism and Violence

By Zubeida Mustafa

PAKISTAN has failed to educate its children. It is now failing to protect them from communicable diseases like poliomyelitis, an untreatable crippling disease caused by a virus.

Preventive vaccines have however been developed and large regions of the world have been declared polio-free. It is, therefore, a pity that Pakistan is losing its war against polio. A spate of stories in the print media lately point to this tragedy. This is not at all surprising, given our criminal neglect of the health sector.

What is the polio story? When Pakistan launched itself on the long road to polio eradication in 1994, it showed remarkable success. It set up an effective surveillance cell and national immunisation days were undertaken. Continue reading The polio story →

Will the lion roar again?

Development and Poverty, Media, Social Issues

By Zubeida Mustafa

SO Ardeshir Cowasjee has decided to call it a day. He was one of Dawn’s longest-serving columnists and certainly the most feared because nothing could stop him from speaking out against what he perceived to be wrong. And in this calamity-stricken country of ours there was always much to provoke AC.

For over two decades he irritated and angered many of the high and mighty mandarins in their ivory towers Continue reading Will the lion roar again? →

Broadening the mind – as a life-long process

Development and Poverty, Education, Social Issues

Tasneem Siddiqui, retired director of SKAA, (left) speaks at a critical discourse session. SEF's MD, Prof Anita Ghulam Ali, is presiding. Photo by Sadaf Zuberi
By Zubeida Mustafa

THE concept of education and knowledge has changed over the years. It is not just communication technology with the accompanying information explosion that has triggered this change. Also responsible is the phenomenon of specialisation that encourages people to know more and more about less and less. Hence the trend towards continuing and life long education. But this education is generally highly focused. This can pose a challenge in an age when the range of knowledge is becoming wider and to be effective one needs to adopt a holistic approach. It pays if you are a jack of all trade and also a master of one. Continue reading Broadening the mind – as a life-long process →