Category Archives: Development and Poverty

Over-all literacv rate in the Muslim world is 49.9 per cent

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Development and Poverty, Education, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

AT one time the Muslim world was a storehouse of knowledge and education. It produced philosophers, scholars and scientists whose contributions in their own fields gained international recognition. Where do the Muslims stand today in terms of educational advancement?

The collective picture which emerges from the statistics on literacy and school enrolment in individual countries is on the whole not too satisfactory. In some respect it is appalling. A London-based magazine has released the basic data for Third World countries in 1983 from which the following has been compiled. Continue reading Over-all literacv rate in the Muslim world is 49.9 per cent →

War and peace — why are women not concerned?

Archive Edition, Defence and Disarmament, Development and Poverty, Education, Foreign Policy of Pakistan, Health, International Politics, Nuclear weapons, Social Issues, Terrorism and Violence, Women

By Zubaida Mustafa

The issue conspicuously missing in the debates that take place in women’s forum in Pakistan is that of war, peace and disarmament. Somehow these topics are considered to be of masculine interest only and one hardly comes across women leaders speaking about them — least of all, in meetings of women’s organisations.

That women should keep off such issues in our country is not difficult to understand — though by no means easy to justify. Women have traditionally been kept out of the higher decision-making process or statecraft. Continue reading War and peace — why are women not concerned? →

Saving habits: cultural factors are decisive

Archive Edition, Culture and the Arts, Development and Poverty, Economy, Women

By Zubeida Mustafa

Pakistan’s saving rate betrays its people’s weakness for spending. The nation manages to save only five per cent of its gross domestic product — a figure much lower than in most other Third World countries. The saving rate in India is 20 per cent. It’s 30 per cent in Indonesia and 28 per cent in China and Nigeria.

But in spite of their notoriety for ostentatious living and wasteful habits, it is wrong to think that people in this country do not set aside any of their earnings for the proverbial rainy day. And those who do not manage to save despite their best efforts worry about their inability to save. Continue reading Saving habits: cultural factors are decisive →

Education sector: shortfall on development side alarming

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education

By Zubeida M ustaf a

THE Sixth Five-Year Plan describes education as “a vital investment in human resources development.” It concedes that the performance of the education sector in Pakistan has remained “utterly deficient.”

In a bid to correct this deficiency, the government has adopted a strategy which seeks to increase the funds allocated to education, to change the distribution of available resources among various subsectors — so that there is greater expansion of primary and technical education while spending on higher education is kept down — and to place greater emphasis on female education.

Now that the first year of the Sixth Plan is over, it should be an instructive exercise to evaluate the government’s education policy especially with a view to ascertaining as to what extent its professed guidelines have been adhered to. Continue reading Education sector: shortfall on development side alarming →

PQLI: A new yardstick to replace ‘per capita income’

Archive Edition, Children and Youth, Development and Poverty, Economy, Education, Health, Social Issues

By Zubeida Mustafa

THERE was a time when the sole yardstick to measure the level of development of a country was the conventional economic indicator, namely, the per capita income. But economists have now discovered the fallacy of this approach. A country can have a high per capita GNP and yet be severely underdeveloped in terms of the quality of life it can provide to its people.

Very often the national wealth happens to be concentrated in the hands of a few people and the Government’s priorities are such that the social sectors are totally neglected. In such cases the GNP can be quite misleading for it hardly reflects the level of development of the people. Hence economists have come to adopt the basic needs approach and now more emphasis is placed on the social sectors, especially education and health. Thus the conventional economic indicators are no longer the only measure of national development. Continue reading PQLI: A new yardstick to replace ‘per capita income’ →