THE UNDP’s latest annual human development report identifies wide inequalities between and within countries as the “defining issue of our times”. The authors of Human Development Indices and Indicators: 2018 Statistical Update note that unequal opportunities are due to disparities in income, education, health and access to technology. Warning that this imbalance will impact less-developed countries, they note that past progress could become vulnerable to climate change, conflict and worsening living conditions. In South Asia, Pakistan is ranked 150th on the annual UN Human Development Index, which lists 189 countries in areas such as life expectancy, education and living standards. With the slowest growth in South Asia (other than Afghanistan), Pakistan lags behind India, Nepal and Bangladesh in most social indicators. The lack of access to quality education keeps children in school for an average of 8.6 years; for girls it is just 7.8 years. Resultantly, a mere 24.4pc of women participate in the labour force compared with 82.9pc of men. Furthermore, life expectancy is estimated at 66.6 years. When global development reports produce scathing indictments of this nature, there is the argument that unreliable or unrepresentative official statistics result in poor rankings. However, the reality is a rapid visible decline in overall development — despite minuscule improvements. And while these and other statistics present a stark picture in themselves, they also speak to the deprivation of many, in particular low-income population groups, women and minorities. The reminder is inequity can be dangerous when it fuels extremism among the youth and undermines support for social cohesion and sustained development.

Unrelenting gender inequality, nonetheless, remains one of the most significant barriers to human development. When women lack opportunities and empowerment, because of lower income and no education, there are limits to the country’s advancement. With the gender inequality index measuring 0.541 (only ahead of Afghanistan), Pakistan must focus on the neglected status of half the country’s population. Among many detrimental practices that deny women agency, the state must stop childhood marriage that undermines women’s education and income. Women’s voices should not be excluded from decision-making bodies — recently, a male-only team was constituted to fix our economic woes. For too long, women’s rights have been neglected as seen in the gender inequalities present in health, education, employment and politics. Only when gender inclusivity becomes an integral part of the national socioeconomic agenda will Pakistan register human development progress.

Published in Dawn, September 18th, 2018