IT was a statement that, in the context of its direct implications, should set off alarm bells. On Thursday, in a written reply to the Senate, Federal Minister for Education and Professional Training Shafqat Mahmood said that the national literacy rate had dropped from 60 to 58pc in the span of two years, a figure that is only better than Afghanistan’s in this region. Unesco’s Global Education Monitoring Report data, meanwhile, recorded female adult illiteracy at 63pc in 2017. The minister attributed the decrease in overall literacy to Pakistan’s burgeoning population growth, which vastly outpaces the limited resources of a public education system in crisis, with approximately 25m children currently out of school. Experts have estimated that, left unchecked, Pakistan’s population could grow by as much as another 30pc by 2030.

That other Muslim countries, such as Bangladesh and Iran, have successfully brought their populations’ growth under control and boast significantly higher literacy rates than Pakistan, despite serious economic challenges, demonstrates that these issues have much more to do with policymakers’ continuous abdication of responsibility in terms of human development. The divergent human development paths Pakistan and Bangladesh have taken since 1971 has resulted in the latter now having considerably improved social indicators, despite once being commonly associated with poverty and overpopulation. This it accomplished with early and consistent interventions, such as introducing a large-scale health worker programme, decades prior to Pakistan doing so, and public-awareness campaigns on family planning across mass media platforms. On the other hand, Pakistan’s Lady Health Workers, the first point of access for reproductive health services for many underprivileged women since the 1990s, are faltering under the pressure of heavy workloads, limited resources and poor salaries. Meanwhile, efforts to promote family planning by advertising contraceptives on electronic media are consistently obstructed under the guise of ‘public decency’.

The fact that Bangladesh managed to achieve almost universal primary school net enrolment by 2015, and gender parity in access to both primary and secondary education, is a significant reason why its population planning measures have succeeded. It is well established that there is a causal relationship between a girl who goes to school, even for a short while, and having fewer children in her lifetime than a girl who doesn’t. Women’s empowerment in general, and girls’ education in particular, is key to resolving the socioeconomic strain caused by overpopulation, and ensuring that basic service provision can rise to and keep pace with the population’s needs. So, while the federal education minister’s proposal to boost adult literacy is commendable, it pales in comparison to the need for women to have a proportional stake in decision-making — in family planning at the personal level, and in policy planning at the political level.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2018