Pakistan’s Struggle: Basic Health and Education for All
The challenging scenario in Pakistan reflects a struggle to provide essential health and education services to all citizens. This responsibility has increasingly shifted to the affluent population, marking a concerning trend of commercializing these fundamental rights. This shift has made a child’s educational performance contingent on their family’s financial status, deepening societal inequalities.
This asymmetrical state is rooted in factors like infant malnutrition, consanguinity, and poverty, evident in Pakistan’s poor health indices across various metrics. Disparities between rural and urban areas further exacerbate these issues, creating compartments within society.
To address these challenges, it’s vital to activate and empower the Ministries of Health and Education, collaborating with institutions like HEC and PMDC. A thorough examination of 75 years of Pakistan’s history across two phases can provide crucial insights and contraindications.
Establishing specialized institutions to analyze these contradictions could pave the way for synthesizing solutions, particularly in the realms of public health and education. This would involve adapting to elite capture, wartime challenges, and the waves of globalization affecting technology and marketing.
Reform proposals include designing a comprehensive public health system covering rural and urban areas, restructuring medical education, reintroducing the GP system for disease prevention, and integrating political and biological treatments. Surveillance and monitoring mechanisms are key, as highlighted in Zaki Hasan’s ‘Challenges of Public Health in Pakistan.’
Similarly, the Ministry of Education and HEC should develop an inclusive education system that liberates children’s educational outcomes from financial constraints. Shifting from a job-oriented curriculum to fostering a civil society based on creativity and holistic education is paramount. Prioritizing indigenous questions and resources in research can cultivate a society aligned with democratic values and aspirations for a unified South Asia.