Achi news desk-
Let me introduce you to some of the popular research patterns that have been circulating about Pakistan recently
1. According to a study, 26 million children are out of school in Pakistan.
2. According to research, more than half of women over the age of 35 are waiting for marriage in Pakistan.
3. According to research, the number of beggars in Pakistan is 38 million, of which 50% are in Karachi alone.
You may have seen many such studies on social media. Whenever a post like this goes viral, it remains the talk of every social media group for days. The first post in the above post is based on a report by the Institute of Education, the second recently went viral on the Geo News website and Geo News is using the report to promote an app called ‘Dil Ka Rishta’. While the source of the third study was unknown, the report was shared by Thousands of people on social networks.
Let us examine the plausibility of this type of popular studies. First, I start with the analysis of the third study, according to which there are 38 million beggars in Pakistan and 50% of them are in Karachi. The report implies that the number of beggars in Karachi is 19 million and according to the 2023 census, the total population of Karachi is 20.05 million.
In addition, according to the data of the Federal Bureau of Statistics, the ratio of children under the age of 5 is more than 10%. This means that at least 2 million of Karachi’s 2.05 million population will be children under the age of 5 and the rest of the population is less than the estimated number of 19 million beggars. So is it reasonable to assume that the entire population of Karachi are beggars? From here the authenticity of the aforementioned study can be assessed.
According to the same “study”, there are 19 million beggars in the remaining 220 million population of Pakistan. If that were true, every third house would have one professional beggar, and I think this ratio is at least 5 times higher than the actual number of beggars.
Now let’s come to the second study that one million women above the age of 35 are waiting for marriage in Pakistan. According to the Pakistan Demographic Survey 2020, the total number of women above the age of 35 in Pakistan is 3.13 million and among them 2.51 million are married, while 5.5 million are widowed or divorced. Among the widowed women, 3.3 lakh are aged 60 and above. The number of women over the age of 35 who have never married is about 6.7 lakh, which is only 2% of the total number of women. Out of a total of 6.1 lakh unmarried women, 4.1 lakh are women who do not want to get married because of old age. Therefore, the number of women waiting for marriage must be less than 25% of the number mentioned in the above study.
The third study, in which the number of out-of-school children is estimated at approximately 26 million, is a study by a respected educational institution and in this study they also received the support of several foreign institutions. Earlier, the statistical results of the non-governmental organization called Alif Aelan were of the same type. Therefore, it is not easy to refute or undermine this research. However, there are some facts that prove that the ratio of children out of school in the said report is only an estimate and contrary to the facts.
In Pakistan, children between the ages of 5 and 17 are considered school age. At this age, children study from grade 1 to 12. According to the 2017 census, the number of children between the ages of 0 and 12 in Pakistan was 70 million. These children will reach the age of 5 to 17 in 2022. According to the above report, the total number of Children enrolled in school in Pakistan is 55 million, which means that 15 million children may be out of school, while according to a report, the number of out-of-school children is 26 million. This contradiction is a clear proof of the hollowness of the report. If the number of out-of-school children in Pakistan is considered to be 26 million, then the ratio of out-of-school children will be 37%, whereas if the number of out-of-school children is considered to be 15 million, then the ratio This will be 21% and this difference in education can make a difference of 40 ranks in the ranking of Pakistan in the world ranking.
In today’s era, if 37% of the children in a country are out of school, what will be the image of that country in the community of nations? And the surprising thing is that this most wrong picture of Pakistan is based on a so called study of a reputed institution of Pakistan.
Is it possible that 37 percent of children in Pakistan are out of school? Imagine, there are some big cities in Pakistan where even 5% of children are not out of school. In Rawalpindi and Islamabad, the literacy rate is more than 90% and their new generation has no idea that they will not be educated. Assuming that 10 percent of the children in these cities drop out before completing their education, this implies that the rate of out-of-school children in the remaining cities must be even higher. In which village are 50% of the children out of school today? I belong to a remote village, but there is no child out of school in my village.
A similar fiction was stated by a popular politician in a public meeting some years ago. He said that every 20 seconds a woman dies during childbirth. If the 20 seconds news is true, a total of 1.5 million women will die during childbirth during the year, but according to the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics, the total number of annual deaths in Pakistan is 1.2 million, including children, young people. And the elderly, women and men are included. In such a situation, how can the death of 15 lakh women be considered right?
These articles, which are spread virally out of identification with the country and the people, are gradually working to further tarnish the country’s image in our minds, and it has now reached a point where any wrong news attributed to Pakistan becomes acceptable. The great majority are beginning to believe. Even if an article says that 2.5 million people are blind and 3 million people are disabled in Pakistan, many people should start sharing it.
Imagine, when our mindset has become such that we are willing to listen to any negative news about the country, how can anyone else receive such news? Just imagine, if it is in an investor’s mind that the number of beggars in Karachi is 80 percent or more, then what investor would want to invest in Karachi? In a country where a reputable institution declares 37% of children out of school, what image and rank will it have in the international community?
You may recall that one of our aviation ministers boasted that 80 percent of Pakistani pilots do not have a degree. After this statement PIA flights were banned in European countries. The reason for this ban was not proof of any pilot’s incompetence, but only an image problem and the Minister of Aviation spoiled the image. This is the power of image building!
The jokes we share about the country and the nation shape our image internationally. Please do not contribute to creating a bad image of the country, and especially with such nonsense that has nothing to do with rationality and reality.
