The children of Balochistan

Statistics may not tell the complete story but they are sufficient to show just how neglected the children of Balochistan are. The country has an official literacy rate of 58 percent but Balochistan lags behind at 46 percent, with female literacy rate at only 23 percent. Half a million children are out of school, compared to just above one million who are enrolled in public or private schools.

Part of the problem is geography. Balochistan is the least densely populated province in the country and villages are often little more than a handful of households. The distances between villages can be so large that parents may not have the incentive or the means to send their children to schools that are far away. An added problem is the political and social isolation of Balochistan from the rest of the country. Urdu became the official language of the province much later than the rest of the country, with Persian originally serving as the language of instruction in schools.

The center has so completely ignored and alienated the province that universities and schools were not constructed till long after the rest of the country. Education may be a constitutional right in the country but for Balochistan it remains an aspiration rather than a reality.

The neglect runs all the way from primary school to higher education. The Higher Education Commission (HEC) has, like all other institutions in the country, failed in its duty to treat Balochistan at par with other areas.

Since being founded in 2002, the HEC has allocated only 48 projects out of a total of 737 to Balochistan. These projects have also tended to be smaller in scope and financing than those in other provinces, despite the fact that the dire state of education in Balochistan should garner it greater funding. The little money that is available for Balochistan’s schools and universities tends to be misused, with economist Kaiser Bengali, who is an adviser to the chief minister saying that funds meant for the upgrade of schools tend to be misappropriated by unscrupulous bureaucrats and politicians.

New political administrations tend to want to start afresh rather than building on previous work, resulting in greater delays. The central government has so far seen the separatist problem in the province as a solely political issue which can be dealt with through force. If instead they focused on education and other social issues they may understand just why the Baloch feel so alienated and mistreated. Balochistan will only feel like a member of the federation if the centre treats the province as a welcome part of the country.

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