Pakistan's Opportunity to Reap Demographic Dividend
By Riaz Haq
CA
Pakistan has the world’s sixth largest population, seventh largest diaspora and the ninth largest labor force. With rapidly declining fertility and aging populations in the industrialized world, Pakistan's growing talent pool is likely to play a much bigger role to satisfy global demand for workers in the 21st century and contribute to the well-being of Pakistan as well as other parts of the world.
With half the population below 20 years and 60 per cent below 30 years, Pakistan is well-positioned to reap what is often described as "demographic dividend", with its workforce growing at a faster rate than total population. This trend is estimated to accelerate over several decades. Contrary to the oft-repeated talk of doom and gloom, average Pakistanis are now taking education more seriously than ever. Youth literacy is about 70% and growing, and young people are spending more time in schools and colleges to graduate at higher rates than their Indian counterparts in 15+ age group, according to a report on educational achievement by Harvard University researchers Robert Barro and Jong-Wha Lee.
Pakistan's work force is over 60 million strong, according to the Federal Bureau of Statistics. With increasing female participation, the country's labor pool is rising at a rate of 3.5% a year, according to International Labor Organization.
With rising urban middle class, there is substantial and growing demand in Pakistan from students, parents and employers for private quality higher education along with a willingness and capacity to pay relatively high tuition and fees, according to the findings of Austrade, an Australian govt agency promoting trade. Private institutions are seeking affiliations with universities abroad to ensure they offer information and training that is of international standards.
Trans-national education (TNE) is a growing market in Pakistan and recent data shows evidence of over 40 such programs running successfully in affiliation with British universities at undergraduate and graduate level, according to The British Council. Overall, the UK takes about 65 per cent of the TNE market in Pakistan.
It is extremely important for Pakistan's public policy makers and the nation's private sector to fully appreciate the expected demographic dividend as a great opportunity. The best way for them to demonstrate it is to push a pro-youth agenda of education, skills development, health and fitness to take full advantage of this tremendous opportunity. Failure to do so would be a missed opportunity that will be extremely costly for Pakistan and the rest of the world.
Pakistan's Protest Music Finds Growth through Social Media
Enabled by Pakistan's youthful population's embrace of the new media, the hit videos Aalu Anday and Paki Rambo are the latest examples in a long tradition of protest music, poetry and literature in the rich and diverse culture of Pakistan.
In recent years, Pakistan's protest culture has entered a new and exciting phase. The artists no longer feel stifled by the heavily censored state electronic media which dominated the national landscape for most of Pakistan's existence. In fact, the new talent does not rely even on the corporate-owned commercial media that have emerged and become powerful during the last decade of President Musharraf's rule. With the growth of Internet in Pakistan, the rapidly expanding online population is feeling more empowered than ever to engage in political and social activism.
The best known among Pakistani protest poems is Habib Jalib's "main nahin manta" (I refuse to accept) from the Ayub era of the 1960s. Though Jalib passed away in 1993, his words have continued to give expression to discontent against unpopular leaders who have come and gone since the 1960s. His timeless poems still serve as a clarion call of resistance against the tyranny of the status quo. And Jalib continues to inspire new and youthful creative talent to produce protest songs and music which is spread virally through new social media like the Internet-based social networks including Facebook and Twitter, and video repositories like Youtube.
Given the global reach of the Internet, the new social media are now enabling individual Pakistani protest musicians to attract international attention. For example, the "Beyghairat Brigades trio which created Aalu Anday has found fans in other South Asian nations with glowing reviews in the Indian media.
A Youtube video titled "Paki Rambo"` by Omar Adil, a young Pakistani rap artist, has reached across the oceans to fans around the world, and found coverage in the Washington Post. An American group Cypress Hill discovered his music on the Internet and invited him out to Los Angeles to record together. The Post also reports that "Omar has now recorded songs with several other American rappers, including Everlast from House of Pain, Xzibit and one of the members of Limp Bizkit. He plans to release his first album next year and has established himself as Pakistan’s biggest — and perhaps only — rap star."
With expanding educational opportunities and growing access and use of the modern social media by the nation's youth, Pakistan is now in the midst of a dramatic social transformation that is likely to change the face of politics in the coming decades. The arrival of this new era has the potential to end the old feudal style politics of patronage, and replace it with a truly participatory democracy and vastly improved governance.
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