The Six Questions that Do Not Go Away
In: The Pakistan development review: PDR, Volume 30, Issue 4II, p. 649-667
To any observer of Pakistani society and economy over the last
40 years four questions pose themselves with repeated persistence year
after year, survey after survey, census after census, decade after
decade. They are: the proportion aged less than 15 years of age, the
reported age group 5-9, the masculinity ratio, female illiteracy and
innumeracy. There are two other features of the Pakistani data situation
that ought to be taken into account during any consideration of these
data and their collection. They are: the innocence of vital registration
systems, and the ineffectiveness of family planning programmes. The
first four questions received little attention through the backstopping
offered by international agencies, from the subject-matter units in the
Federal Bureau of St.atistics (PBS), and from the analysts in such
research institutions as the PIDE. There seems to be no awareness of the
critical role of women's literacy and numeracy in the reorganization
plans of the Ministry of Women's Development [MWD (1989, 1989a)]. The
relevant concerns in WD publications are modest [e.g., WD (1980)]. The
last two questions