PAKISTAN is confronting a crisis that extends far beyond economic indicators, budget deficits and inflation. Beneath the statistics lies a disturbing social reality: millions of children are deprived of education, poor families struggle to feed their children, young girls face exploitation, unemployed youth lose hope and educated professionals increasingly seek their future abroad. At the heart of this crisis lies a dangerous combination of rapid population growth, limited economic opportunities, inadequate public services and weak governance. Pakistan cannot continue expanding its population without ensuring that its economy, education system, healthcare facilities and employment market can meet people’s needs.
More People, Fewer Opportunities: Pakistan’s population exceeded 241 million in the 2023 census and continues to grow. High fertility and limited access to family planning compound the challenge, widening the gap between economic opportunities and the needs of a growing workforce. Unemployment and inflation force poor families to sacrifice nutrition, healthcare and education, while population growth strains public services. With adequate education, healthcare and employment, however, a growing population can become an economic asset rather than a source of mounting pressure.
Millions of Children Deprived of Education: UNICEF estimates that 25.1 million Pakistani children aged 5–16 are out of school. Despite government efforts, educational exclusion remains alarming. Many children enter workshops, agricultural fields, domestic employment or street begging instead of classrooms. Girls, particularly in rural areas, face additional barriers, including poverty, inadequate transport, social restrictions and insufficient educational facilities. This deprivation limits social mobility and perpetuates poverty and economic insecurity across generations.
The Tragedy of Women and Minor Girls: Poor rural households with limited land, employment and access to family planning often struggle to support large families, leaving women without independent incomes financially dependent. Some families send minor daughters to cities for domestic work, where girls as young as 10–12 may reportedly earn only Rs5,000–10,000 monthly. Away from their families and lacking protection, they face excessive working hours, withheld wages, harassment, violence and sexual abuse. These cases expose failures in child protection and labour-law enforcement. The solution lies in reproductive healthcare, education, safe employment and women’s economic independence, alongside effective protection against child exploitation.
Poverty, Desperation and Rising Crime: Severe poverty can produce consequences that economic reports cannot fully capture. Families facing hunger, debt and hopelessness may experience extreme psychological distress. In tragic cases, parents have died by suicide or harmed their children, believing there was no way out. Such incidents require individual investigation, but they also demand scrutiny of whether social protection reaches vulnerable families in time.
Economic exclusion can leave children vulnerable to organized begging networks, drug traffickers and other criminal groups. Extremist organizations may also exploit deprivation, grievances and the absence of legitimate opportunities to recruit vulnerable individuals. Poverty does not automatically produce crime, nor are poor and uneducated people inherently criminal. Rather, criminal networks exploit conditions created by deprivation, exclusion and weak law enforcement.
Illegal Migration and Loss of Talent: Limited opportunities drive young Pakistanis towards dangerous, irregular journeys abroad, exposing them to human trafficking, exploitation and death at sea. Meanwhile, Pakistan risks losing doctors, engineers and other educated professionals seeking better employment, career development and security. The country invests scarce resources in education, yet many skilled professionals leave while millions of children remain deprived of basic education. This brain drain weakens healthcare, technological development, productivity and economic competitiveness.
A Crisis of Governance: Population growth is only part of the explanation. Weak governance magnifies its consequences. Delayed justice, inadequate enforcement of labour laws, institutional inefficiency and limited accountability undermine public confidence. The crisis has also been aggravated by political instability and the failure of successive governments to implement a consistent, long-term population and social-development strategy.
Religious extremism and radicalization add another dimension, particularly when vulnerable young people lack education, employment and hope. These conditions do not automatically produce extremism, but organized networks can exploit social exclusion and institutional weaknesses. The state cannot address rising crime through policing alone. It must prevent exploitation, prosecute offenders fairly, improve public services and ensure that economic opportunities are not confined to privileged groups.
What Must Change? Pakistan needs a coordinated national response: Voluntary family planning: Expand reproductive healthcare, particularly in rural areas, enabling families to make informed decisions about the number and spacing of children. Education for every child: Invest in schools, teachers, girls’ education, nutrition and financial assistance for poor households. Protection of minors: Enforce laws against child labour, forced begging, trafficking and abuse, while providing rehabilitation and education to rescued children.
Employment and women’s empowerment: Develop rural industries, agricultural processing, small businesses and vocational training to create safe, fairly paid jobs. Justice and accountability: Strengthen policing, accelerate court proceedings and hold public institutions accountable for failures to protect citizens. continuity: Make population management, human development and employment national priorities that survive changes in government.
Conclusion: Pakistan cannot secure a prosperous future by ignoring the relationship between population growth, economic capacity and institutional performance. Every generation needs schools, hospitals, housing, employment and public services. When these needs remain unmet, poverty becomes entrenched, children face exploitation, crime can flourish and talented professionals leave the country.
The solution is neither to blame the poor nor to treat children as a burden. It is to ensure that families can make informed reproductive choices and that every child has the opportunity to become an educated, productive and secure citizen. Pakistan’s future will depend not simply on how many people it has, but on how effectively it invests in and protects them.
—The writer is Senior Retd bureaucrat, based in Lahore.
