Improved health, education help grow human capital.

Byline: Ahsan Nisar

In Pakistan, the health sector has been badly neglected and the policy makers have shown a callous lack of concern for educating the people and providing them with health care. People living in rural and remote areas mainly depend on primary health care facilities, like basic health unit and dispensary provided by the public sector. However, due to poor governance, lack of access and unequal resources, poor quality of health information management system, corruption in health system, lack of monitoring in health policy and health planning and lack of trained staff, the quality of life of the people has remained low and the nation has not been able to achieve higher levels of economic progress due to underdeveloped human resources.

The under-development of the health sector is manifested in Pakistan's poor health-related key indicators. According to UNICEF, despite significant improvements over the past two decades, Pakistan ranks towards the bottom among other countries when it comes to infant and neonatal mortality.

With the contribution of human capital in total wealth growing globally, the creation of a skilled labor force that is more productive and better able to adopt and adapt to new technologies is at the core of a long-term growth path for Pakistan. To this end, improvements in education and learning need to go hand in hand with improvements in health and well-being to maximize the cognitive potential of both men and women in the population. Pakistan has made progress on these fronts, but it is uneven and slow. If Pakistan is to grow in an inclusive manner, the government must prioritize and invest equitably in the development of its human capital.

Perhaps, the only thing that works in favor of Pakistan is its demographic youth bulge (63% of our population comprising of youth, 69 million aged below 15) and an increase in the working- age population as a share of the total population. To reap the "demographic dividend" of this change, the economy needs to provide education and create productive and remunerative employment for young workforce entrants. In this connection, providing free...