“Take action. An inch of movement will bring you closer to your goals than a mile of intention” – Steve Maraboli

Gender imbalance in law enforcement fields

Although opportunities for women in policing have expanded over time, the overall numbers remain relatively low. Research suggests that women make up only two per cent of Pakistan’s police force. The gender imbalances in police forces can significantly affect individuals’ experiences when interacting with police. It is due to this reason that whenever the police raid the house of an accused, and do not have female officials accompanying them, the male officials are viewed to be violating the sanctity of female residents which leads to the investigation process being compromised and the accused is often not prosecuted. In essence, there are two main barriers to increasing the numbers of women in policing: elements of sexism and discrimination that result from the male-dominated culture in police forces and the nature of the job itself. One potential solution is a bigger focus on flexible working arrangements and part-time policing arrangements to help improve the work-life balance for officers. But we are yet to see if these steps will make a difference.

Momina Rehman,
Islamabad.

The deteriorating educational system

Pakistan is facing a serious challenge to ensure all children, particularly the most disadvantaged, attend, stay and learn in school. Currently, Pakistan is one of the countries with the highest number of out-of-school children. Whereas, we also find a constant fall in the standard of education. There are various reasons behind the problem. The government is indifferent to the problems. The changing governments in the country have failed to assess the real causes of educational deterioration. The education administration is slack, corrupt and rather helpless against the student community. The teachers, in general, are the product of our corrupt society. The primary schools are the nurseries of the nation. But our primary teachers are the least qualified and lowest paid. How can they raise good crop? The government must establish a proper system of checks on the operations of the educational institutions in order to produce civilians who could transform their learning and education in practice.

Hoor Hayat,
Lahore.

The culture of internal migration

Urbanisation is the redistribution of population from rural to urban settlements with the passage of time. This on one hand, provides opportunities for growth, and on the other it gives rise to problems such as high population density, inadequate infrastructure, lack of affordable housing, pollution, slums’ crime, congestion, and poverty. It results in negative outcomes such as the inability of the cities to absorb, accommodate and provide employment opportunities to the rising inflow of people. Mainly, the rise of population in major cities of Pakistan is the outcome of rural and urban development gap, which is creating further pressure on urban areas. The lack of development in the rural area has triggered internal migration from rural to urban areas. Government should devise a strategy to control rapid urbanisation by focusing on developing the rural areas.

Sara Rizvi,
Karachi.

Depression in youth

Adolescence, or better known as the teenage years, are considered as one of the hardest and toughest periods of the human life. This is the period of emotional, physical and cognitive development of the person in question. The major problem in our society is that depression is not paid attention to. The question here is why young people are so troubled in Pakistan? Psychologists says there are several factors, depression is the foremost and severe of all. Most of the times it goes undiagnosed because it’s not even considered an illness in our country. It might be due to lack of opportunities, bullying at school or lack of social skills. Secondly, academic pressure or not being able to fulfill the family expectations leads to emotional distress. Lastly, lack of communication or support can make a person feel isolated and helpless. It’s not hard to tell if someone is going through trauma, the least we can do is to treat everyone with kindness because people need it.

Amjad Ali,
Karachi.