Prioritising peopl

In the thick of our mounting crises from rising poverty to child malnutrition and an overwhelmed healthcare system one glaring truth stares us in the face: we’re failing our people. The article paints a sobering picture of how national priorities have slowly drifted away from individual welfare. Rather than questioning our population size, we should be asking whether we’re doing justice to the people already here. Each child’s birth should spark hope, but instead, it’s too often met with neglect, broken promises, and bitter realities. This negligence is not just systemic; it’s a moral failure. When anaemic mothers face deadly pregnancies or malnourished children battle for scraps of care, the state’s silence screams louder than words.This isn’t simply a health or education crisis, it’s a crisis of values. If a nation is to be measured by how it treats its people, then we’re missing the mark by miles. The article calls for a total mindset shift: stop treating social welfare as charity and start recognizing it as a responsibility. Access to family planning, reproductive health, education, and protection must become a shared mission between state and society. The road to national dignity begins by treating every life like it matters. And if we want a future worth its salt, we need to act now not with hollow slogans but with rooted reforms that make ‘every life counts’ more than a catchphrase.

Overview:

This article highlights the moral and practical failure of the Pakistani state and society to prioritize human development. It criticizes the apathetic response to rising social issues and calls for bold, people-centered reforms in health, education, and reproductive rights, urging policymakers to put citizens before numbers.

NOTES:

This article sharpens your understanding of population dynamics, human development, and public policy. The article’s tone and framing provide excellent examples of critical thinking, evaluative judgment, and argument construction. It touches upon reproductive health rights, population policy, and national planning, the themes often explored under governance, social welfare, and development sections of the CSS syllabus.

Relevant CSS Subjects and Topics:

• Pakistan Affairs – Social development, public health, population issues
• Current Affairs – Human development, reproductive rights
• Essay – Human rights, demographic challenges, governance
• Gender Studies – Women’s reproductive autonomy, gender equality
• Sociology – Family planning, social inequality, population welfare

Notes for Beginners:

This article helps beginners understand how poor planning and a lack of compassion hurt national progress. For example, a woman giving birth to children in quick succession without proper health care risks her life, and the children’s future is compromised due to malnutrition and poor schooling. Fact: Pakistan has nearly 22 million out-of-school children and ranks low on human development indexes. The article explains that solving problems isn’t about reducing population numbers, but about managing resources and caring for each life. Think of a garden. It’s not the number of plants that matter, but how well each is nurtured.

Facts and Figures:

• Pakistan has one of the highest maternal and infant mortality rates in South Asia.
• Over 40% of children under five are stunted due to malnutrition.
• Approximately 22.8 million children are out of school in Pakistan.
• Contraceptive prevalence rate in Pakistan remains below 35%.

To sum up, this article is a call to conscience. It presses us to shift from seeing people as burdens to valuing them as assets. The writer reminds us that slogans won’t feed the hungry or heal the sick, only serious commitment will. If we wish to move the needle on development, we must rebuild our national priorities around one undeniable truth: every life truly counts.

Difficult Words and Meanings:

• Dismal – extremely bad (Syn: gloomy, bleak | Ant: hopeful, bright)
• Indictments – strong expressions of disapproval or accusations (Syn: criticism | Ant: praise)
• Apathy – lack of interest or concern (Syn: indifference | Ant: enthusiasm)
• Autonomy – independence or self-governance (Syn: freedom | Ant: dependence)
• Equitable – fair and impartial (Syn: just, unbiased | Ant: unfair, biased)