Helping the youth of Balochistan

BISP is said to have crafted a plan to provide vocational training to thousands of Baloch youth.

That Balochistan is deep in misery induced by abject poverty and a never-ending cycle of violence is stating the obvious. But a recent poverty survey carried out by the Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) shows us the exact quantum of the problem. According to the survey result, half of Balochistan’s population qualifies for financial support. This indicates that ever more Balochistan families are slipping into poverty, while their youth are becoming increasingly desperate. Small wonder then, a sizeable number of them is being recruited by separatist elements as cannon fodder for their misguided cause. One of the best ways to wean such youth away from their misdirected path is to provide them jobs and absorb them into the social mainstream. That requires equipping them first with the skills necessary for them to fit the job description. Towards this end, the BISP is said to have crafted a plan under which billions of rupees will be injected into vocational training of thousands of Baloch youth.



This is welcome news, as the country’s premier social security programme appears to have taken a shift under the new government from focusing on women to training younger population. Its chairman, Enver Baig, has said that Baloch youth will remain the prime focus of the programme. The social safety provider intends to establish new training institutes and has lined up donors for the purpose. When this scheme comes to fruition, we expect a sizeable skilled workforce being employed in the job market and earning their living with dignity. While it will take time for the BISP to establish a network of vocational training institutes in Balochistan, it is said to have taken on board three provincial governments to help train the underprivileged Baloch youth. For this purpose, a meeting between the BISP chief, the Balochistan governor and the chief minister is slated to take place next month, which will consider how a first batch of some 2,000 Baloch youth could be trained in institutes run in Punjab, Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Sindh. All this sounds positive. Only the authorities need not slacken in their efforts and must show firm resolve in following through this scheme, if they are to mitigate the suffering of the Baloch people.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 10^th, 2014.

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