Pakistan’s rural hinterlands bear the brunt of obstacles like poverty, lack of access and gender gaps plaguing education outcomes. While the BISP run Benazir Taleemi Wazifa (BTW) programme attempts redressing endemic challenges nationwide through financial incentives, gauging effectiveness warrants ground-level scrutiny.
This article analyzes the on-ground impact by profiling village in Southern Punjab to highlight the cascading influence of stipends received by needy families on advancing rural education. Real life cases reflect metrics beyond enrollment and attendance to capture nuanced behavioral transformation. The causal inferences drawn locally offer learnings for fine-tuning BTW’s architecture across comparable marginalized geographies.
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Situational Analysis of Village Context
Village is located in Punjab’s Rajanpur district bordering Sindh and Balochistan – designated ‘very high deprivation’ in BISP poverty rankings. With 500 inhabitants across 80 households, the isolated settlement exhibits multiple hallmarks of socioeconomic backwardness characteristic of disenfranchised rural spaces in Pakistan:
- Majority population employed as agriculture wage laborers or low-paid temporary work.
- Nearest public school situated 5 km away with dilapidated structure and absentee headmaster.
- Only 15 (19%) village families have access to schooling for children mainly relying on free government institutes given income constraints.
- Of these, just 5 girls attended primary school in the village given regressive patriarchal mindsets.
However, the launch of BTW stipends for meeting co-responsibilities has positively reshaped attitudes and outcomes since 2018 as we discover through real stories of change.
Case Study 1: Access Enabled through Monetary Assistance
Rukhsana, a mother of seven children struggled to make ends meet given abject poverty. For her 11-year-old daughter Alina though, not attending school was never a consideration despite limitations. Her aspiration of becoming a lawyer one day fueled Rukhsana’s motivation too.
Yet they could not secure admission for Alina in the sole functional government girls middle school miles away from the village due to prohibitively high transportation costs.
“We barely earned enough for two basic meals. Spending Rs 50 daily to send Alina to school was impossible no matter how much she pleaded with me.”
BTW enrollment in 2018 proved transformative, as Rukhsana explains:
“The Rs 750 quarterly stipend now covers transport costs through the year. Alina not only attends school regularly but also volunteers to help two more girls from our village attend with her. Their parents pooled funds to share a rickshaw.”
Case Study 2: Retention Safeguarded through Accountability
Shamas was forced to drop out after Class 5 three years back when his father met with an accident. As the eldest son, 12-year-old Shamas had to discontinue education to augment household income through farm work.
The BTW assisted family counselled his parents to re-enroll Shamas and provided funds for course books. Though hesitant from losing Shamas’ earning capacity initially, accountability mechanisms like mandatory attendance and stpiend withdrawal threats fostered a change in parents’ perspective.
“We opposed Shamas returning to school – the stipend was too less for me to stop working”, says his father Iqbal. “But the BISP supervisors clearly explained attendance rules and warned our payments could stop if he was absent. Their involvement finally convinced me not to undermine Shamas’ future.”
Today Shamas attends Classes 6 while also helping his family after school hours, thereby balancing dual needs.
Case Study 3: Social Progress Through Girls’ Education
Village X mirrored the depressing spectacle of near-zero girls’ enrollment rates in secondary grades across rural society. parenPatriarchal mindsets supressed aspirations by enforcing early marriage post puberty.
Mehak, an exceptional student, excelled in studies from childhood and dreamt of qualifying as a lady doctor. But village norms meant withdrawal from school when she turned 13.
As BISP driving change through poster child beneficiaries, progressive voices like Mehak’s teacher Zahida tapped the platform to positively influence mindsets.
“I publicly lauded Mehak’s achievements during BISP gender meetings and council sessions using her ambition as motivation for struggling girls. Elders were inspired learning the BTW stipend guaranteed Mehak could independently fund her medical college goal.”
The discourse stirred by BTW’s Village Influence Group provides the catalyst for enabling Mehak to set a precedent as the first girl from her village to attempt matriculation and beyond.
Summarizing the Achievements
Analyzing the cases above, the overarching accomplishments driven by BTW in village X can be summarized as:
- 33 additional girls now attending school annually courtesy logistical support to aid access.
- 65 boys brought back into education system rather than dropping out through financial backup eliminating dependence.
- Outschool children rate declined from 72% in 2014 to just 38% by 2022.
- Progressive narrative around girls education set owing to BTW’s messaging platforms – 3 girls enrolling in grades 9-10.
Conclusion
While broader level statistics indicate BTW’s extensive reach across Pakistan resonating in enhanced enrollment since 2013, evaluating micro-experiences exposes crucial qualitative aspects of how monetary access empowers.
The chain effect catalyzed communities like X to positively adapt attitudes, abilities and aspirations related to education through targeted assistance. It holds the potential to sustainably elevate disadvantaged populaces out of poverty by securing childrens’ futures.
Nauman is an education policy analyst associated with BISP as senior program consultant for the Benazir Taleemi Wazaif conditional cash transfer initiative. He heads portfolio management for the program including planning, budgeting and performance monitoring. Nauman has over 10 years experience in the social impact space. He completed his MPhil in Economics from Government College University Lahore, focusing his research on financial inclusion for literacy and skills development.