What Hampers Population Policy in Pakistan? The Crossroads of Women's Empowerment and Development Agendas

Abstract

To conclude, the answer to the question, what hampers population policy in Pakistan, is not a simple or straightforward one. This chapter has attempted to go beyond the usual policy prescriptions of investing more in population policy, women’s reproductive rights, and greater coverage across the country. It advocates for greater integration and cohesion across all the crosscutting arenas that interact with population policy in one context or another. These include reconceptualizing social policy in a manner that would assimilate social policies together with women’s empowerment in its multiple contexts, and move toward larger systemic integration of political and economic arrangements so that the logic of justice permeates social, economic, and political development and informs social policies. (Excerpt)