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§
Vol.
VIII,
No.
I (Winter 2023)
§
p- ISSN:
2708-2091
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e-ISSN:
2708-3586
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L-ISSN:
2708-2091
§
Citation:
Mursaleen, M., & Bardauskienė, R. (2023). Challenges of Social Work with Youth in Pakistan. Global Sociological
Review, VIII(I), 1-11. https://doi.org/10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-I).01
Corresponding Author:
Muhammad Mursaleen (MS Scholar, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius,
Lithuania. Email: Mursaleen940@gmail.com)
Challenges of Social Work with Youth in Pakistan
Muhammad Mursaleen *
Raminta Bardauskienė †
Pages:
1 – 11
DOI:
10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-I).01
URL:
http://dx.doi.org/10.31703/gsr.2023(VIII-I).01
Abstract:
The present study has evaluated the current situation of youth social work in Karachi as well highlights the
importance and key issues faced by working youth in the country. A qualitative methodology has been used for the current
studty. The researcher has selected ten respondents having at least 5-10 years of experience from the education sector
of Karachi. A set of 5 questions were developed that targeted the themes of gendered biasness, communication issues,
safety threats, and concerns, funding problems and the impact of governmental restrictions and unrest. The results of
the study highlight the vitality of communication in social organizations in order to resolve the barriers. The main safety
concerns to the NGOs are from the religious and societal extremists. The government hasn’t supported the developmental
and relief initiatives of the social organizations and therefore funding issues are faced by most of the institutions. The
study has bridged the importance of the necessity to commence dialogue on a tabooed issue for the development and
betterment of the youth of the country.
Key Words:
Karachi, Pakistan, Social Work, Youth Development
Introduction
Modern day social work is deeply rooted in the
current social institution and social environments. Due
to the increased social and economic challenges in
developing countries, practicing social work is
becoming more complicated. The common barriers
observed in the field of social work are embedded in
political, economic, and social changes. These barriers
are the major hindrances in providing services to the
people by social workers. Like all other developing
countries, Pakistan is facing challenging times in regard
to economic, social, and political conditions (Ahmed,
2016; Mamoon, 2019; Valasai et al., 2017). The
rapidly increasing crime rate, depletion of natural
resources, agricultural deterioration, power shortages,
and other issues like severe human right violation and
sufferings of the common man are some of the
highlighted issues in this country (Munir&Asghar,
2017; Tabassum, Batool, Ameen, & Hassan, 2019).
*
MS Scholar, Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania. Email: Mursaleen940@gmail.com
†
Vice-Dean for Science, Head of European Joint Master in Social Work with Children and Youth (ESWOCHY),
Mykolas Romeris University, Vilnius, Lithuania.
Amidst this myriad of issues, hope still exists in the
people for a better tomorrow and there is expectation
and predictions that accomplishment and triumph are
in route for this country. Consequently, the burden of
these expectations lands on the young generation's
tender shoulders and they are seen as the way
towards nation building and to bring the state of affairs
back on track. However, the youth of this unfortunate
country faced also with abundant issues and problems
and they need a lot of social support, help, and
guidance to become able of playing the proactive roles
that are expected of them in order to change things
for better. Social workers in this regard play a huge
part in youth betterment and empowerment. Due to
the central role of youth in the welfare and betterment
of the country, it is the duty of the social welfare
groups and social work communities of a country to
work for the engagement, empowerment, and
support of youth. The government and non-
government institutions need to work to design better
Muhammad Mursaleen and Raminta Bardauskienė
2 Global Sociological Review (GSR)
policies that can engage the Youth in the right direction
with the aim of preparing them for playing their due
role in society. They need to be empowered with tons
of skills and capabilities to fight social evils like poverty
and unemployment and mental and physical health
issues as well (Batool, 2013).
Many of the surveys indicate that financial scarcity
is also affecting the performance of social workers
along with the quality of social services. In the current
scenario of youth being the major population mass, it
is a major drawback for the economy and society of
this developing country that most of this population is
inactive and not participating in the marketplace in any
role. Social workers in Pakistani social agencies are
paying special attention to the social work techniques
and strategies, which can facilitate them in providing
assistance to the youth. (Ahmad, 2014). If these
challenges in practicing social work are not resolved,
the youth of Karachi may as well be left behind, which
is indicative of the country is being left behind. The
growing tension between youth and social workers,
therefore poses a tremendous challenge for the
country, its government, and the NGOs as well. In
order to find out the real situation of Pakistani youth,
the biggest city of the country, i.e., Karachi has been
chosen for the collection of data, as well as for the
analysis of the situation of the youth. This city has been
selected for the research because its population is
16,459,000, and with such a huge number of people
living in the area, it is bound to have a major amount
of youth as well. This research aims to find the current
challenges of social workers working with youth in
Karachi, Pakistan, because try as they might, these
social workers are unable to get enough support or
responses from youth.
The basic focus of social work is to strive for the
fulfillment of the needs of people and to help them in
enhancing their human capacities and capabilities so
that they can make the surrounding environment
favorable for themselves (Spector &Kitsuse, 2017).
The work ethics of a social worker have revolved the
concepts of equality, individual dignity, worth of life,
and individuals and honesty (Baldwin, 2016). Youth
serves as the backbone of any nation. The young
generation is responsible for playing an important role
in the development of society. Pakistan currently has
the largest ever population of youth where 64 percent
of the population belongs to below 30 ages and about
29% of the population lies between the ages 15 and
29 (Sathar, Kamran, Sadiq, & Hussain, 2016). Karachi,
being the largest city in the country, the center of
research for this study. The reason behind this is that
the great population of Karachi, including youth, makes
them a viable source of development in Pakistan but
this young and able workforce is mostly inactive and
does not have the required opportunities that they
need to shine and to contribute to the societal and
economic development.
There are many NGOs that are working for the
empowerment of youth in Karachi, Pakistan: We-the-
Youth, YDF, YES, and PYO are a few of these NGOs.
These organizations are working for the improvement
of the education system and for spreading awareness
of the importance of education for the youth and its
impact on the economy and social environment of the
country (Khan, Kanwal, & Wang, 2018). When it
comes to specifically discussing the relevance of the
research in the region of Karachi, Pakistan, it is
extremely important to understand that the youth of
this city is recognized to be quite suppressed. The
youth of Karachi is forced to become a part of an
educational system that is biased, to begin with, and
are often pressured by their families to study fields that
they are not interested in. It is not the only issue,
though, as there are very few jobs and chances of
career development (Ahmad, 2014). All these factors
are hugely affecting their engagement with the social
workers. Due to the recurring social work challenges
and issues, the youth is not as empowered as needed,
which is why this research is relevant.
Research Objectives
1.
To analyze the youth’s situation in Karachi.
2.
To investigate the prevalent work situations for
social workers working for the empowerment,
engagement, and betterment of youth in
Karachi.
3.
To outline the issues and problems that a social
worker faces while working towards youth in
Karachi.
Research Questions
1.
How important is social work for the youth of
Karachi?
2.
What are the challenges and problems that a
social worker faces while working towards
youth empowerment, engagement and
betterment in Karachi?
3.
What are the ways in which this area of study
can be improved in the future?
Challenges of Social Work with Youth in Pakistan
Vol. VIII, No. I (Winter 2023) 3
Literature Review
According to the UNDP report, Pakistan currently has
the largest youth population in its history. It is
considered as the second-youngest state in the South
Asian region after Afghanistan. The National Human
Development Report (2017) stated that the total
population of 64% and 29% lie between the age
group of 15-29 years. Such a massive increase in the
youth population increased many challenges and
opportunities for them to gain equal opportunity and
standard of life. In 2015, 9.45 million children were at
the primary level which was increased by 3.8% in
2030. In the current scenario, there is an urgent need
to create 4.5 million job opportunities over the
upcoming five years and to enroll the millions of out of
school children to utilize 64% of the youth bulge to
gain more opportunities for the economy with the aim
to grow faster and sustainably (NHDR, 2017). The
largest and most populous city of Pakistan is Karachi,
which is why it has been selected for the purposes of
research in this study.
Sarwat Rauf (2019) stated that youth play a major
role in the effective promotion of good governance in
Pakistan. According to him, the development of this
state is in the hands of its fresh blood who are more
energetic and talented than the other ones. But due to
lack of opportunities, the dearth of proper supervision,
and fewer capacity misguide them towards the wrong
direction and they commit crime. According to these
scholars, the majority of the crime is committed by
undergraduate or youth, so in that case character
building, educational institute, and social media is an
effective approach to give them the right direction
towards the state's development (Rauf 2019). In order
to resolve this social issue in this state, Sakina Riaz
majorly highlights some effective solutions that will
create new opportunities in front of this age group,
and the development of social work as a discipline is
one of them. According to Riaz's explanatory
research-based documentary analysis, such advanced
discipline will create new development projects within
this society, and the majority of the societal issues like
rape, robbery, domestic violence, murder and other
related ones will be resolved and its socioeconomic
phase will become enhance (Riaz 2016). As all the
social issues call the attention of social institutions,
many of the researchers also interpreted these
relations in the context of social worker-youth
relationship. The studies demonstrate that social
workers face a challenging time when it comes to such
grave youth social crimes. To tackle such issues, more
comprehensive and careful social strategies are
required in the field.
Khalid and Asad (2019) also worked on exploring
the youth perception regarding the judiciary system of
Pakistan that 60% of the overall population consists of
youth, working people, and adults within 15-64 years
old. In this ratio, the majority of women are
unemployed which further slowdown the economic
development of this state. According to scholars, there
are short life expectancy, poor health care facilities and
low level of education, which is essential for human
existence. In such a situation, the society-oriented
NGOs and other communities are struggling to
overcome different societal issues related to the
Pakistani Youth. The gender-discrimination in the
context of education and social empowerment needs
sheer attention from the present scholars. (Iraqi and
Hyder 2019, Khalid and Asad 2019).
Bagchi, et al (2018) says that in the MENAP
region, which consists of the Middle East, North Africa,
Afghanistan, as well as Pakistan, there is a high number
of youth unemployment. According to this research, it
causes an increase in domestic terrorism. It is directly
related to the quality of democracy, and negatively
connected to the stability of the political condition of
the countries (Bagchi, 2018). Not only this, but youth
unemployment causes an increase in crime rates like
robbery, thievery, and other ways to attaining
resources for survival in the current economy. The
political and economic instability, therefore have a
huge impact on the social welfare practices when it
comes to youth. Due to the severe outcomes of such
political instability and emerging crimes, many of social
workers step back and show unwillingness to tackle
such youth crimes. As a result of this, the social dogma
remained unpracticed in many institutions.
In Pakistan where a large number of graduates
pass out in each year and the lack of job opportunities
within this state, creates major societal issues in front
of the administration. Many types of research have
been made to explore the number of youth-oriented
societal issues resolved by many social activists and
organizations. In Pakistan, The Citizen Foundation
(TCF) is one of the largest education-oriented non-
profit organizations whose major aim to provide
standard education to underprivileged youth.
According to the statistics, there have been 1202
operational school units that provide education to
175000 students nationwide in the year 2016 (Khan
Muhammad Mursaleen and Raminta Bardauskienė
4 Global Sociological Review (GSR)
& Tabish, 2018). It is an important organization for
Karachi, because it is operational in the city as well as
understands the necessities of its youth. Acharya
Soumen (2019) in the international journal regarding
advanced research in management and social science
stated that how much government policies regarding
social NGOs play a major role to strengthen the future
socio-economic approach within the state. According
to these scholars (Acharya Soumen (2019), efficient
social workers can bring a productive change in the
societal mindset of a state, and secure their future.
These organizations mainly operate on charity.
One of the most prominent targets of these
organizations is the educational sector of Karachi. It
may be because the city has extremely obvious
educational issues regarding youth. The lack of career
counseling and high educational and financial
requirements for universities and college admissions
has become a hindrance in the path of most people.
These foundations not only promote higher education
and career counseling, but they also promote
education as a whole, because a majority of Karachiites
are still reluctant to send their children off to schools
or colleges. It causes an increase in the illiteracy rate of
the city and ultimately the country (Ahmad, 2014).
Youth in Karachi do not have jobs, healthy
recreational activities, health resources and
awareness. The hindrances caused by these problems
increase day by day. This is a good time to look at
youth issues and provide practical solutions otherwise
it will be too late. Also, Sathar and others (2016) stated
that there is a need of great intervention of the
government and nongovernmental stakeholders for
the youth development in order to address youth
issue within this state (Sathar, Kamran et al. 2016,
Khuwaja, Karmaliani et al. 2019). In this state, the
unequal distribution and unusual involvement of
external stakeholders in the economic and social
activities within this state result in many youth-oriented
issues. Krstovic (2017) also highlighted different issues
faced by the youth in this state due to a lack of proper
strategical approach. According to Krstovic (2017),
there is a need to develop critical thinking based
strategic approach among students in their decisions
regarding their education, career and other important
factors. Krstovic (2017) stated that organizing the
science and technology-based education is the best
way to encourage students to utilize their information
for the betterment of this nation (Krstovic 2017).
In previous researches, many researches has
been made on exploring the importance of youth
intention in the societal development and how the lack
of involvement creates major issue in front of the
NGOs to run an effective society(Collison and
Marchesseault, 2018, Driskell, 2017, O’Leary, 2017,
Van Ngo et al., 2017). Well, Facebook, YouTube,
Twitter, Instagram and other social media sites have
now become major necessities of today's individual,
but their excessive usage also caused a negative impact
on the wellbeing of a young generation in the future
career perspective. According to Tariq, Hafeez and
Fasih the major intension of youngsters in Facebook
usage distracts them from their right path, and their
addiction results in reducing the engagement level with
the state's social activities. According to Tariq, Sajjad, if
this influence would not be controlled then it becomes
quite difficult to develop the intension of young
generation towards societal projects and wellbeing's.
But if this site is used for an effective awareness
perspective, then the youth interact towards their
societal goals can be enhanced (Tariq, Sajjad et al.
2017, Hafeez and Fasih 2018).
Other issues that social workers face in engaging
the youths of Karachi in social work activities is that
they are not safe. Karachi has been susceptible to
terrorism attacks and hate crimes for more than the
past two decades. People are shot during target
killings, women are harassed on the street, people’s
belongings are taken away from them in robberies,
and various other forms of crimes are the cause of fear
behind going outside the house (Bagchi, 2018). This
fear does not only hinder the progress of social
workers in the educational sector, but it also causes
the youths of Karachi to stay as far away from the
spotlight as possible. Furthermore, these social
workers are not even funded to begin with. They are
not provided with sufficient resources to successfully
carry out social work activities. The government, as
always, remains uninterested in the condition of
Karachi’s youth. Instead, their focus is on the political
condition of the city, which is unstable. Karachi is not
only the largest city of the country, but it also provides
the most revenue to it. It is the main reason why all
political parties want to rule over this region. This
causes a dangerous political situation in the city, causing
a lack of interest of youths in social work, and an
increased interest in the unstable political conditions
(Saud, 2020).
Challenges of Social Work with Youth in Pakistan
Vol. VIII, No. I (Winter 2023) 5
Discussion and Analysis
Demographical Profile
There was a total of 15 respondents included in the
study. These respondents belonged to five different
sectors of the non-profit and social welfare construct
of the country. All of the respondents were based in
Karachi and were working in the education,
rehabilitation, emergency response, women
rehabilitation and social welfare sectors. These
participants were inquired upon their relationship and
association with the youth development and found
that all of them were working towards the youth
development or frequently encountered the youth
demographic of the city of Karachi. Also, most of these
social workers were based in Karachi i.e., their
concerned NGOs and social work centers were
operational in Karachi and is spite of the fact that for
the purpose of their work these social agents travelled
to different areas of the country, their foundation are
based primarily in Karachi.
Table 1.
Sector
Gender
Age
Experience
1
Education
Female
25-45
10 years
Female
25-45
8 years
Male
25-45
15 years
2
Rehabilitation
Male
25-45
10 years
Male
25-45
10 years
Female
25-45
7 years
3
Emergency response
Male
25-45
11 years
Female
25-45
15 years
Male
25-45
15 years
4
Women rehabilitation
Female
25-45
10 years
Female
25-45
8 years
Male
25-45
8 years
5
Social welfare
Male
25-45
15 years
Male
25-45
10 years
Female
25-45
12 years
The above table shows the gender, age and
experience of the participants of the study. It can be
seen that 7 out of the 15 interviewed social workers
were females and the remaining 8 were male. There
is no gender bias in the sample. Most of the
participants were reluctant on providing their actual
age range, and therefore a homogenized metric for
them was established and they informed that all of
them belonged to the 25-45 age group. Also, in terms
of experience it can be seen that the experience of the
social workers ranged from 7-15 years. the
respondents were all in senior roles and were very
much involved in the work with the youth
demographic of the city of Karachi and its neighboring
areas.
Thematic Analysis
The qualitative research question explored in the
present study is that how the social workers are
influencing the youth of Pakistan and what kind of
challenges are central to the operation of the not-for-
profit organizations working in Pakistan. The content
analysis of participant interviews revealed six main
factors that included funding barriers, security threats,
political interference, communication issues, lack of
awareness, and gender bias in the sector.
The description of themes, categories, and sub-
categories are presented and unpacked through a
series of quotations and reflections on the participants’
interviews. The excerpts of the interviews were
corrected, for readability, where needed to promote
a better understanding by the readers without
changing the original meanings. Anonymity of the
study participants has been ensured by providing them
with code numbers as identifiers. As it can be seen,
there is a common overarching theme among the
answers of all of the participants of the study. A theme-
wise breakdown of these results is discussed as
follows.
Muhammad Mursaleen and Raminta Bardauskienė
6 Global Sociological Review (GSR)
Theme 1: Education Centric
Sub-theme 1: Nature of work
Category 1
The main area of the work for this sector involves
finding the children and youth in need of assistance and
support. For this purpose, we scan the streets, slums
and rural areas central to the areas under our
operations and help them in enrolling in our schools
and colleges.
Category 2
The main relevance of this sector of work is with
ending the illiteracy in the country. The sector is
working towards and is committed towards the
eradication of illiteracy in the country and mainly
focuses upon helping the youth in the slums and rural
areas to get quality education.
According to one respondent
“By encouraging the youth from these areas and
encouraging them to gain education we are helping them
change their lives and the lives of their families. The
vocational centers, colleges and secondary schools under
the banner of our support and being run on then mission
to enable the youth of Pakistan to become self-sufficient
and educated”.
Sub theme 2: Challenges
Category 1
Hurdles in Interactions
There is a huge problem of communication in social
work in Karachi. People from different ethnicities
come together in Karachi. They speak and understand
different languages as well. It causes issues for social
workers to convey their messages in a single language.
This problem weakens the impact of social workers on
Karachi’s youths, as most of them are unable to
understand their speeches.
The formation of a
community is difficult in Karachi, as youths come from
differing ethnic backgrounds. It causes them to create
sub-groups within the communities, which reduces
unity and consensus
Category 2
Lack of Security
Social workers continually face security issues in
Karachi. Religious extremists in Karachi pose as a major
threat against social workers. They often imply that
religious education is mandatory, while worldly
education is foul. Religious extremists also prevent
social workers from enhancing youths’ lives by
aggression.
Social workers are not given security by the
government. They have to pay hefty amounts to
private security guards, otherwise they must carry out
social work events without any safety. There is already
a lack of funding in social organizations, which further
contributes to the lack of security measures for the
workers.
Biased System for men
There is a systemic bias for men in social work. Men
are given better and higher paying positions in social
work as compared to women. Men take leading roles
in such situations as well. It reduces the interest of
female social workers in the profession.
Women are
oppressed in social work conditions. They are not paid
well enough, and are not brought to the frontlines in
terms of credits.
As discussed before, there are more
job opportunities for men as compared to women in
social work sectors. As a result, there are fewer
women and more men social workers.
Theme 2: Rehabilitation centers
Sub-Theme 1: Nature of Work
Category 1:
These centers deal with the addiction patients and
actively try to help the youth in being aware of the
harmful effects due to the usage of drugs. Social media
posts, seminars and other events are the main source
for generating awareness. Also, these organizations
lead recuperation centers where the addicts can
recover in peace.
Category 2
According to one of the respondents
“We offer secure and safe environment to the youth so
that they can recover, recuperate and get better. We
also offer volunteer programs to the aspiring medicine
students and other young adults interested in working for
a decent cause”
Sub-theme 2: Challenges
Category 1: Security
In terms of gender bias, it has been common for the
men to be appointed in roles that are considered
tough and rough. In a study by Ambrose-Miller and
Challenges of Social Work with Youth in Pakistan
Vol. VIII, No. I (Winter 2023) 7
Ashcroft (2016) identified power dynamics, role
clarification and culture as major challenges to the
social workers as members of the inter professional
healthcare. Similarly, in the context of the Pakistani
society there are certain roles that are appointed to
each gender. The drug addicts become violent and can
pose serious harm to the wellbeing of the female
workers.
Category 2: Communication
Communication is fundamental for resolving any issue
and yet it is one of the most frequent challenge faced
by the social workers from all aspects and various
sectors (Ambrose-Miller and Ashcroft, 2016, Alpaslan
and Schenck, 2012, Ruch, 2014, Khalid and Asad,
2019)
Theme 3: Social welfare Organizations
Subtheme 1: Nature
These are the NGOs that have provided care facilities
and ambulances for transference of victims of crimes
like physical attacks, robberies, rape, abuse, burn and
acid attacks etc. In an attempt to explain the working
of the NGOs from this sector.
Subtheme 2: Challenges
Category 1: Security
One of the main challenges to this line of work is
removing the hesitancy from the male and female staff
for dealing with the victims. It is understandable that
the nature and breadth of most of these cases that are
dealt by the social welfare organizations are against
women, girls and children, but in order to create an
inclusive society concerned for and focused towards
helping these afflicted people we need to disparage the
gender roles.
Category 2: Communication
There are a number of challenges faced by these
organizations. One of the main challenges are learning
to communicate with the abuse victims. These are
young people and their minds and bodies have already
been scarred due to the severity of the crime against
them. According to Ruch (2014), the communication
process should be thought over and humanized in
order to help them recover as soon as possible.
Theme 4: Emergency Response
Subtheme 1: nature of Work
Category 1: Domain
Help and provide assistance for the needy people of
the society. They are included among the first
responders and help the people displaced due to
disasters and any other issue find shelter, food and
water. The first responders are an important segment
of the not-for-profit sector and offer benefit to different
people. These mainly respond to emergency
situations and or disasters and provide help to the
displaced people.
Category 2: Involvement with the Youth
According to Khalid and Asad (2019) for necessitating
essential youth development, it is important that they
become part of the societal agencies and work for the
betterment and recuperation of the society. The
emergency and disaster response teams offer the
youth essential opportunities for societal benefit. Also,
most of the respondents revealed that they come
across the young people in many situations and offer
them effective chances to become a part of a greater
purpose.
Category 3: Threats and Challenges
One of the major challenges in this field is that the
people are unwilling to start a discussion on sensitive
topics, even in our arena of workers there are some
people who feel uncomfortable in being part of the
cases or discussions in sensitive topics. Also, these are
issues not just central to Karachi, but can be realized in
all of the areas of social work in Pakistan.
Theme 5: Women Empowerment and Health
Awareness
Subtheme 1
Category 1: Nature
This sector is mainly concerned with empowering
women and informing them of their basic rights. They
are provided with information related to
menstruation, sexual health, physical health, family
planning, basic rights, protection against abuse etc.
Category 2: Involvement with the Youth
The social workers from our divisions visit the areas
under our jurisdictions and go from door to door to
Muhammad Mursaleen and Raminta Bardauskienė
8 Global Sociological Review (GSR)
inform the women of these basic rights and
information. Also, we arrange camps, seminars etc. in
rural and urban locations. We also work through social
media and develop different campaigns for the sake of
our cause
Subtheme 2
Category 1: Communication
As it is among one of the most progressive issues being
raised and informed, the workers and organizations
are viewed with anxiousness. In order to overcome all
of the difficulties being addressed by the NGOs should
be to use efficient communication skills as they can play
a major role to motivate them to learn about new
things that is favorable for themselves.
Category 2: Challenges
The issues addressed by the women centric
organizations are often triggers for the societal
members and also the religious extremists. The
workers have to bear with harassment, threats to self
and family as well as threats to the audience that is
interested to work with these organizations and in
many cases in the city and countrywide can be seen in
which the workers in our field have been a victim of
targeted killing.
After critically evaluate the qualitative data-based
authentic outcomes from different social welfare
sectors within Pakistani state perspective, it becomes
clear that majority of them shown their experienced-
based reliable outcomes to exaggerate the number of
challenges which they faced when dealing with youth
welfare. Like the major sectors considered for this
essential research are related to education, social
welfare, humanitarian, women-centric, and
rehabilitation. All these sectors are somehow different
in their niche but somehow faced the same socio-
economic issues within the Pakistan state.
According to its first interview-question
outcomes, communication is the major issue faced by
majority of the social activists like the education
promoting NGO's managerial bodies stated that
different speaking languages and lack of proper
education among majority of its population create a
major issue for NGOs' workers to actively fulfill their
tasks.
The second open-ended question which majorly
based on exposing the security-focused challenging
situation of social workers that may create a major
issue in front of them to confidently accomplish all their
activities. Like according to education sector-based
social workers' opinion, the religious extremists
especially in the rural uneducated area caused a major
security issue in front of them to convey their
messages to those people. They majorly discussed the
Pakistani northern rural areas-based illiteracy in their
responses that till now education is considered as a sin
especially for girls. Such rural and tribal populations
carrying their own regional language and not
interested to give proper education to their children
that's why majority of kids becomes beggars, streets
kids, etc, and if any NGO is interested to change their
way of thinking then they start threatening its working
employees.
The third question is associated with exposing
gender-based issues and benefits faced by current
workers in the current diverse situation in which
majority of NGOs faced the gender discrimination-
based major issue in patriarchal society. Like according
to education sector-based social activists' point of
view, majority of the uneducated young females and
women are feeling more comfortable to talk with
female social workers as compared to males because
of their religious norms and values that make a
restriction on them. So, they majorly suggested the
female social workers must be appointed as teaching
role so that the confidence level and interaction of
illiterate females and women can be upgraded.
The fourth one is directly related to exaggerate
their economic and funding issues that they mostly
faced in Pakistan society. According to their response-
based analysis, it becomes concluded that all-around
majority of these youth development promoting
NGOs faced major financial issues in their efficient
operating activities in current diverse economic
situation of Pakistan. Like every NGO faced the
scarcity of funding and financial resources due to lack
of people's awareness and their interest to support the
NGO's working, even the Pakistani government is
unable to give proper moral and financial support to
such working social workers who independently work
on their own behalf. Like in the education sector based
working NGOs who need proper and regular funding
to fulfill the basic operations i.e., books, stationery,
teachers' salary, building and other related needs.
Especially, such kind of social working becomes more
difficult in rural and tribal areas where the religious
extremist community based patriarchal society created
many hurdles to demotivate the efficient working of
educational institutes.
Challenges of Social Work with Youth in Pakistan
Vol. VIII, No. I (Winter 2023) 9
In order to critically explored the last interview
question based authentic outcomes that is related to
expose the number of issues created due to political
instability in Pakistan and governmental restrictions,
then it becomes clear that majority of them majorly
faced the leadership instability based uncertain issue
that caused major chaos on their performance and
efficient performance. Like according to their
educational NGOs management's statement, they
mostly operate in the open location in rural and tribal
areas where the political unrest situation caused a
major negative impact on their activities by directly
hinders their developmental projects within this state
and takes their youth to remain unaware of the
substances that they are majorly trying to install in
them. This shows that how much it is difficult for them
to survive in that typical political ideology that majorly
worked to mitigates the influence of cognitive therapy
and the productive behavioral modification on youth.
Conclusion
After critically evaluate the current working NGOs'
management point of view regarding the number of
challenges faced in current Pakistani youth
development projects, specicially in Karachi, it is
concluded that majority of them majorly faced
language issue, gender discrimination issue, illiteracy
issue, religious extremism issue, security issue, lack of
funding issue and even also the political instability issue
within this state. In order to justify the problem
statement of this dissertation, five major sectors are
specifically considered to get the diversity-based
authentic outcomes like Education, Social Welfare,
Humanitarian, Women Centric, and Rehabilitation
sectors are majorly considered for accurate data
collection. Within this essential and authentic
dissertation, a qualitative research design method is
majorly considered in which different interviews are
conducted with major respondents related to the field
of education in which open-ended questions are asked
from them to gain their experienced-based reliable
outcomes. According to their responses, majority of
the education-promoting social workers faced
language issue, gender discrimination, lack of proper
funding, political unrest, and even a security issue in
their efficient working especially in rural and tribal areas
of north-west Pakistan. Well, majority of social welfare
majorly faced gender discrimination, diverse culture,
lack of political support and funding issues because
majority of such issues are associated with women and
children, but lack of their powerful position caused a
major barrier to proceed their cases. The third major
sector is humanitarian which is mostly neglected by
majority of political authorities and such lack of proper
funding caused a major hurdle for the sustainable
working of such NGOs. As far as the women-centric
organizations' performance is concerned, it becomes
clear that majority of patriarchal mindset individuals
created a majorly barrier to run these NGOs in a
more efficient way that result in lower funding, lower
awareness, and other different security issues. Last,
but not the least, the rehabilitation-focused social
working activities also faced a major lack of proper
funding and awareness among the rural and tribal areas
where majority of males are drug addicts. This shows
that overall, this dissertation is a productive source of
information to open the eyes of Pakistani authorities
and related local individuals to consider the youth
development-related issues and challenges which
majorly faced by the working NGOs, and need to be
overcome.
Muhammad Mursaleen and Raminta Bardauskienė
10 Global Sociological Review (GSR)
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