My friend Arshad Jamil is a mechanical engineer who lives in the US and is in his mid-eighties. He visits Pakistan regularly and offers his expert advice to several universities on an honorary/voluntary basis. Although he lives abroad, this engagement is his form of payback for the many opportunities this country has provided him over the years in the past.

The United Nations Volunteers (UNV) programme is a means of engaging people in tackling development challenges worldwide, and mobilises volunteers in 150 countries. Everyone can contribute their time, skills and knowledge through volunteer action, and their combined efforts can be a significant force for development.

In Pakistan, there is the Abdul Sattar Edhi Foundation, offering a wide range of community services, largely on a voluntary basis. Its impeccable credentials are difficult to match. There are several other worthy examples.

Arshad and I have been pondering on the subject of a mandatory community service, and we are convinced it can be introduced and made to work meaningfully in Pakistan. 

Mandatory community service for the youth can make a meaningful contribution to Pakistan and help the country combat its many fiscal and social woes

Thirty countries, including Turkiye, Singapore and Switzerland, require their young adults, upon completing their school or college education, to join a two-year service in the military. Switzerland even requires that all men go back for a month each year for a refresher. And this is a country that has not been at war with any country for the last 1,000 years! At least 75 other countries have some kind of compulsory service.

We are not proposing a mandatory military service for the Pakistani youth, but they should certainly have a two-year community service programme — for both men and women — upon turning eighteen or any time after, unless registered full-time at a university. Permission to embark on a professional career in the country or to go abroad should only be given once the two years have been completed.

Four categories of volunteers engaged in community service are recommended:

1. Education Volunteers, who would provide quality primary education and skills training, and help create a balanced mix for career development. 

2. Techno Volunteers, graduates of the best universities, who would focus on planning, managing and preparing training manuals, while rationalising perks and pensions. 

3. Social Volunteers, who would attend to curtailing population growth, address public health issues and provide cleanliness training. 

4. Agriculture Volunteers, who would guide farmers to reduce water consumption, while increasing crop yields and engaging in field-work at relatively low cost to the state.

The entire scheme should be legalised and enforced through an act of parliament.

But how will it work?

As a rule, university and vocational graduates will serve two years as volunteers, away from their home towns, possibly in another province.

The fiscal problems of the country being huge, of our making and unique, these young volunteers — who would otherwise leave the country to work abroad — can help mitigate some of our problems.

Unemployed young men and women, who often do not work after earning a college degree, will gain skills and experience for better opportunities, while also getting an exposure to the different cultures of the cities or provinces they are assigned to. 

Serving as volunteers is common in developed countries. The spirit of volunteerism and community service is inculcated from an early age in schools, with bake sales, window-washing, yard-cleaning and other tasks. Later, adults volunteer for some public service, such as tutoring, teaching sports, caring for the elderly, helping with fire-fighting and rescue services, etc. 

Why does Pakistan need a volunteer community service programme?

These volunteers can help address extreme fiscal problems as well as attending to issues that others have neglected, or failed to solve.

A snapshot of the numbers shows how alarming the situation is. We have high imports ($57 billion) and sluggish exports ($35 billion). Due to our high loan borrowings, our internal debt is Rs44 trillion and rising, while our external debt stands at Rs22 trillion and is compounding.

Our yearly revenue is only Rs9 trillion, while our interest payments stand at Rs7.3 trillion, leaving barely Rs1.7 trillion to run the country. This forces each government to borrow more and more.

The situation is made worse by the ‘brain drain,’ which sees graduates from our elite universities leaving Pakistan after completion of their studies. So do our trained and skilled craftsmen. Pakistan is deprived of these engines of growth and progress, while other countries prosper at our cost.

It costs Rs1.5 to Rs2 million to produce an engineer, and Rs0.5 to Rs0.8 million to produce a technician. This is paid through the sweat and toil of our poor, who have a right to ask for a payback. Payback is also due from the girls who get educated but don’t work. The investment in their education and training goes to waste.

What factors have contributed to our acute fiscal problems? 

Several factors have contributed to the situation Pakistan finds itself in. One of them is a large population, of roughly 250 million people, with perhaps the highest growth rate in the world.

It is made worse by unchecked and profligate state spending, with lavish perks and give-aways, (mostly) to government employees. Food production remains insufficient and unaffordable. Our outdated agricultural methods consume excessive water. Meanwhile, our housing and infrastructure is of poor quality. People cannot even afford proper clothes. Overall, the state of public health is poor, which results in low productivity. Moreover, while solar energy is available in abundance, we barely avail of it.

In such a scenario, the services of the volunteers may be utilised for the following:

Education volunteers can address low literacy and help identify and eliminate ghost schools. Most of our universities are not tuned to the needs of the country. There is no use creating a workforce with no usable skills.

Techno volunteers can work on the reduction of runaway fiscal drains, such as Pension Funds, numerous kinds of superfluous perks, allowances and facilities, which dry up scarce national resources.

Social volunteers can function as para-health workers, assist with vaccination drives and collect field data. They can help develop population awareness, reduce the growth rate and prevent the country’s population from doubling in 25 years.

Agriculture volunteers can assist in increasing agricultural productivity and yield per acre. (At present, Pakistan’s average yield is about half that of many EU countries). They can assist in minimising and retrieving irrigation water, which is presently wasted. They can also assist in creating agricultural co-ops and curtailing smog.

Looking ahead, we need to curtail fuel usage (gas, petrol and electricity). We should be ashamed at our blatant and profligate consumption of tea, a habit we can ill afford as it is based entirely on the import of tea. It’s about time we looked around to find an alternate home-grown beverage, thus saving perhaps one billion dollars annually.

In conclusion, one would say that the volunteerism being proposed will serve as a form of payback by our youth for the elite education they receive at state-subsidised universities, putting in two years as volunteers before they start expecting (largely unaffordable) comforts of life.

Does this not appeal to our intellect that a literate, skilled workforce, motivated by the energy of its youth, is more likely to understand its needs, select better leaders, bring up fewer but better educated

and healthier children, and ultimately lead to a more successful and happier life as proud citizens?g

 The writer is an architect and urban designer based in Karachi. He can be reached at mukhtar.husain@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, EOS, July 7th, 2024