Thought Behind Things · May 17, 2023
Pakistan's rural network reaches 56 million — and nobody knows
Shandana Khan and Meena Iqbal of RSPN explain how a 40-year-old community mobilization model has organized 8.6 million households across Pakistan — and why the government keeps forgetting it exists.
with Shandana Khan & Meena Iqbal
10 min read
From Moscow to Mardan: a childhood built for this work
The episode opens with Muzamil framing the conversation around two pressures bearing down on Pakistan simultaneously — an economic crisis that the UN projects could push five to eight million more people into poverty, and a broader regional shift that makes rural development not just a welfare question but a strategic one. To explore both, he brings in Shandana Khan, CEO of the Rural Support Programmes Network, and Meena Iqbal, Program Manager for RSPN’s nutrition program in Sindh.
Shandana’s early life is, in itself, a kind of accidental training for the work she would spend her career doing. Born in Rawalpindi to a family from Mardan, she spent her childhood moving across countries as her father served in Pakistan’s civil and then foreign service. She attended a Russian-language school in Moscow at age seven — “every subject in Russian” — before moving to Geneva, then Bangladesh, then Delhi, and finally Cambridge. The exposure was relentless. In Bangladesh in 1979, just eight years after the war, she found no hostility toward Pakistanis. In Delhi, studying political science at Jesus and Mary College, she found the academic atmosphere open and the cultural distance from Pakistan smaller than expected. “North India and Pakistan, especially Punjab and Sindh — this is very similar,” she tells Muzamil.
What the childhood produced was not just cosmopolitanism but a specific sensitivity to how people organize themselves under difficult conditions. The Soviet Union, she recalls, carried a cultural richness — ballet, puppet shows, ice circus — rooted in revolutionary values of equality and women’s advancement, even if the system ultimately could not sustain itself. That early encounter with the idea that a society could be deliberately organized around the welfare of its poorest members would resurface, years later, in the mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan.
The moment in 1985 that decided everything
Shandana did not plan to work in rural development. The decision crystallized during a visit to the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme in 1985, while she was still a student. She walked into a village meeting and saw something she had never seen before: senior management sitting on the ground in a circle while community members gave them feedback about what was missing in their lives.
“When I saw that,” she says, “I decided in 1985 that I had to come here and do this — because this was so extraordinary. These people were telling you themselves what they needed, and the program was basically supporting them. It was not saying: we know everything, we have come to improve your life, we will tell you what you need and how you need it.”
After completing her BA at Cambridge in 1990, she returned and told AKRSP’s head, Shoaib Sultan Khan, that she wanted to join. He pushed back — the terrain was difficult, flights were unreliable, electricity could be out for three days at a stretch. She read it as a challenge. He relented, and she spent four years based in Gilgit. She describes it as the best experience of her life — better than Switzerland, Russia, or India. She traveled alone into remote valleys, stayed with field teams, and watched communities build irrigation channels and plant cherry orchards with their own hands. The cherries now sold across Pakistan trace back to rootstock AKRSP brought from France and grafted onto local trees in the early 1990s. “I am talking about ‘94. This is 2023. When I go back now, I remember that all of this started from such small things.”
Social mobilization: a method, not an invention
A significant portion of the conversation is devoted to explaining what “rural support” actually means — and what it does not mean. Muzamil presses Shandana on the intellectual origins of the model, and she is precise about it.
The principles of social mobilization — how to organize people, how to conduct dialogue, what conditions to set before a program begins — were not invented by AKRSP. They were developed by Akhtar Hameed Khan in Comilla, then East Pakistan, in the 1960s, and applied in urban Karachi through the Orangi Pilot Project. Shoaib Sultan Khan, who would go on to build AKRSP, was a student of Akhtar Hameed Khan. “He keeps saying: I am just a copycat. I didn’t invent this.”
The model has a specific logic. Before any program begins, a community must form an organization, elect an honest leader from among themselves, include women, include the poorest members, and open a savings account. Every household writes a micro-investment plan. Only then does the RSP begin to work with them. “These are the conditions: if you want to work with us, you have to do this first. Show us you can do it. And then we will tell you what we can do.”
The discipline extends to how field workers behave. Staff are trained not to eat or drink tea in the homes of poor communities — not because of arrogance, but because it places a burden on people who can barely afford it. If someone at the back of a room is silent, you ask them directly rather than letting the village elder dominate. “There is a whole way of interaction.”
Muzamil draws a parallel to the polarization visible on social media, where urban Pakistanis encounter rural or peri-urban voices and respond with contempt rather than curiosity. Shandana agrees: the same principle applies. You cannot change people by screaming at them or defining their reality for them. You work with them, not against them.
Treating 33,000 children: what PINS actually does
Meena Iqbal takes over to explain the Program for Improved Nutrition in Sindh, which operates across ten districts with European Union funding and the collaboration of Sindh’s Department of Health.
PINS has three components. The third — nutrition-sensitive — addresses the indirect causes of malnutrition: water and sanitation, kitchen gardening, fish farming, and livestock. Diarrhea in children under five, caused largely by unsafe water and poor hygiene, fell from 32.6% to 17.4% over four years in the program areas. Women in the 15–49 age group have increased the number of food groups they consume by roughly 20%.
The second component — nutrition-specific — is direct treatment. RSPN trained 791 women from the communities of Dadu and Jamshoro to screen children using mid-upper-arm circumference measurement. Those women referred severely malnourished children to 93 outpatient therapeutic treatment sites, each covering one union council. Children admitted to the program receive RUTF — ready-to-use therapeutic food, a peanut-based supplement with added vitamins and minerals — calibrated to their weight. They are enrolled for two months with follow-ups every two weeks.
Meena gives a concrete example: a girl named Suhana, fifteen months old, whose father was a daily-wage worker. At admission, her mid-upper-arm circumference was 8.5 centimeters — severely acute malnutrition. At discharge, two months later, it was 12.1 centimeters. “The impact is very quick,” Muzamil observes. “This is emergency treatment,” Meena confirms. Across Dadu and Jamshoro, the program has treated 33,000 children to date.
The first component of PINS is advocacy — informing government decision-makers about the scale of the problem and the multi-sectoral response it requires.
Family planning: demand exists, service does not
Later in the discussion, Muzamil raises population management — citing Pakistan’s fertility rate and the arithmetic reality that GDP growth below population growth means the average person is getting poorer in real terms. He asks Shandana how rural communities actually respond to family planning.
Her answer is unambiguous. The demand is there. In a ten-district program running since 2017, contraceptive use rose from 11% to 52%. “Why? Because awareness came about which method to use, where to find it, and the service reached people.” The bottleneck is not culture or religion — it is the absence of supply.
She describes a visit to Rawalpindi’s Dhoke Rata area, where RSPN runs husband schools funded by UNFPA. A young cleric stood up and told the men present that he himself had three children, spaced deliberately, and that their religion instructs them on how to raise children well — not just how many to have. He then pointed out that most of them recite the Quran in Arabic without understanding it, and suggested they read a translation. “I told him: come with us across Pakistan and deliver this message.”
In Balochistan, RSPN once prepared 12,000 couples for family planning. There was no service available for them. “The government has no money to buy contraceptives. Look at the priorities.” Shandana is direct: family planning, alongside education, is the most important intervention available. The government’s messaging on it is nearly absent.
8.6 million organized households — and a visibility problem
Muzamil pushes on what he sees as the central paradox of the conversation: RSPN has built, over four decades, a network of organized community organizations with direct outreach to 56 million people. It was the first point of call for COVID rations and flood relief. Yet most Pakistanis have never heard of it.
Shandana does not deflect. “We are the biggest humanitarian network in the country and, as you said, we are not very good at projecting this.” She acknowledges that after every major disaster — the 2005 earthquake, the Swat IDP crisis, the 2010 floods, the 2022 floods — RSPN is on the ground first, but the public communication of that work is weak. There is no streamlined channel for Pakistani private donors to contribute and receive feedback on where their money went.
The structural argument she makes is sharper than a fundraising pitch. The network of 8,600 community organizations is, in her framing, a hardware layer. Any government service — health, education, nutrition, forestry, family planning — can run through it as software. If a district forest officer wants 50,000 trees planted, the community organizations can mobilize the labor. If a health department wants polio vaccines administered, the organization heads will bring the children. “It’s not that the government doesn’t know. During COVID, the first point of call was RSPs and NGOs: how do we get this to the poorest? We had the list. We had the organized outreach.”
What is missing is a regulatory change that makes this the default mode of service delivery rather than an ad hoc arrangement dependent on individual district officers who happen to be motivated.
Islands of success, not a national formula
By the end of the conversation, Muzamil asks Shandana to look forward to 2050. She does not offer optimism as a performance. She repeats a phrase she attributes to her chairman, Shoaib Sultan Khan, who learned it from Akhtar Hameed Khan: build islands of success.
“You can’t change the world, but you can do what you can. These RSPs are, at least in the communities, islands of success. If these islands increase and they network with each other, and if the government supports this, it can be transformative.”
She draws the Bangladesh comparison carefully. BRAC reduced average family size from six children in 1971 to two today — not through coercion but through a government that was fully on board with the narrative and provided services while NGOs provided outreach. “I am afraid this is missing in our country.”
The economic situation makes the urgency acute. Preliminary analysis in South Balochistan’s Kech district shows that households whose incomes rose by 11–16% through RSPN programs are now barely keeping their heads above water after inflation running near 50% and the 2022 floods. “The good work that communities did — then we were assessing how many latrines damaged, how many water schemes damaged.” The gains are fragile. The infrastructure, if the government chooses to use it, is not.
Full transcript
स्लामा कावती ना आज रात welcome back to another episode of thought behind things. आज महाष्टम बाजूद है दो बहुत ही खास मेहमान लेकिन उनको introduce कराने से पहले मैं अगर बताना चाहूं कि उनको बुलाया क्यों हमने? देखिए Pakistan में बहुत सारी चीज़ें होनी है. एक तो majorly हमें पता है कि economic crisis हमारे सर पर खड़ा हुआ है जिसकी वजह से UN के एक report कहती है कि up to five to 8,000,000 people potentially poverty में जाएंगे आने वाले वक्त के अंदर. बड़े मुश्किल हालात हम देख सकते हैं तो हमें तो यह भी identify करना है कि how can we potentially deal with that situation. उसी के साथ साथ I have always mentioned कि you know there is a shift happening regionally, you know globally and उस shift के अंदर मैं पिछले दिनों देख रहा था कि जो हमारे Asia के अंदर बहुत सारे different different regions बनते हैं और almost अगर आप मीना region देखें तो that's a $5,000,000,000,000 economy. आप south Asian region देखें तो that's a $5,000,000,000,000 economy and then Asian also is similar and as these sort of regions you know begin to connect together जैसे हमने बात की पहले भी episodes के अंदर के एक sort of regional coordination होते हुए हम देखेंगे, regional blocks बनते हुए देखेंगे. तो उसके अंदर you know I thought के we'd have someone जो के नासरे who's worked with rural communities but also has experience of understanding how the region is and and how they can potentially collaborate together, to bring our people out of poverty and gradually grow in a more sustainable pace. With us today, we have Shandana Khan who's a chief executive officer of rural support programs network and then we have मीना who is the coordinator and particularly is focusing on I believe malnutrition
within I'm program manager for PINZR to actually program for improved nutrition intent which is one of the projects. Very cool. Guys
thanks so much for being part of the show. Thank you. शानदारा मैं आपसे start करूंगा. Tell me a little bit about where were you born and early life आपने कहां पर गुज़ारी?
Thank you. सबसे पहले तो आपका बहुत शुक्रिया और आपके viewers को सलाम. मेरा ताल्लुक district मर्दान से है. मेरी पैदाइश तो रावलपिंडी की है. My parents both come from मर्दान. तो मैं मर्दान में रही नहीं हूँ. Early life में मेरे वाले civil service में थे. तो मैं पिशावर में थी और जब मैं बहुत ही छोटी थी वो north विजिरिस्तान में political agent थे और और जगहों में भी थे. ये तो sixties की बात है और फिर 74 में उन्होंने foreign service join किया. उनका बड़ा शौक था, अम्मी का शौक नहीं था और उनकी पहली posting mosque को थी. उस वक्त तो USSR Soviet Union था. Right. तो जब मैं सात आठ साल की थी तो हम वहां चले गए और क्योंकि वहां उस वक्त एक ही international school था तो उसमें जगह नहीं थी. तो मैं एक रूसी school में मैं दो साल पढ़ी थी. अच्छा, local रूसी language के अंदर? रूसी language, हर एक subject रूसी में. तो वह बड़ा मुश्किल था. कुछ याद है आपको अभी उस language का या मौसम? थोड़ी थोड़ी याद है और अजीब बात यह है कि मैं पढ़ सकती हूं मगर मैं जो पढ़ती हूं वह मुझे समझ नहीं आती. अच्छा. तो दो साल वहां थे. उसके बाद उनका transfer हुआ UN mission जनेबा में स्वच्छलन में. तो हम उनकी family थे. हम उनके साथ वहां गए. वहां फिर अंग्रेज़ी international school में मैं और मेरी दो बहनें हैं. हम हम पढ़ें. रूस के बाद तो जनेबा तो ऐसे लगा के क्योंकि उस वक्त बहुत ही वह जैसे कहते हैं अंग्रेज़ी में behind the iron curtain. मतलब आप सात साल की उम्र में दोस्त भी बनाते हैं तो अगर वह आपके घर आते हैं तो वह उनको question किया जाता है. अच्छा. आप वह तो बहुत ही सख़्त वह था. मगर culturally बहुत आगे in terms of human values के simplicity, humbleness
बहुत ही exceptional. अब सुना है बहुत बदल गया जब तक जब से capitalism आ गया. अच्छा. हां तो I mean यह वाली side आपको दिखाई नहीं जाती. Am sure सख़्त है लेकिन जो आपने वो वाला बोला कि human value, human वो वो what was that like?
मेरा ख्याल है कि यह जो पूरा पूरी उनकी history थी revolution की तो the history of revolution was about मतलब के बराबरी हो, औरतों की तरक्की हो, जो सबसे गरीब है उनको अपने हक में ले तो वह इस किस्म, इस किस्म के values उसमें आ रहे थे. मगर ज़ाहिर है वह communism ऐसे system था जो वह sustain नहीं कर पाया और फिर वह गौरवचौव के बाद वह तो पूरा वह टूट गया. Right. गौरवचौव और Afghanistan और और सब कुछ. मगर यह है कि मुश्किल मुश्किल वक्त था. हमारा exposure तो हम तो छोटे थे. बहुत ज़्यादा था कि ballet dancing, ice circus, puppet shows जो बच्चों का वह होता है तो उस हवाले से बहुत ही rich अभी भी.
Cultural है ना? बहुत ही rich cultural है. Was it as cold जो हमें देख के लगता हां it was very cold. क्योंकि sixties के अंदर तो I am sure heating उस तरह से तो नहीं होगी जिस तरह से बात करके ज़माने में होती है. It was very cold मतलब एक दिन मुझे याद है मणफी पच्चीस degrees था centigrade और खैर वह हम आधी हो गए वह सब कुछ पहन के और हम तो बच्चे थे भी used to go out. हां हां. So सीधा USSR से निकल के आप the capital of capitalism में चली गईं जहां पे पूरी दुनिया की capitalist का पैसा park होता है. How was that sort of change?
Change तो था, school change था, अंग्रेज़ी थी. मुझे अंग्रेज़ी में लिखना नहीं आता था, मुझे रूसी में लिखना आता था तो मेरी बेचारी अम्मी घर बैठकर तो मुझे सिखाती थी कि यह ऐसे. कल uniform नहीं था, वह एक shock था क्योंकि रूसी school में तो आप ऐसे बैठते हैं कि right आपका हाथ left हाथ के ऊपर आप left हाथ ऊपर नहीं कर सकते थे. अच्छा. और आप सीधा बैठे पूरा दिन तो यहां पर मतलब गोल दायरे में मतलब circles में लोग बैठे हैं, uniform नहीं है. मैंने सोचा कि यह यह क्या है? कुछ अजीब सा मतलब अचानक वह discipline चला गया. यह असल में मेरे साथ American school था Moscow में उसमें जब मैं transfer हुई दो साल बाद यह उधर मेरा reaction यह था. तो हां ऐसे ही था फिर हम adjust करते गए इतने मुल्कों में रहे हैं कि बस adjust करते गए. जबकि Switzerland के बाद और कहां पर फिर? Switzerland के बाद मेरे वाले को transfer किया गया वह सफ़ीर थे बांग्लादेश में. तो यह था nineteen seventy nine. तो बांग्लादेश में तो मैं school में थी.
भी बहुत अच्छा रहा. हमारी तो school life थी. दोस्तियां अगर अच्छी अच्छी रही considering कि I mean eight, nine years since independence तो was there any resentment, was there any aggression?
कुछ भी नहीं बल्कि हम हमें वालिद ने कहा कि भाई आप बाज़ार में जाएंगे तो आप कोशिश करें कि उर्दू ना बोलें. तो हम जाते थे तो देखते थे कि शलवार में Pakistan बड़ा friendly था ऐसे कुछ नहीं था. उस generation के जो लोग थे वह उर्दू बोलते थे. अब भी जो है वह तो नहीं हमारे जो दोस्त थे हम उस वक्त दस ग्यारह साल के थे तो वह वह नहीं बोलते थे. अच्छा. हमारी school life थी और हम games में और पढ़ाई में हम उसमें
busy थे. Right. बहुत अच्छा रहा कुर्तिक. विचारे main connected to all of these friends you made in different countries. खैर उस time पर Facebook और WhatsApp तो नहीं होता था. But did you ever reconnect with them later on in life? तो अपने Facebook की बात की तो बहुत
अरसा बात कुछ को Facebook पर ढूंढा और कुछ के साथ मैं connected हूं. इसके बाद हम Pakistan हैं और फिर हम दिल्ली गए. अच्छा. तो दिल्ली में जो दोस्त थे तो क्योंकि I was older college तो उनके साथ मेरी connection है. Unfortunately वह आना जाना नहीं है. अगर मिलते हैं तो कहीं बाहर कभी अगर paths cross तो तब मिलते हैं मगर उनके साथ है correct. Delhi कौन से year था? 1984 onwards चार पांच साल. कैसा था वह? बहुत अच्छा था. Again हम student थे.
और high school करी थी वहां से उस time? High school तो हां
असल में यह था कि यहां पर मैंने एक Jesus and Mary convent Murray से senior Cambridge किया और उसके बाद मैं सीधा वहां BA में गई, college में गई Delhi university Jesus and Mary college. तो that was very good और मेरे parents बड़े clear थे कि आपकी जो life है वह student life है. आप अपने दोस्त बनाएं, आप मुल्क में travel करें, आप इस जगह के बारे में सीखें. वहां भी culturally बहुत rich मुल्क है. कोई ना कोई talent होता है तकरीबन हर घर में. कोई instrument कर रहा है, कोई कथक dance कर रहा है, कोई गानों की training कर रहा है, vocalist. तो we had a we had a good time it was very nice. Yeah four five years in India that must have had a profound you know impact on एक तो था छह महीने रहे साल भी रहे लेकिन चार पांच साल तो एक बड़ा clear time होता है हाँ. एक इंसान की ज़िंदगी में. इतना different नहीं था यहाँ से, मतलब मैं अब उसके बाद गई हूँ वागा आप cross करे, एक difference नज़र आता है कि आपको ज़्यादा खवातीन मिलती है motorbikes पे, public transport पे, दफ्तरों में, तो इतना difference होगा. Otherwise culturally वगैरह. कोई है मतलब ज़बान वो है और there is no big difference really. Interesting.
Is that, is that just for North India as I have heard as you go towards the South तो culture चाहें evolve होता जाता है वहां पर. South is very different. South में तो फिर आप वह prefer करते कि आप अंग्रेज़ी बोलें. आप हिंदी या उर्दू या हिंदुस्तानी वह ना बोलें.
तो South is very different. North और North India और Pakistan,
खास्त और Punjab, सिंधु this is very similar. Right, right. So, you did your BA from India. Yeah. Completed that from from there? Yeah. And then what was next?
So then I had applied abroad. So फिर मैं Cambridge University गई UK. तो then I did a second BA. From there. वह भी अच्छा था मतलब it was a it was a world exposure और.
और वह BA was it specific to a certain you know let's say major or social
political science. Right. हाँ दिल्ली में भी I studied political science और दिल्ली में मेरा ख्याल एक जो encouraging बात यह थी अब मैं पाकिस्तानी थी और एक और पाकिस्तानी लड़की थी और हम partition pre post partition study कर रहे थे. मैं कभी कभी थोड़ा वो होती थी कि पता नहीं कि यहां पर क्या होगा? मगर मैं आपको बताऊं कि बहुत open atmosphere था. अभी मुझे पता नहीं क्या situation है और tutorials का system था कि आप ऐसे लिखें आप one to one professor के साथ discussion करें. दुनिया की किताबें हम पढ़ते थे उसमें मैंने उस वक्त 84, 85 ऐसे कुछ नहीं देखा कि इस किस्म का उसमें कुछ narrative हो जो bias narrative हो. क्योंकि घर में हमारे father was ambassador in India. ज़ाहिर है Pakistan's policy what was happening in India इतने ख़बार थे. We discussed issues at home all the time. It तो was a, it was a quite an amazing experience. जो
आपने you know political science उस time पर choose किया, was there a thought behind it? या was it more like अच्छा घर के अंदर एक influence था?
Maybe it was, I never really thought. मतलब I knew I couldn't do economics. अच्छा. My mind doesn't work like that. I was not interested in history because history is a bit sorry to say about the past. Right. I was not interested so much in literature. Maybe you are right, maybe it was कि household में यह था कि never And I never thought of
and Cambridge was three years? Cambridge was three years. Right. So you graduate and you come back straight to Pakistan या आपने वहां पर भी कुछ थोड़ा सा कुछ? नहीं, मैं वापस आई nineteen ninety में
spare कमरा है वो PTDC में रहते थे. Right. और spare कमरा है तो आप यहां रहो. तो एक जगह वो जब गए एक गांव में जहां जो गांव की जो तंजीमें बनती है जो आख़ाख़ान rural support program का तरीके कार्थ है कि लोग पहले मुनज़म हो तंजीम बनाएं. आख़ाख़ान for those who don't know अगर आप थोड़ा explain करते हैं कि what's आख़ान rural support program? So आख़ान the आख़ान is is the head is the imam of the शिया इस्माइली sect and he has large large development foundation is called the आगाखान development network AKDN AKDN में दुनिया के एक expertise आती है और उसमें मुख्तलिफ इदारें हैं, उसमें health service है, education service है. यह जो आप देखते हैं कि हुंजा में female literacy is almost hitting 100% this is the आख़खान's contributions. उसमें rural support program है. आसान rural support program AKRSP. तो AKRSP जब AKDN ने शुरू किया गिलगित बल्तिस्तान चित्राल में तो वह 82 में शुरू हुआ, 85 में मैं गई तफरी के लिए और उधर मैंने देखा कि श्वेप साहब और उनकी जो team है उनकी पूरी management वो बैठे हैं ज़मीन पे वो ऐसे एक circle में बैठे हैं और गांव के लोग उनको feedback दे रहे हैं कि यहाँ पे ये मसले हैं होनर नहीं है, information नहीं है. यह चीज़ें तो वह वह जब मैंने देखा तो actually मैंने 85 में फ़ैसला किया कि मैंने यहां आकर यह करना है क्योंकि यह मुझे इतना ज़बरदस्त इतना वह amazing लगा कि यह तो लोग खुद अपने आप अपनी मदद आपके तैद बता रहे हैं और यह program उनको basically support दे रहा है. उनको यह नहीं कह रहा है कि हमें सब कुछ पता है और हम यहां आने हैं ताकि आपकी ज़िंदगी में जाएंगे. और हम बताएंगे कि आपको क्या चाहिए और किस तरह चाहिए और वह चाहिए. It's it's more of a again with the word support it's more of an empowerment program
where you are helping them take control of their own lives rather than just going in and defining and then being that person कि यार देखो हम कितने fit हैं कि हमने आपकी ज़िंदगी अच्छी किया और और इतने सालों में अब मैंने देखा है कि
लोगों से जो ideas आते हैं तो लोग कभी कभी हमसे बहुत आगे होते हैं. अगर हम कहीं फ़ंस जाएं तो हमारा system यह है कि dialogue का बातचीत का कि अगर हम कभी फ़ंसे हम जाकर बैठते हैं कहते हैं कि देखिए यह यह मसला है या यहां पर आपने यह मसला वो किया है उसकी निशान देखिए तो आपका क्या ख़याल है कैसे करना चाहिए? क्या करना चाहिए? इसको AKRSP ने किया उसके बाद बाद और आठ नौ RSP वन गए और जाहिर है जो urban कराची में है और रंगी में वह तो अख्तर हमी खान ने किया था जो हमारे बड़े गुरु हैं कि भाई यह तरीके कार है और वह आते थे हर साल AKRSP और हम मैं तो उस वक्त intern थी चार हज़ार रुपए महाना तनख्वाह थी और हम गांव में उनके साथ जाते थे कि देखते थे कि यह यह कैसे मतलब इनका क्या तरीका है? इनकी interaction क्या है लोगों के साथ? तो बहुत time हमारे साथ गुज़ाते थे. Interesting.
So 1990 में फिर then you came back and then you went to your current chairman. Or फिर tell me that story what happened then? तो मैंने कहा कि श्वेत साहब मैं तो graduation
हो गई तो अब मैं आपके साथ काम करना चाह रही हूँ तो उन्होंने कहा कि तुम कैसे करोगी? वहाँ पे तो बहुत मुश्किल इलाका है, वहाँ तो flights कभी कभी नहीं होती हैं वहां तो तीन तीन दिन बिजली नहीं होती है और तुम तो पता नहीं कहां कहां रही हो और तुम मैंने सोचा यह बड़ी अजीब बात है क्योंकि पहले यह मुझे encourage करते थे अब मुझे तो एक मुझे लग रहा है कि उन्होंने as a challenge यह किया. तो मैंने कहा कि भाई मुझे try तो करने दें. तो उन्होंने कहा कि ठीक है वह बलूचिस्तान से group आ रहा है क्योंकि बलूचिस्तान rural support program तब बना था. तो तुम आ जाओ. तुम उनके साथ बैठ जाओ. तीन हफ्तों का course है. तो तुम आ जाओ तुम तुम देख लो पहले. तो फिर मैं गई और मैं आपको बताऊं उन तीन हफ्तों में मतलब जैसे कहते हैं it all went over my head. पता नहीं मैं क्या expect कर रही थी. मैं तीन हफ़्ते बाद मैं इतना वह overwhelmed थी कि मैं वापस आ गई और मैंने घर में कहा कि मुझे नहीं पता कि अगर यह मैं कर सकती हूं. तो फिर मेरी अम्मी who is very tough, she said तुमने फिर क्या करना है? यहां इस शहर में रहकर जहां लोग disconnected हैं rural area से, जहां लोग responsibly feel नहीं करते कि मुल्क को वापस कुछ देना है तो तुम क्या करना है?
They are offering two very very cool trainings. Capital market fundamentals जिसमें आप stocks और mutual funds में invest करना सीखेंगे और understand करेंगे कि आखिर एक company के अंदर क्या ऐसे fundamentals होते हैं जिनको आपने देखा होता है to figure out कि वह एक अच्छी company है to invest in और दूसरी training है technical analysis master class जिसमें आप सीखेंगे कि किस तरीके से हम different tradable assets like commodities, forex, stocks, crypto के अंदर थोड़े से पैसे लगाकर बहुत ज़्यादा पैसे बना सकते हैं. Personally यह training मैंने भी ली है and it's absolutely phenomenal. The link to the trainings are in the description below. Check them out and become financially healthy and now back to the podcast. अच्छा that is the most fascinating thing I've ever heard in this country because I've spoken to a lot of girls who had to fight their parents कि हमने travel करना है या हमने communities को support करना है और parents generally इस zone में होते हैं कि भाई तुम basic standardized कोई नौकरी पकड़ो just stay around us. As a society we become inherently selfish, right? And and and we अंदर से उन parents के बिचारों की नियत वगैरह सही होती है लेकिन उनको इतना डर होता है अपने बच्चों के लिए कि वह कहते हैं कि यार you know what like just stay around us don't do anything very courageous like like this. And here I'm hearing the opposite. She is actually convincing you to go out there and and work on on all of these things. Do you think that that's one of the reasons why, like, were your parents always like that?
Yes, मतलब when we finish college after all they sent us abroad हम वहां तीन साल रहे हैं. जो भी opportunity थी अगर वह hobbies थी, अगर वह travel था, they always encouraged. ऐसे कुछ कुछ वो नहीं था. सिर्फ एक दफा हम backpacking कर रहे थे तीन बहने इटली जा रहे थे उस वक्त world cup था तो अब्बू ने कहा कि भाई आप रोम आप रोम क्यों जा रही है वहां पर तो football world cup है और वहां पर तो भाई. Hooligans हैं और. Hooligans हैं तो आप ऐसे करें कि आप Rome को end में करें. नहीं तो वह कभी भी कोई restriction नहीं थी. कभी भी नहीं. Right. हां एक दफा वह थोड़ा परेशान हुए जब मैं 2,015 में Afghanistan गई दो साल की. हां वह तो कोई भी होता to be very वह फिर परेशान हुए और वहां मतलब काफ़ी भी हुए और मैं तो उनको नहीं बताती थी वह TV पर यहां आ जाता था. तो वह मैंने उनको बहुत परेशान किया. We'll we'll talk about Afghanistan. Tell me, so so your
mother encouraged
you and then so you went back? So I went back and I spent four years.
Four years with आहखान? Yeah, in गिलगित. I was गिलगित based. Very cool. What was that like? What were you doing?
Was the I think it was the best experience of my life. अच्छा, better than Switzerland and Russia and India. Oh, much better. Well you know एक तो अपना मुल्क था. दूसरा यह है कि वहां का जो culture है it is there it is so civilized you know there is a higher level of literacy. It's beautiful. वह जो पहाड़ है अब तो लोग बहुत जा रहे tourist वगैरह जा रहे हो उस वक्त कुछ भी नहीं था. तो मुझे it's safe. मतलब मैं अकेले जाती थी field में, मैं अकेले जाकर पता नहीं कौन सी कौन सी valleys में, field teams थी वहां उधर मैं रहती थी. Facilities वह not good at a young age तो adventure तो करना चाहिए ना. तो not good facility यह नहीं कि हर जगह hotel है वह तो अभी है. लोगों का response जो था ना that was most encouraging. मतलब उन्होंने अपने हाथों से यह irrigation channels बनाए, उन्होंने plantation की, यह जो अब लोग जाते हैं हुंजा, यह पहले ऐसे नहीं था. अब जितनी वहां greenery है, तो यह ऐसे नहीं था. जितनी ज़मीन आबाद हुई, जितनी plantation हुई, जितने फ़ल फलदार्द cherries, cherry root stock AKRSP लाया था France से. जो local cherries पर graft किया उसको. अच्छा अच्छा. यह आज जो cherries यहां मिलती हैं यह उस वक्त की है. फिर कोई system नहीं था कि cherry को market करें. हां. तो मुझे याद है कि मेरे colleague जो हैं इस हार हुंजाई जो वहां के हैं उन्होंने पहली दफा एक crating business बनाया बाज़ार में वहां crates नहीं बनते थे. अभी crates में cherries डालो फिर लोग कहते हो नीचे कैसे ले जाएं क्योंकि यह तो इतना लंबा रास्ता है फिर हमने एक वो freezer truck जो है क्या कहते हैं उसमें refrigerated उसमें वह किया फिर हम we realize कि यह तो बहुत महंगा है यह तो ऐसे नहीं होता है तो इतने experiments हुए जो अब देखिए अब मैं I am talking about '94 this is 2023. Yeah. अब जो मैं जाती हूं तो वह 30 मुझे याद आती है कि यह इतने छोटी चीज़ों से यह सब कुछ शुरू हुआ. और वह impact आपको पर नज़र आता है जो कि a A lot of of ways नज़र आता है ना. अब हर एक चीज़ है कि RSP का impact नहीं है. Of course. और भी चीज़ें हैं. The thing is कि देखें
वह भी तो होता ना butterfly effect भी तो होता है कि maybe it's जो अभी बहुत सारी और चीज़ें हैं जो कि directly AKRSP की नहीं है but अगर वह AKRSP ना होता तो शायद यह भी ना हो पाती. Right? मतलब हमारे अभी GB के colleagues हैं चतराल के जो मुझे कहते हैं कि हमारे जो वालदेन थे तो eighties nineties में वह इन गांव की तंजीवों के member थे और
उसकी वजह से हमारे अपने जाती ज़िंदगी में यह यह अब्दीलियां आई और हमने बड़े होते हुए यह सारा देखा है. That is the most amazing thing and now we have come to the point where we are working for these organizations. So this is, it's thirty years but it's a it's a change.
Fascinating. हां. Four to five years you were there and then what happened after that? So then I
thought कि बस I need a change और family ने भी कहा कि बस अब आ जाओ पहाड़ों से. So I came to Islamabad और यह मैंने एक consulting firm के साथ काम किया, enterprise development consulting, which was owned by तारिक हुसैन and, मलिहा हुसैन और consulting एक साल मैंने किया उसमें मुझे मज़ा नहीं आया. मैं चाह रही थी कि program design हो, on the ground implementation हो, उसके मैं results देखूं. मैंने सोचा कि consulting में आप ज़्यादातर ठीक है, आप project design वग़ैरह करते हैं मगर आप उसके responsible accountable नहीं होते हैं. तो after a year I went two तारीख़, होसैन and six तारीख़, I I don't want to do this and he said कि अभी तो तुमने सीखा है, साल हो गया अब तो तुम्हें मतलब तरीक़ा आ गया. मुझे कोई satisfaction नहीं है. तो फिर मैं I went to join सरहद rural support program in पिशावर.
तब तक वह बना था. So यह by that time यह basically individual similar एक AK आहानी rural support program की तरह
बाकी जगह भी बनना शुरू हो थे सिंध and सरहद. हां, तो पहला replication था सरहद rural support program. Right. वह 89 में उस वक्त chief minister थे हयाद शेरपाउ साहब. उन्होंने श्वेप सुल्तान जो general manager थे एक RSP के बुलाया कि आप एक RSP को यहां ले आए ताकि यहां काम करें क्योंकि चतराल में तो एक RSP था चतराल KP का हिस्सा है. तो श्वेप साहब ने कहा कि आप अपना program बनाएं क्योंकि हम दिलगीत में बैठकर यहां program तो नहीं चला सकते. तो उस वक़्त कुछ USA के पैसे थे तो सरहद rule support corporation उस वक़्त कहते थे अभी सरहद rule support program है. उस वक़्त वह बना और काफी जो इक्यास्प के लोग थे तो चार पांच लोग वो उसमें गए उसको चलाने और वो जो चार पांच लोग थे तो ये मैं बताना भूल गई कि initially जो rural support का जो pilot था वो Pakistan academy for rural development पिशावर से शुरू हुआ.
वो एक semi government body है. जो कि this is before AKRSP? Before AKRSP.
अच्छा. So in nineteen seventy two, seventy three, श्वेब साहब was director of this thing called PAD, this institution called PAD. And there he started a project called the Dao Zai project. Dao Zai में he basically experimented with all this and all this that he did was nothing new that he invented and he keeps saying this he says I'm I'm just a copycat he says I didn't invent this. This was all done in कुमिला then East Pakistan by अख्तर अमीत खान in in the sixties. So basically the principles of what we call social mobilization. ये लोगों को कैसे मुनज़म करना है, किस तरीके से dialogue करना है, कौन सी चीज़ें हैं जो ज़रूरी है for example अगर आपके सौ घर आने हैं तो आप उनको कहें कि भाई हर घर से एक एक फर्द एक तंजीम में आएगा, आप एक अपनी अपना एक इदारा बनाएं. आप औरतों को शामिल करें. अगर अभी करें अगर बाद में करें वो और बात है. आप जो सबसे गरीब है उनको शामिल करें. आप एक leader चुनें जो ईमानदार है वो आप चुनें खुद कि हम में से ये ताकि अगर bank का काम है अगर कि government department का काम है और आप अपना एक account खोलें जिसमें आप जितने भी पैसे आप महाना save कर सकते हैं अगर वो सौ रुपए है अगर हज़ार रुपए है हर एक जो member है वो बचत करें क्योंकि बचत एक अच्छी चीज़ है. तो यह थे यह शरायत है कि अगर हमारे साथ काम करना है तो आपने यह यह करना है पहले. पहले आप हमें दिखाएं. आप यह कर पाएंगे कि नहीं? और फिर हम बताएंगे कि हां हम क्या कर सकते हैं और आप वह हर घर अपना plan बनाता है जिसको हम micro investment plan कहते हैं कि हम यह यह काम कर सकते हैं. तो actually this thing has come this is not a new thing this thing has come from centuries ago. I don't know much about it, but apparently the the German Raifaisen Cooperative Bank had these principles. The Samuel Dong movement in Korea had these principles. And then in our region यह तो कुमिला था then East Pakistan और फिर the for the first time urban Pakistan was औरंगी pilot project and rural was AKRSP was दाऊदज़ाई actually and then AKRSP. औरंगी pilot who built that? So, औरंगी pilot project was setup and manage by अख्तर अमीत खान. अख्तर अमीत खान तो एक ऐसी हंसती है that he is you know an exceptional man and he was actually श्वेप सुल्तान's you know teacher. Right. He is the one who taught him कि इस तरीके से यह होता है. Right. तो we were taught principles. We were not taught कि irrigation canal कैसे बनाना है? We were taught लोगों के साथ काम किस तरीके से करना चाहिए? For example आप field में जाते हैं आप please वहां खाने मत खाएं. क़रीब लोग हैं आप बैठकर आपने ना चाय पीनी है आपने ना खाना खाना है और शुरू में लोग offend हो जाते हैं कि यह क्या क्या मतलब है? कभी कभी हम cup चाय पी लेते हैं मगर यह है कि लोग कहते हैं कि अब क्या मतलब है यह तो हमारे रवायात और यह और वह और आप दो तीन दफा यह करें तो वह फिर वह बंद कर देते हैं. तो एक तरीका होता है वह करने का. अगर अगर कोई ऐसे लोग हैं जो बिल्कुल पीछे चुप बैठे हैं, उनसे पूछना बजाइए कि जो लंबदार है वह बातें करें या कोई. तो यह पूरा interaction का तरीका होता है. Interesting. दूसरा यह कि हम कभी कोई ऐसी मतलब एक process है. जो लोग कर सकते हैं उसके ऊपर हम build करते हैं. Right. अब अपने ideas ले जाना
ठीक है क्योंकि हम चाहते हैं कि ज़्यादा exposure हो, तरक्की हो मगर यह है कोई कि जो जैसे लाखे का है वही अपने आपको सबसे अच्छा समझ सकता है ना
team में और मर्द थे और एक नौजवान ने उठकर कहा कि हवा तीन की program की यहां बात नहीं करनी. तो हमने कहा ठीक है अगर आप नहीं करना चाहते हैं तो यह आपके बारे में है तो हम नहीं करेंगे. क्योंकि कभी कभी frustrating होता है कि खासतौर के यह खवातीन के program ज़्यादा तेज़ी से क्यों नहीं चल रहे हैं? हर एक चीज़ में यह इजाज़त जो है ना इजाज़त लेना क्योंकि ख़वातीन की के अपने ideas होते हैं, ख़वातीन की अपनी identity है मगर यह है कि वह इतना उनको ज़्यादातर मैदूर रखा गया कि अगर exposure ना हो तो फिर कुछ पता नहीं होता है. नहीं. तब ऐसे cases हुए ख़ास्तों जब मैं KP गई और मैं बैठी और मेरा experience northern areas का था. जहां पर बहुत ज़्यादा बनिस्पत KP की तालीम ज़्यादा है, exposure ज़्यादा है और मैं जब पुछी थी कि हवा तीन से कि आप क्या करना चाहती हैं? और वह मुझे देखकर कह रहे थे कि हमें तो नहीं पता. आप हमें बताएं. तो यह एक मतलब हालांकि I am I am from KP मगर यह मुझे वह लगा कि यह यह हम आगे कैसे बढ़ेंगे? और then I realize कि I went to a program कि वह बीस साल से चल रहा था और वहां पर situation बहुत different है और अभी आज अगर मैं जाऊं KP में जहां तकरी तंजीमें है हवा तीन की तो उतनी आगे गई हैं. एक
sustainable step by step होता है. आपने एक बड़ी interesting बात यहां पर बोली जो कि rural support में तो definitely applicable है but मैं internet के ऊपर आजकल बहुत ज़्यादा देखता हूं कि people see differences, people see क्योंकि internet के ऊपर everybody is there, right? And and you go on Twitter and you go on Facebook and you find people who may not have had the opportunity, exposure, education as you and you look at them and you're like कि क्या जाहिलों वाली बात कर रहे and you start screaming at them. But यह बड़ी एक important चीज़ है to train the urban people as well where they can be sensitized to interacting with a lot of people from the Peri urban or rural areas. वह जो difference है ना जो polarization create कर रहा है क्योंकि urban वाला जाए उसको लगता है उसकी value system बड़ा फ़र्क़ है और उसको constantly सिखाया गया है कि जो alternate value system है वह बहुत बुरा है, वह जेहालत वाला है that's going to lead to bad outcomes and अगर आपने उसको अपने पास on par लेकर भी आना है तो you can't you're never gonna do that by screaming or by pushing them away. You're gonna do that by beginning to understand them and then beginning to onboard them in a friendly way rather than a sort of a you know us versus them way. जो कि मुझे आपकी एक चीज़ से बड़ा वह हुआ कि you have to work with these people not against these people or these ideas. मुझे अगर आप थोड़ा सा बता सकें so सरद में how, सरद rural support में how long were you there for? I think I lasted two years. अच्छा and then what did you do? And then
श्वेप साहब said to me कि भाई अब यह SRSP बना है, एक RSP है, NRSP 91 में बना, federal government ने पैसे दिए. यह एक और point है कि जो पांच बड़े RSPs हैं तो या तो federal या provincial governments ने उनको support किया है. This is a big thing क्योंकि उन्होंने एक RSP को देख के कहा है कि भाई यह पूरे मुल्क में हमें चाहिए. तो शायद साहब ने कहा कि भाई यह तो काफी बढ़ गए हैं, यह बड़े program हैं. हमें यह करना चाहिए कि एक इदारा बनाएं जो इनको coordinate करें. तो मैंने कहा कि किस किस्म का इदारा? तो उसने कहा I don't know कि क्या उसका नाम होगा मगर मैं यह यह यह चाहता हूं. तो फिर मैं वापस इस्लामवाद आई और एक proposal लिखा. काफ़ी लोगों से बात भी की तो फिर RSP network दो हज़ार में ऐसे बना. अच्छा and then you've been with that network ever since? तो network में सोलह साल बाद मैं बाहर गई, मैंने masters किया और दो हज़ार पंद्रह सोलह में मैं Afghanistan गई जहां मैंने Avakhan foundation के साथ काम किया. अच्छा, पहला तो मुझे बताया masters किस चीज़ में किया आपने? और कहां से किया? Public policy, Johns Hopkins University.
Right. Washington में यह था उनका school of advanced international studies. ज़्यादातर. Size जिसको कहते हैं. And यह जो Afghanistan में था, tell me about that. Mean 2015 is peak war happening. There's a lot going on. What
was? तो अभी और अभी जो दो हज़ार इक्कीस में हुआ तो मतलब you cannot talk about Afghanistan without your emotions being like an ocean. Right. एक तो I had a big advantage. I am पश्तून पश्तू speaking. तो मैं तो बहुत comfortable थी. कभी कभी मैं सोची थी कि मैं INGO में क्यों हूं? क्योंकि मेरी movements restricted है और मैं अगर और foreigners के साथ हूँ तो मुझे ज़्यादा वो होगा. मैं target वनऊँगी. I could just be one of the. Yeah लोग कुछ. बहुत अच्छा था. लोग बड़े receptive थे. From the point of view कि मैं एक अकेली खातून थी ऐसे कभी I never felt unsafe. हां unsafe यह था कि अगर कहीं हमला हो, कहीं bomb blasts हो आप गुज़र रहे हैं या आप उधर बैठे हैं वह और बात है. मगर culturally very safe, beautiful country, very nice
people. Tell me about the people because a lot of people say कि of the अफ़कान population has been born in war in a way. You know, first it was the Soviet, then it was the civil war, and then, you know, the war on terror. And I I don't know what that does to a nation. Right? Like, how do you when your entire reality is कि हां जंग चल रही है, कुछर से बाद भी जंग चल रही है, कुछर से बाद भी जंग चल रही है, how did you find those people?
You know? So, you know, but what amazed me was how they were so, civilized and soft spoken. I think it's a cultural thing, you know? But I thought that maybe people who are subject to so much violence would be in in daily life would be more aggressive. Yeah, a little bit desensionized No, I mean you walk into a बाज़ार in पिंडी and people are 100 times more aggressive you know. Really? So when I used to come home, I didn't even want to go out. I used to tell my mother, I said, I would rather be there, you know. And where were you in Afghanistan? I was in Kabul. Right. But we worked mainly in North Afghanistan. But, you know, it's a very it's a very complex country because the fact is it has been through all this and also sometimes people view things in a very short transient term. अभी इतने मेरे दोस्त यहां Pakistan से आए हैं, निकले हैं, गए हैं. Most people I know are gone from there right? जो educated थे, जो professionals थे, जो NGOs में थे, जो खवातीन थी NGOs में और क्योंकि यह सिर्फ कुछ ऐसे में लोग हैं जो तीन तीन दफा मुल्क से भागे हैं. मतलब आप तीन दफा घर छोड़े, आप तीन दफा बच्चों को किसी और school में डाले, आप तीन दफा किसी और मुल्क में आकर you start from zero. I mean it is just a nightmare and somehow they managed to do it in a very dignified graceful way. But the thing is now it's it's very difficult and and it's very very sad जो वहां पर हुआ है. Right. और जो अभी उनकी वहां policies हैं मतलब यह तो बिल्कुल मतलब ना उनके culture के मुताबिक हैं, ना उनके उसके मुताबिक हैं. तो जो भी करना है उन्होंने ख़ुद sort out करना है इसको.
Do you think they will be able to? Do you think time will heal them?
I am hoping. I think so. The problem is कि वहां इतने मुल्कों की interference है. This is the problem. Mhmm. तो अगर
If you let them, figure themselves out and evolve out of it, they might just do that faster. But that will not happen. Mhmm. From the superpowers to the lesser,
countries, there's interference.
Yeah. Mhmm. Yeah. Tell me about, so so to run 1516, you were in Afghanistan, and then you came back, and then you've been with, the RSPN since then? Yes. So tell me about some of the programs that you guys have worked on over the last twenty years.
So I think one important program we worked on, and and the the larger programs have been funded by the European, delegation to Pakistan. I mean, I I find they've been an exceptional donor and supporter because they actually saw in the field, in Sindh, women's groups that were working under another program. And they contacted us and said, you know, this this is what we want to do. You're right there with the communities. You are local. You're the biggest local, development program in Pakistan और, they designed a program with us. यह ऐसे नहीं था कि यह donor कुछ करना चाहता है तो हमने apply किया तो हमने. They sat with us and designed economic empowerment programs for K P सिंध बलूचिस्तान. They were big investments you know I think it goes probably close to €300,000,000 over the past twelve fifteen years और coverage भी बहुत ज़्यादा थी. मतलब you know millions of people in each each province. तो वह जो तंजीमें थी existing उनके through यह program गया. और कौन से areas में काम किया? तो सिन में दस districts में आठ districts में काम किया और सिन में थोड़ा exceptional है क्योंकि सिन में उन्होंने सिन government का program देखा जो वहां government और RSPs चला रही थी और उन्होंने कहा कि यह हमने इसमें invest करना है. तो ज़ाहिर है sin government ने कहा you are welcome. तो आठ जिलों में उन्होंने इसको replicate किया और फिर government ने कहा कि जो बाकी districts है उसमें हम यह करेंगे public fund से. अब यह वाहिद इस वक्त
सुबह हुकूमत है जो public fund से एक grassroots हवा तीन का program चला रहा है सबसे बड़ा economic empowerment program. सिंध I feel like is very misunderstood by पाकिस्तान at large. You know, you got a lot of urban myths about sin and, you know, what happens there. Can you shed some more light? Because you work there with the rural communities. What? क्योंकि we we do understand that there's a lot of poverty there. वही again पानी नहीं है वहां पर तो वह automatically Punjab के पास तो एक added advantage है ना? कुछ भी ना हो, दुनिया तबाह हो रही हो, तो पानी आता रहता है, बारिशें होती रहती है, आना आ जाता रहता है, खाना पेट भर जाता है. सिंध and मल्लोचिस्तान both. How do you see those communities? What has your experience been? We've all being from Islamabad urban में हमने तो बस यह देखा कि जी बहुत poverty है, desert area है, गुर्बत है, malnutrition है, so on and so forth. What has your experience been?
तो देखिए जहां पर गुर्बत है वहां पर तो communities, तमाम communities across the board they are receptive, right? And अगर आप इस सवाल के साथ जाएं कि आप अपनी हालत बेहतर करना चाह रहे हैं तो कहीं पर भी ये लोगों ने ये नहीं कहा कि नहीं और फिर हम पूछते हैं कि भाई आप करते क्या हैं? अब आप बताएं इसमें बेहतरी कैसे आ सकती है? कुछ ज़्यादातर ज़्यादातर हम जो existing काम है क्योंकि लोग या तो किसान है, औरतें माल मवेशी संभालती हैं, छोटे enterprises हैं, छोटे. तो उसके ऊपर हम build करते हैं. तो ऐसे कोई मतलब वो नहीं है कि वो कहेंगे कि ये तो हमें समझनी है ये बड़ा मुश्किल है ये कैसे करें? वो ऐसा ऐसा step by step वो है. मगर sin में मेरी colleague यहां है मीना और क्योंकि sin sin की stunting और malnutrition के बहुत बातें होती है और उसमें मेरा ख्याल है मीना थोड़ा हमें बता सकेंगी बेहतर कि कैसे हम यह काम करते हैं और इसका impact कैसे हुआ है? For example diarrhea in children caused by mainly by water and sanitation. Diarrhea has since we started in four years time reduced from thirty two point six percent to seventeen point four percent in children under five. This is a big thing क्यों पानी की schemeएं हुई हैं health education हुई है हाथ धोएं चीज़ें behavior changes को कहते हैं so that you know would bring stunting down. फिर 15 49 years reproductive age women they have started eating better क्योंकि हमने एक integrated approach लिया है कि आप kitchen garden आप सब्ज़ियां उगाएं. आप वहां जाएं पर सब्ज़ियां कभी उगाई हैं? नहीं, बाज़ार से लेते हैं. Right. Right? And I compare to And they are able to because वहां पर again मुझे climate का इतना idea नहीं है कि उस climate में they are able to grow vegetables or they are able to grow I think जो बड़ा challenge है ये सबसे गरीब लोग हैं उनके पास ज़मीन नहीं होती. Right. तो जो घर के इर्द गिर्द है जैसे थोड़ा बहुत सारे कोई भी patch अगर मिल जाता है तो वहां पर. इतना फिर जहां पे नहीं है बिल्कुल हमने कहा कि बस आप बनाए baskets बनाए आप छतों पर रखें आप यह करें. तो यह यह तो बड़े issues है ना कि अगर लोगों के पास ज़मीन नहीं है. मगर these women have started eating more balanced food from the different food groups. So we have seen you know about you know 20% increase in in the food groups that are consumed by by women. It's a very slow thing you know. It's very very slow. कुछ जगहों में बहुत मुश्किल है जैसे हमने कोशिश किया कि latrines बनाएं. Latrine uptake जो है मुझे पता नहीं it's very very slow. I think because एक तो when we started the the rupee went down so fast कि there was not enough money budgeted for each latrine. Secondly, it's more a behavior change thing. We could not do it free. तो उस पर थोड़ा हमने struggle किया है but I think let मीना shed more light on this. Hello,
hello everybody. So the thing is शंदाना was talking about pins. Pins I would rather talk about pins as a whole. Pins क्या है? What is it I sound will talk about that. As शंदाना was also telling that European Union has been supporting us for a lot of project pins was all is also program for improved nutrition and scent. Right. It's also one of the major projects that, European Union has funded for us. Right. So, and for that government have scinth, Department of Health, and their one of their component accelerated action plan, which was actually focused for malnutrition. They have supported us. We have done this with their collaboration in 10 districts of SIND, this project. So, program for improved nutrition in SIND basically has three component. The one that Chandana was talking about is the third component of pins which actually sees the basic two things that it looks at it is wash practices which is water sanitation and hygiene and also agriculture and food security. जैसे कि अभी शंधाना में था water sanitation and hygiene उन्हें safe water की excess हो उनके पास. उनके पास safe hygienic condition में like defecation के लिए possibility हो कि वह कर सकें तो there were latrines that were made at several places. Kitchen gardening was done and also fish farming was also introduced at a lot of locations. And livelihood livestock was also provided to some of the groups that, were working over there. And then after pins three, we have pins two, which is nutrition specific. Since this project is for malnutrition, a program for improved nutrition incense, we are catering children and beneficiaries who are malnourished. So pinch three is nutrition, sensitive, and pinch two is nutrition specific. Okay. Since yeah. Let me explain that, because I I can understand it. It's a bit hard to understand or, you need some clarity on it. So is nutrition sensitive, as we have already talked about it, caters with the aspects that affect malnutrition indirectly. Like, for example, if you're providing them fishes to if you're asking them to do fish farming, there are they have fishes, very close by. It's not this that they would be going out and purchasing that fish. They have it at their home, outside their home. They can consume it, which is a very good source of protein and other nutrients. Right. And, also, if we have, like, kitchen gardening, they do have access to multiple vegetables. If one, if there are 10 households in one community and they have different small spaces around their houses, one is growing one vegetable and the others are growing a different vegetable. And they can sort of trade it between themselves. Yeah. Exactly. That so what we focus on is a balanced diet, which is one of the components that we that is focused for malnutrition. So this is how we are providing them balanced diet, in case of, nutrition sensitive activities. If we talk about nutrition specific, which is pinched too, nutrition specific is basically the treatment for malnutrition. Right. So in I am basically manager for nutrient... Nutrition specific. We are providing treatment. We are actually it, again, nutrition specific also has some components which I can talk about. So we are providing our services, in the community. We have actually at present, they are closed. So, so we trained we provided livelihood to seven ninety one women from the community, and we trained them on screening the Malnares children. They went into the community. There was a target area, attachment area that was provided to these seven ninety one women from दादू and जमशोरो, from these two districts, Dado and Jamshoro. They went into the community. They screened the children using the, mid upper arm circumference. So and after that, they used to refer those children to the treatment sites, which, again, in case of, like, pinch two was in Dhadu and Jamshoro. So one of the target of our project was to, establish 93 OTP sites with our outpatient treatment, therapeutic treatment size sites for pinch, for severe acute malnourished children. So we established those as a part of this project and we also established two sites for children
who were coming with complication who required inpatient treatment right right, it is case में वो कर क्या रहे होते हैं वो basically उनको specific diet दे रहे होते हैं to make sure कि उनकी जो calorie intake है वह is more than or is there required amount या उसमें medication होती है किस तरीके से है? I'll tell you that. So the thing is when a child comes to the OTP,
so we they are measured again at the OTP by the nutrition assistance to make sure whether they are malnourished or not. Once they are sure, they admit them. They enroll them to the project. And then they check their weight, and according to their weight, there's a product, RUTF, ready to use therapeutic food, which is very widely used in the world and a very good supplement for this condition, severe acute malnutrition. So, it supports the child. It's basically made with peanuts, and some other nutrients are also added to it. So, that product, is given to them according to their weight and the condition of, malnourishment that they are in. So, and they are enrolled for two months. They stay within our program for two months. There's a and they come for follow ups after every two weeks, which is we understand since all, since the people are in difficult situation, it's really hard to approach the, the OTP sites, which is one OTP site per UC. UC is a union council, So it's not very accessible by the people. So if we do understand and and if they cannot come, we even ask them for follow-up in one month. And according to that, RUTF is given to them. So this is the product that we are providing over there. If they are coming with any other difficulty, there are some basic medication medications that are given to them along with our UTF.
Right. मुझे अगर थोड़ा सा आप बता सकें, I do know that you guys have certain examples as well. Just to give better context, कि वह actually होता क्या है? You know, the particularly pins two के अंदर जो आपकी, you know, program चला है उसके कोई examples वगैरह होकर बता सके? Okay. I can give you, I can, like, I have an example of a girl, सुहाना,
whose father was a daily wages worker. So she was enrolled in our program and she was 15 old at that time, one year and three months. And at that time of admission, her measurement mid upper arm circumference which I was telling actually there's a their arm is measured from the middle. Basically वही देख रहे हैं कि आपका arm कितना Exactly. हुआ I'll, once we are done with this I can explain to you what malnutrition is and what we are checking. So, yeah, so she came in and she, her middle upper arm circumference was 8.5 centimeters at that time only, which is really severe. And then she stayed in our program for about two months. And at the time of, discharge, her mid upper arm circumference was 12.1. Right. Which was very encouraging. Within two months? Within two months using Yes.
So this is how this is basically So the impact is very quick. Mean, it's not like if I'm skinny, I have to go to a gym for five years before I can add any centimeter.
The thing is this is emergency treatment. Right. For since SAM is severe acute malnutrition condition, which requires emergency treatment, and this program is actually dealing with the these, pin stools dealing with And these are this this is hardcore nutrition. This is not steroids or anything of that sort. No. No. It's only vitamins, minerals, and a peanut base of peanuts. Very cool. And, also, in case of this thing that I'm telling you about the OTPs, the outpatient therapeutic site, We established 93 across, Dadoo and Jamshoro, and those were, for that, our partner was PPHI, People's Primary Healthcare Initiative, which is also which is working across Synth very largely. One of the, I would say, strongest organization after government of SINTH, Department of Health in the in SINTH. So they were very good supporters, and their support has actually made this possible that we have we are able to treat thirty three thousand children during this time of our project so far in the Adhwa and Jamshoro. Very cool. And then you talked about PINs one as well. Yes. What's that? So program for improved nutrition intent, as I said, that's three components. PINs one is one of those. It's amazing that we are going, like, three two one rather than one two three. But the thing is, one is advocacy related to advocacy and policy. Because PINS program for improved nutrition and scent, PINS provides a three sixty degree approach to malnutrition to actually catering this. So as I said, that three is dealing with sensitive, which are which is affecting malnutrition indirectly. Two is dealing with, specific strategies, so which is dealing with treatment of the emergency cases. And then in case of PINs one, we are trying to inform the government, we are trying to inform the key decision makers that this is the situation, this is what is required. A multi sectoral would rather be required even after this three sixty holistic approach of pins. There we need to include much more in in to actually deal with malnutrition. Makes sense. So, yeah. So they, pins one actually works in policy and advocacy.
Makes sense. शांतना, if I were to ask you particularly, was listening to मिफ्ता Smile recently. He's doing these seminars on reforming Pakistan. One of the things that he's really championing, I feel like which niche should have been talked about but unfortunately isn't a lot in Pakistan. You know, is population control or population management if you would call it. और उसके अंदर you know bird spacing की बात आती है उसके अंदर you know यह बात आती है कि Pakistan में currently I believe we are at one four point three or something like that. You know, birds per per woman जो कि fertility rate चाहिए. So जिसको अगर आपने for example Pakistan का GDP देखे ना तो हम almost on average two to 3% grow करते हैं जो कि real terms में growth नहीं है because your population is growing more than what your GDP is. What a lot of people don't realize is कि your your your GDP has to basically grow more than your population for actually the people to end up being wealthier than they originally are year on year. And this is a very core fundamental thing जो कि जिसके बारे हम ज़्यादा बात नहीं कर रहे हैं, you know, we're talking about malnutrition, we're talking about lot of these problems जो कि directly connected हैं the fact of what we are producing. अगर नहीं अगर हम बच्चे बनाए जा रहे हैं और हम enough produce नहीं कर रहे हैं तो then we are going to continue to you know deal with these problems. How has your experience been you know working with the rural community? क्योंकि काफी दफा यह कहा जाता है कि a lot of this population growth is stemming from the rural community. मैं एक study भी पढ़ा था कि how evolve किया है दुनिया में, you know, reproductivity. वह था कि पहले वक्तों में जो है वह rural communities के अंदर because health के मस्ले थे और चीज़ों के मस्ले थे तो they would have a lot of children who would work in the fields but then as the world evolved life expectancy grew, people moved to urban areas, cost of living became much much higher. तो लोगों के बच्चे का मनाष्य रोगेंद्र started investing on those children to actually be more educated and and and and grow themselves. How has your experience been working with the rural and the peri urban and then overall उस्तनाही communities, regarding, you know, population management?
So, you know, about a year ago, the ex head of the largest NGO in the world, the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee, BREC. He was in our office. And I learned from him, and we were all there, that in 1971, when the country was created, the average child per family was six, and the average child per family today is two. And we said to him, how did this happen? And he said, because the government was on board and supported us fully. The government had the narrative, you know, lesser children means more prosperity, right? And we were providing the outreach and the government was providing the service. I'm afraid this is missing in our country. मतलब सुना एक ज़माने पर कोई high level family planning की कोई committee या commission बना, I don't know really what that does. हमारा जो experience है जो मतलब उसका scale काफी मेदूद है वो तो बड़ा positive है. हमें ठीक है थोड़ी कोशिश करनी पड़ती है कि आप उल्लेमा के साथ बैठें, आप leaders के साथ बैठें जो community में हैं, आप मर्दों के साथ बैठें. ख़वातीन का तो demand है, ख़वातीन तो you know और वहां पर इतना positive response आता है और हम हैरान होते हैं कि यह जब इतना positive response है तो हो क्यों नहीं रहा? Firstly service नहीं है. अब हम एक project चला रहे हैं दस जिलों में दो हज़ार सत्रह से चल रहा था और उसमें जो contraceptive use है वह ग्यारह फीसद से 5652% तक आई है. मतलब this is a huge increase. क्यों? क्योंकि लोगों में awareness आ गई कौन सा method use करना है, कहां पर यह method मिल सकता है और लोगों के पास service पहुंची है. But you know अभी I was talking to my colleague who manages this program. क्योंकि मर्दान में भी यह program था मर्दान सभा भी में. कि वहां पर कैसे response है? Response तो अच्छा है मगर वहां हकूमत के पास पैसे भी नहीं है to buy contraceptives. अब आप देखें priorities क्या हैं? Priorities क्या हैं? मतलब यह इस मुल्की priority है ही नहीं और मतलब दिन ब दिन लोग बढ़ते जा रहे हैं और आपने तो आशी situation देखी है. तो family planning में तो I think this is the first thing
with education but this is the most important thing. Family planning के ऊपर काफ़ी तारे लोग कहते हैं कि वह, you know, there is a religious sentiment that's being that gets invoked कि नहीं नहीं जी यह तो बस यह आला ताला के ऊपर है, वही करते हैं. Have you worked with the religious leaders on this and what's what's their feedback, man? We always include religious leaders. The other day I was in रावलपिंडी
in Dhokrata, and, there was a what we are doing is, it's a UNFPA funded that, and we work with the government, population welfare and health departments that we create what are called husband schools. So awareness amongst men, and they were young and old husbands. And and the Molvi Saab there was a key motivator. He was quite young himself. He got up and he said, मेरे तीन बच्चे हैं, I have three children. I had one after two years, one and a half years, I had another and third one and now this is it. And then he said to them that your religion also tells you how you are meant to bring up children and what sort of life they are meant to have. And what was most interesting कि उन्होंने कहा कि आप लोग तो कहते हैं कि मज़हब यह लिखा है मगर आप तो अरबी में उसको पढ़ते हैं और आपको तो अरबी समझ में नहीं आती. तो आप तर्जुमा तो पढ़ें कि उसमें क्या है? तो ऐसे जो लोग हैं मैंने उनको कहा, मैंने कहा आप हमारे साथ पूरे Pakistan में आएं ताकि आप यह message लोगों तक पहुंचा पहुंचाएं. सब demand बहुत है जी, service नहीं है. एक जमाने में बलूचिस्तान में बारह हज़ार couples हमने तैयार किए for family planning and there was no service. You
mentioned कि service exist नहीं करती and particularly top down वह ना शायद understanding है ना वह है. You have this incredible network and tell me about पहले तुम मुझे यह बताएं कि आप लोगों का सोचो यह network है across all different platforms. How many people are you reaching out to? How many people are essentially are you connected to? And then how closely do you work with the government? Because if you've been able create what you've been able to create over the last three or four decades, this is incredible, right? Like this is just अगर आपने what what you're saying is कि जी आप बिल्कुल arteries के अंदर जाकर you can target the right individuals and bring ground up change in a lot of areas to be very honest. Pakistan की जो pulse के जो सारे major problems आप identify करते और फिर आप सोचते यार how do I even begin to मैं तो urban में बैठा हूँ how do I even begin to change the mindset of the the masses, the rural masses. But you now actually have the highway, effectively the information highway. Is this being used by the government?
तो जैसे अपने highway का तो we often say जो मिसाल हम use करते हैं कि एक एक soft एक hardware बना है जो ढेई तंजीमे हैं छह लाख से ऊपर 56,000,000 people direct outreach it has been since 1982 and it's organized. यह नहीं कि आप आप जाए आप जाएं आप एक group के तंजीम के head को phone करें वह सबको इकट्ठा करेगा उनका system है उनके records हैं यह सारी चीज़ें. तो in that hard way you can put any app तो आप education करें उनके साथ, आप health करें उनके साथ, आप nutrition करें उनके साथ. मकसद इसका यह था कि हुकूमत के जो departments हैं, खा वो forest हो, agriculture हो, health education कि वो इन तंजीमों के साथ directly काम करें. अब सबसे बड़ा challenge यह है. कभी कभी जब project होता है तो वह करते हैं और district level पर काफी positive मिसाले हैं. अगर वह individual पर पर based है, अगर district forest officer या district education officer if they are keen on it, वह फिर they will put that effort. हम चाह रहे हैं कि government अपनी regulations बदलें और कहें कि यह जो तंजीमें हैं, जो RSPs ने बनाई हैं और RSPs को तो ज़्यादातर government ने बनाया है. तो कमा कम इनके साथ आप काम करें और यह नहीं कि यह extra काम है. अगर आपका budget दस हज़ार रुपए है to do family planning और आप जाएं उस उन तीस गांव में वह तमाम लोग इकट्ठे कर लेंगे उसकी जो motivation है वह हम कर सकते हैं. अगर आपने COVID polio vaccine करना है आप जाएं उन गांव में उन गांव के जो तंजीम के heads हैं वह तमाम बच्चों को ले जाएंगे वह आपको facilitate करने. आपने पचास हज़ार दरख लगाने हैं जो अभिसिन में और बाकी जगहों में भी अभी ये MOU sign हो रहे हैं पहले भी हो रहे थे कि आपने पचास हज़ार दरख लगाए हैं तो यह तमाम वो है तंजीमें हैं यह नहीं कि forest department ख़ुद लगाएगा. वह लोग तमाम लगा सकते हैं. तो government को facilitate भी करना है और government को accountably भी रखना है. वह जवाब दे भी हो. तो हमारी तो simple यह request है कि government जिस तरीके से service deliver करती है वह बदल दें. यह ना करें कि सिर्फ़ जो गांव का head है उसकी ज़मीन पर improved wheat लगाएं. जो ग़रीब लोग हैं उन तक तो पहुंचना है ना. तो I think this is the biggest challenge और यह मुश्किल काम नहीं है. It's not difficult to do because it is done in many places मगर यह ad hoc तरीका है.
हां. Make sense. एक element जो मुझे I am very curious हमारे यहां ज़ाहिर economic हालात आपने देखे हैं और unfortunately वह seems like कि वह थोड़ा और बुरे होंगे before we can begin to see things getting better. You're looking you're basically connected to the rural communities who are also effectively the most मतलब सबसे ज़्यादा poverty में भी unfortunately वही होती हैं, right? So एक तो मेरा सवाल यह है कि how much does जो आपके यह income support programs हैं और जो rural support programs हैं government के अपने इसके साथ आपका जो population है वह कितनी ज़्यादा intersect करती है? Do you lison with the government जब हमने देखा COVID के time के ऊपर handouts की बात आई जब हमने देखा कि अभी recently you know आटा distribution की बात आई, इस तरह के areas के अंदर are you able to particularly आटा के अंदर there were some a lot of administrative issues that could have been potentially handled much much better. तो उसमें किसी के साथ आप liaison करते और दूसरा मुझे यह बताएं कि how do you see because you work with these people, work very closely with them. दिन्यानवे बड़े किस्म के programs का सुना हमने सुना कि अच्छा जी मुर्गी दे दें सबको तो वह जो उनके protein का problem solve हो जाएगा. Different different ideas आते रहते हैं. मसला यह है कि urban के लोग जो ideas define कर रहे होते हैं वह basic दुनिया के best university से पढ़कर आए हों. They have very little to no understanding of what really what's what's the reality on the ground, right? And and and what could potentially be much more sustainable? In terms of income, how do these communities work and have you work there to be able to upgrade their social mobility? जो हम बड़ी बात करते हैं कि China ने नौ सौ million लोगों को poverty से निकाला. उसका बस वह यही तरीका है कि अच्छा जी eventually CPAC आएगा, factoryयां लगेंगी फिर ये लोग factoryयों में जाएंगे फिर पैसा आएगा कुछ हो सकता है? यह ground up भी हम उसके ऊपर काम कर सकते हैं.
So you know when China did what it did it first equalized socially. Right? And then it came down top down hard that one child per thing. Now we cannot do this here. Right? So we can't compare to China. This is just way beyond our thinking. And we may not even want to do that, right? यहां पर one important thing to keep in mind is that we mostly work with the poorest people. This is a very different story from working with a farmer who has 500 acres, right? So the literacy rates मैं आपको बताऊं sin में जहां हम काम कर रहे थे the the literacy rate of women was maximum at 20% in a district. They had no mobility. The landlessness was 95%. Now then you think ok what do we do? You were laughing at मूर्गियां but actually it came comes down to this. आप क्या कर सकते हैं? हमारे पास दो मूर्गियां अगर हमने दस रख ली तो हम अंडे तो बेच सकते हैं we can earn this or we can consume. हमारे पास एक बकरी है अगर दो बकरियां हैं तो आप अगर loan दे तो literally this is how step by step step it can move from the poorest who are earning may be 15 to 25,000 a month. This is it. You know when we do when we mobilize and mobilization is key without that you can't work with individual households. तो हमने देखा है कि जो गरीब घराना है जो इस इस bracket में आ रहा है. यह यह जो है BISP के scorecard के मुताबिक निश्चिल उसमें है bracket में है. तो आप organize करें, आप हुनर सिखाएं, skill दें. आप छोटा कर्जा दें और तीन से पांच साल में उनकी जो ज़िंदगी है वह बेहतर होती है. उनकी आमदन, उनकी आमदन बेहतर होती है. यह हमने actually देखा है. अब आप आए इस पर के economic situation. बहुत सारी जगहों में हमने देखा है कि वह जो आमदनी हुई है तो वह तो बिल्कुल wipe out हो गई. अच्छा. आपका inflation is probably hitting at 50%, right? Over the past year year end. And then you got the floods as well so. And then you had the floods. So, you know, the good work that communities did, जैसे मीना बता रही हैं, I mean, you know, then then we were assessing how many latrines damaged, how many water schemes damaged, how many roads damaged, then that happened. So these are the challenges. I mean, we are we are in a tough situation whether it's these programs or whether it's, you know, us as the whole country, challenges challenges तो हैं. Mhmm. So there there can be poverty impacts. Programs like BISP are very important because they are they are a social protection program. They are not a poverty alleviation program. Ok. What's the difference between both? The social protection तो यह है कि मैं बिल्कुल मैं वह हूं जिसको destitute कहते हैं. I'm in that bracket where my earning power is hardly there and so I depend on the social protection of the state. Yeah, I I am dependent on ज़क़ात. Right. Right? What we do is, and and these women are members of the community organizations also, that we also also work with these women ताकि we graduate them out of that ज़क़ात mode if you like. Yeah yeah yeah. So that they have a skill, so that they have loans and not handouts and these women take loans and they pay them back. There's more loans, $2,030,000 rupees. This is it, So you three to five years, that's the impact. Now the government does BISP, but the government also through other donors does Poverty elevation. Poverty elevation. So the, there's an IFAT funded national poverty graduation program. It does that. The South Punjab poverty elevation program, it does that. How successful have these programs been? They have been successful. I I I think at this point where the overall economic situation is so dire, we have done some very very preliminary analysis in some households in South बलूचिस्तान in केच जहां पर हमने देखा है कि you know if incomes have gone up by maybe 11%, 16% that with this economic downturn that they are just keeping their nose above the water. मतलब जो बचत है यह बड़ा anecdotal है but it's just if जो बचत है वह भी कम हुई है क्योंकि वह लोग कहते हैं कि आप कहते हैं बचत करो कहां से बचत करें? So it has hit it has hit the poorest the most and I think कि these sort of programs now need a, they need a big impetus from the government. Mhmm. They need a big impetus और a government अगर directly इन लोगों के साथ काम करें,
But then कभी कभार government की will, government की messaging, government की वह भी बड़ी important होती है कि अगर वह आपने इस तरह से population management के ऊपर बोला कि just this very basic messaging and and consolidation of messaging कि हमें Pakistan में we need to have better population management to be able to grow our resources could be very useful as well. Do you agree?
Messaging is important, but referring to what you're saying, if government has no money, then government needs to look at partnership modes. I mean, the point is, not to make government rich. Right? The point is to address people's needs. Mhmm. So if government is trapped for resources, and let's say we are approached with resources or somebody else is the whole यह जो framework है इसको बदलना पड़ेगा,
you know? Ok, what do you mean by that? So for example
if a donor wants to reach communities directly, Right. Right? And a donor says that we don't want to give money through the government. So what? Right? Mean अब भी ऐसा नहीं हो सकता. हो सकता है वह. It's happening in a lot of cases. Right. But the point is that the the resources that the government has should be also used through communities, right? Right. And and we are just offering a framework of, you know, 8,600,000 organized households. If you work through that, well not for everything but for basic services then it can cut down cost. It can be more transparent. This is where you know we we still have to meet with some success you know. By the way it's not that the government doesn't know. आपने COVID की बात की और food rations की बात की. उसमें the first point of call was RSPs and NGOs कि भई हमारे पास यह चीज़ें आई हैं जो local लोगों ने और factoryओं ने और corporate sector. How do we get this to the poorest? So we had list of the poorest because that's what we do. We had an organized outreach. हम तंजीमों के heads के पास गए कि यहां पर यह यह गरीब है या और कोई है and in a transparent way those things were given. This is a thing that happens with every disaster that we are used as the first outreach, us and other organizations. So that is fine but we are talking about regular development and long term Of course. And long term view. And I must add here that, you know, the the space for NGOs needs to be bigger. मतलब very often we come under stringent rules, regulations, we ask questions as if we have come from some other planet. इतनी permissions हैं, इतनी वो है कि भई हम अब इस मुल्क के लोग हैं तो हम क्या कर रहे हैं यहां? They can see what we do. Know, in some areas like the NMDs very difficult, very difficult to even go. What was NMDs? NMDs is newly merged districts हैं जो ex फाटा हैं. Right. आपने COVID awareness program करना है आपको ज़्यादा नहीं मिलती. भाई क्यों नहीं मिलती? आपने skills program करना है आपको ज़्यादा नहीं मिलती. हालांकि इन areas का सबसे ज़्यादा इस चीज़ की ज़रूरत है. You know, गाड़ी सबसे ज़्यादा ज़रूरत है और सबसे ज़्यादा demand है क्योंकि सबसे ज़्यादा ज़रूरत है. तो खैर वहां security वगैरह के मस्ते हैं. But the point is that we have to break this thing. Know, we have to allow whoever can do good for this country, they must be facilitated. You cannot have these straight jackets because
look at our situation. It's not a good situation. Government funding I understand obviously अभी तो आजकल हालात बहुत खराब है थोड़ा बेहतर होंगे तो I think maybe we can look at more sustainable hopefully. एक दूसरे जो Pakistan में major अगर मैं finance की बात करूं तो major movement of money is through this sort of local charity networks, right? हम देखते हैं कि Pakistan में लोगों को people don't don't trust the government and therefore the tax collection is horribly low one of the lowest in the region. And so the government take keeps on taking loans and that has become an unsustainable bubble which is gonna burst. So what the government does I don't know वह किस तरह से tax collection बढ़ाते हैं और वह उस तरह से करते हैं. जो दूसरा potential avenue मुझे नज़र आ रहा है वही आ रहा कि we have this sort of very unregulated sort of open economy जहां पर charity raises billions of rupees every year. But what I am beginning to see there is कि Pakistan के अंदर और इसके ऊपर मेरी ना I I actually spoke to someone recently right after the floods you know working very very actively in South Punjab and and when I ask them you know कि you know maybe I should go and cover those areas. Do you think there are there is enough rations being sent? उसने मुझे literally हाथ जोड़ के बोला उसने कहा भैया ना हमें और चीज़ें चाहिए ना हमें वह चाहिए हमें काम करने दो जो हम already कर रहे हैं. I was like why I was very surprised. He was like कि हो यह रहा है कि everybody यह सो ठीक है वह अच्छी नहीं है उससे कर रहे हैं but everybody अपने चार लोगों से पूछकर वह चीज़ें खरीद रहे हैं एक truck ला रहे हैं और वह पहुंच जाते हैं और वह obviously they don't have the expertise they don't have दो ज़िंदगी पहली दफा वह rural में जा रहे हैं वह जाकर touch करते हैं जो वाहिद road का edge है जहां पर पानी exist करता है right? और फिर वह उसके इर्द गिर्द they want to just do what they have to do so वह जाकर जो जो घर उनको इर्द गिर्द मिल रहा वह उधर distribute कर रहे हैं. मसला यह है कि that is just the tip of the iceberg. The real mess is happening right at the eye of the storm you know maybe बिल्कुल edge of the same Punjab border जहां पर बहुत थोड़ी organizations हैं who have the strength and the capability to actually reach there. वो बहुत से लोगों ने boards पर जाके राशन तक़सीम किए उसके लिए आपको एक scale चाहिए और यह तो एक general example थी recent times की more often than not what we are seeing is कि एक unoptimized distribution of resourcing हो रही है. जिस पर लोग अब लोगों की नियत अच्छी है. लोगों का सारा कुछ अच्छा है. लेकिन चूंकि वह जाकर एक random लोगों को दे रहे हैं तो काफी दफा double distribution हो रही है काफी दफा untargeted distribution हो रही है काफी दफा इस तरह हो रहा है कि आपका पैसा जो है rather than कि वह education के ऊपर alleviation के ऊपर, empowerment के ऊपर लगे वह पैसा is is is feeding the monster where a lot of people tend to end up getting addicted to this cycle of free money rather than getting that free money that's great because वह organic Africa social protection है. पर social protection के साथ on some level वह एक इदारा ऐसा ही कर सकता जो उनको साथ साथ यह भी बताया कि यार how do you become unsustainable, right? Within that framework of a lot of this money that gets generated every year because again frauds के time पर we haven't seen rural support programs network coming at the front consumer side के ऊपर कि वह आए और आकर लोगों को भी यह बोले कि listen we exist, organizations can plug in, individual donors can plug in. We don't need to be driven by international donor money. It can come in, sure. But जिस तरह there are certain organizations, right? TCF को मैं देखता हूं, अलख़िद्मत को मैं देखता हूं और बहुत सारी organizations हैं जिन्होंने no longer do they have to ask the government to do anything. Because there is a lack of trust, they are able to scale Because you have the network, you're the ultimate layer connecting the donors, the the ones who are trying to, you know, work in these communities. You can connect everyone and you can be that sort of a ledger or the escrow that optimizes the operations for everyone. So how do you see that?
So you know we are the biggest humanitarian network in the country and as you said we are not very good at projecting this. यह जो आप DG खान और remote जगहों की बात करें from those areas to the more populated, more accessible areas. And I think one area I mean and this is our area of weakness कि whether it was 2005 earthquake, स्वात IDP crisis, 2010 floods, now floods, On the ground is a lot going on. उसको reflect करना and this is our the onus is on us. कभी लोगों के को बताएं कि एक system हमें we need to put in place a more organized system. You know whether it is you know कि आप digitally contribute कर सकते हैं whether it is even कि अगर मैंने पांच हज़ार रुपए भी दिए I should get some feedback कि मेरे पैसे कहां पर गए हैं. It's there but I think it can be much better you know. So yes, you know, you have you have said it and I'm sure that a lot of your viewers think this also. They may have heard of some of the RSPs, they may have, you know. But I think that we need to streamline streamline this because the first responders are our own people when there is a disaster the quickest response. Donor के पैसे जब तक आते हैं तो आपको दो तीन महीने लगते हैं you know at least आपको एक महीना लगता है क्योंकि there is a process but the the giving by पाकिस्तानी is huge in terms of crisis and we have received a lot of funds in that way but our
projection of what we do is weak, definitely. Yeah. Makes sense. We're at the one hour twenty minute mark, I'd I'd like to wrap this up. मुझे यह बताइए, I'm gonna ask you one last question that I generally ask all of my guests. ज़ाहिर, you've been working in this space for almost I mean thirty five years. अगर आप internship को भी add करें that's almost close to forty. How do you see, you know, the evolution that has happened since then? Sure, आजकल हम यह देख रहे हैं कि Pakistan का एक बार दे पाया हुआ है तो एक बड़ी negative energy है but holistically if you zoom out you see the impact the positive और the negative and and and you try to extrapolate that to twenty fifty. How do you see Pakistan twenty seven years from now knowing what you are announcing all of what you have seen throughout your life?
तो हमारे जो chairman हैं मेरे boss श्रेयप सुल्तान और उनके जो गुरु थे अख्तर हमीत खान. You know sometimes we often have these conversations and I think I'll I'll just repeat what he says is that you should try in this sort of situation you should try and build your own islands of success. You can't change the world, but you can do, what you can. So I think these RSPs are, at least, I I in the community, especially the communities. And if you get a chance to interview these activists, we would love to bring them here. They are islands of success. Now the thing is that if these islands increase and they network with each other, and if the government supports this sort of thing, it can be transformative. When the people talk about Bangladesh and the NGOs there, well, we we have exactly this. We have a this is what we have here also. So I think it can be, but, you know, so many things have to be aligned. So I think islands of success is the only way forward. I wish I could say that somebody had the formula that, you know, whole country would be different in ten years. It's not going to happen. But at least where people, you know, work in this way and new people's response is fantastic. यह नहीं कि लोग नहीं चाहते, लोग नहीं कर सकते. Potential है ना? But the the language we use is an unleash the potential of the people. So you have to first believe there's a potential and then work with them in in this way and there are other organizations also doing this work. हम तो सिर्फ कह रहे हैं कि हकूमत ने ज़्यादातर हकूमत ने हमें बनाया है और कभी कभी ऐसे लगता है कि हकूमत हमें भूल गई है. You know, except for सिंध right now. This is a ready partnership. We can bring funds into this. We can bring funds into this with the government. We know it. So there's nothing to stop us from moving ahead.
Right. Makes a lot of sense. शांताना, मीना, thank you so much for coming in and sharing all that insight. And I hope कि we can find that partnership sooner than later and the impact that you know जो आपने इतने से पहले शुरू किया वह compound होकर we can see a better 2050 का Pakistan as well. Thank you so much for coming in guys. Thank you. शुक्रिया. For all of you guys, thank you so much for watching. अगर आपका episode पसंद आई, अपने दोस्तेयारों से ज़रूर share करेंगे. नीचे comment section मुझे आकर बताएं. Do you belong to a rural area potentially or a peri urban area? What has, what has your experience been with the communities there? Have you seen any impact over the last few decades? What support the channel, we accept anything from one repeat to as much as you'd like. It's a thought that counts. But anyways, this was सईद मुज़मेला संजय दी. You are watching thought behind things. Thank you so much for watching, and I'll see you in the next one.
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