Gender Inequality in Education among Pashtun Community in District Killa Saifullah, Balochistan

Abstract

Gender inequality in education has always stood a crisis generally in Pakistan, and particularly in rural regions of Baluchistan province in district Killa Saifullah. Noteworthy, in district Killa Saifullah, gender inequality in education is alarming. As, the report of PSLM. (2012) mentioned 57% among male and 8% among female. Thus, there was urgent need to address this issue in provincial and national level. Firstly, focus of present research was to analyze how cultural set-up affecting gender inequality in education. Secondly, analyzing the social and financial factors that promote gender in equality in education. Thus, the aim of present research was to highlight burning issue of gender inequality in education in rural areas of Baluchistan. Henceforth, the present study chosen qualitative method to describe the targeted phenomenon. The researcher selected the parents and their daughters through purposive sampling for data collection. The primary data conducted by in-depth interviews from thirty (30) respondents of both male and female. Moreover, the data was analyzed through thematic tool processes. The present study found that various factors lead to gender inequality in education in district killa Saifullah including safety problems, financial instability, cultural barriers, lack of facilities and early marriages. Moreover, some parents said that the education of son contributes family income while education of daughter is non-profitable and wastage of time. In addition to these, safety problem is the major cause behind gender inequality in education because the honor of male is directly associated with female, and they have the fear of harassment outside by other males. Similarly, mostly respondents portrayed that Provincial government do not follow feasible strategies to enhance the quality of education in backward areas of Baluchistan. in district Killa Saifullah the gender inequality in education is a prominent issue which should be highlighted on national and international level.