Why is there a high gender gap in the newly merged districts of KP?

Three million people from the FATA region moved to the adjacent province of KP due to the Pakistani military's eagerly awaited assault on the Taliban in 2002.  More than 95% of locals were relocated back to their homes after militants were forced out of the area, but recovery and reconstruction are still ongoing. The unification of the FATA with the adjacent province of KP through an amendment to the Pakistani Constitution is the most significant move the government of Pakistan has lately taken toward normalising this post-war territory.

The FATA area will no longer be referred to as FATA in official correspondence, the secretariat of the chief minister of KP said in a letter to all provincial administrative agencies dated July 16, 2018. Instead, KP's "Newly Merged Districts" refer to the former FATA agencies. The FATA Secretariat, which keeps its name, will be transformed. The first stage of this process is integrating the health and education sectors into the KP Civil Secretariat.

About 1195 schools were destroyed or partially damaged during the Talibanization and militant control. Because of this, the enrolment of girls, which was already relatively low, was severely cut, depriving hundreds of thousands of children of their fundamental right to an education. Only 37% of females are enrolled in elementary schools and 5% in secondary schools, respectively, according to statistics from the NMDs' AEC. There are various causes for this sharp decline in enrolment rates.

The large displacement of the population, many of whom have remained in temporarily displaced person camps, is another element that distinguishes the NMDs from other poor areas of Pakistan and sets them apart contextually. Children living in these camps had access to temporary schools run by nongovernmental organisations to complete their education, while those who stayed behind had little to no access to it. Before 2015, when peace-building and resettlement initiatives started, this circumstance led to more females than boys dropping out of school.

There are many reasons the girls in the NMDS are not attending school.

The girls at the NMDS don't go to school for various reasons.

• More than 50% of locals are below the poverty level and unable to pay for their children's education.

• Only a tiny fraction of the 1,896 primary school graduates may be enrolled in high schools.

• More than 50% The intent behind e Male relatives of girls' school students lack access to restrooms, running water, and power.

• There is not enough transportation to get students to remote secondary schools.

• There is a lack of awareness of the bigger picture behind females' education. All children's education depends on employment, but outside of teaching positions, there aren't many occupations available for women in the NMDs.

• Male relatives, not dads, frequently speak out against females continuing their education.