In response to rapid spread of COVID-19 Novel Corona Virus, all the economic and social activities were ceased at national level. Educational institutes were the first to be locked down and universities were asked to deliver online courses. This was received with resistance from students and academic experts with claims that universities neither have the capacity to deliver online courses due to lack of adequately trained faculty members nor does the country have supportive infrastructure in the form of availability of internet across the country. The study was intended to understand the constraints faced by these university students who were offered online courses in the first phase. The data was collected from graduate students enrolled in social science department along with teaching faculty members. Questionnaires followed by in-depth interviews were used to collect the data from a sample of 16 students along with 4 faculty members and representative of technical team of the university. A FGD was conducted with the university management. Results showed that poor connectivity of internet, communication gap that is inherent to online education due to absence of physical class room environment and over exposure to screen is considered as the major constraint to online education. But with the passage of time acceptability to online education is increasing and students also see the positive dimensions of online education now and the start of second phase of online education seems much smooth now.

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COVID-19 indiscriminately impacted all the segments of the global society. Due to the unstructured job market, women in the informal sector were at high risk to experience the adverse effects of the pandemic. This paper aims to explore the impact of COVID-19 on women domestic workers and their families. Semi structured interviews conducted with fifty-four women domestic workers in three districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan were analyzed in five themes: disruption caused by lockdown, loss of livelihood, economic hardships, social support mechanism, and challenges faced during the pandemic. The study underlines that the pandemic left severe impacts on access to basic services, employment, food security at household level and pattern of expenditures. The plummeting economic activities led to sudden drops in earnings that forced families to sell their assets and incur debts. Respondents lamented over the social support system and considered it a necessary but not sufficient condition for uplifting the lives of the poor. Strains in marital relationships led to stress, anxiety and domestic violence among families. The utmost concern was the restoration of economic activities and urgent policy interventions to strengthen social safety measures for the vulnerable segments of society.

Policy guidelines against sexual harassment in institutions of Higher Learning were introduced in 128 public sector universities across Pakistan in January 2011. However, there has been an increase in the number of reported cases of sexual harassment that became prominent in mainstream media, so the institutional mechanism and the official definition of sexual harassment still needs a lot of clarity. The study aims to investigate the perception, prevalence and awareness of sexual harassment among university students along with possible causes of underreporting of the incidents of sexual harassment. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling were used for data collection from students and members of sexual harassment committees respectively. The research findings revealed that sexual harassment at campus is a common phenomenon although majority of the cases go unreported owing to different institutional and cultural constraints. Instead of reporting to university administration, students adopt self adjustment mechanism by reducing the stay at campus or reducing the possibility of contact with males. There is dire need of more awareness sessions about what is sexual harassment and what students can do to deal with it.

Religious institutions have become a highly debated field especially after the incident of 9/11. A section of scholars held madrassa students responsible for growing unemployment and despair in the society. Besides the formal education in Pakistan hundreds of thousands of students are also studying in madrassas. The curricula being taught in madrassas is out dated and nonconforming with the contemporary needs of the society. The study analyzed the motivation behind student enrollments in the madrassas and socio economic role of the passed out students of madrassa. Primary data was collected from 143 respondents consisting of enrolled and passed out students, teachers and administration staff of madrassas through questionnaires followed up with in depth interviews and focus group discussion. The study revealed that high number of students (58% male &52 female) joined madrassa due to the poverty. Overall 70% parents were found to be illiterate or less educated (illiterate 15%, & below matric 55%) whereas 78% students belonged from large and overburdened families. On the other hand, the unemployment ratio was found to low (10%) in male students and surprisingly high in female students (65%) due to various cultural factors. However, the employed respondents (85% male and 13% female) were found to be receiving very low income depicting a negligible economic role of the passed-out students of madrassa. On contrary the social and political role of the madrassa was reveled surprisingly significant.