Disparity in access to available services and its effects in social exclusion of children

•Main objective of this study was to investigate the association between Access to Services with exclusion in children.•Analyses of this paper are based on data collected from 500 children from District Peshawar, Pakistan.•Attitudinal statements of variables involving two or more items were indexed for measurement of a single variable.•Chi-square and Kendall's Tau-b tests were used at bi and multivariate levels to test the association of variables.•It was endorsed to establish welfare based governance through strong policy implementation and public-private partnership.

The objective of this research paper is limited to determine the exclusionary effects of poor access to services on children with variation to their effects among children from different family types and subjective poverty. A total of 500 children (12-18 years old) were selected by systematic sampling technique, from seven shopping streets and seven high schools of the District Peshawar and interviewed. Likert scale was used as measurement tool. Association of variables was ascertained by using Chi-square test and Kendall's Tau-b statistics. Relationship of social exclusion was significant and negative with access to natural gas facility and access to youth clubs; however, social exclusion had a positive and significant association with access to bank facilities and satisfaction from access to existing services. At multivariate level the association of social exclusion in respondents from joint family, nuclear family and single parent family showed spurious relationship based on child's access to services. Result of groups based on sufficiency of family income indicated a spurious relationship between access to services and their social exclusion. Establishing welfare based governance through some special effort in the form of advocacy for proper legislation, appropriation of budgetary allocation, bringing existing services to workable condition, training of staff and awareness rising among masses, besides encouraging public-private partnership to ensure service delivery on door steps were suggested as some of the policy recommendations in light of the study.