POVERTY: Pakistan

 Shaukat Masood Zafar • Oct 30th, 2010 •
Poverty is curse and it is said to be mother of crimes. It is in fact that most of the crimes that occur are due to poverty. It is a multi-faceted phenomenon which encompasses economic, political and social deprivations of the people in a country and manifests itself in a vicious circle. Low savings and ultimate low investments result in low income, poor education, lack of health facilities, unequal distribution of wealth and poor infra-structure. The denial of basic and essential needs to the population gives rise to the concept of poverty.
Pakistan, as a whole is filled with poverty and hunger. The hunger and poverty is assuming alarming proportions in Pakistan. The situation in Pakistan is now so bleak that even some honest people who hated corruption from depth of their beings failed to keep their mental balance due to the pressure of poverty and resorted to crimes just to maintain their existence. It is the time that the judge should not only look at the crime committed by anyone rather he should find out the cause that leads the committer to such an act. Poverty is watching our children and grandchildren share tears in their deepest sleep. Poverty is witnessing our children and grandchildren die in our arms but there is nothing we can do for them. Poverty is seeing our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters are committing suicides in pain and in sorrow just because they could not get something to eat for their families. So far there were suicides because of unemployment and poverty but a new phenomenon has now emerged; now the poor who cannot feed their children are leaving their children at charity homes or even selling their children. It is a sign of poverty when we hide your face and wish nobody could see us just because we feel less than a human being. Poverty is when we dream of bread and meat, we never seeing in the day light.
Poverty is when the hopes of our fathers and grandfathers just vanish within a blink of an eye. Poverty never sleeps rather it works all day and night and never takes a holiday. Poverty is getting nobody to feel our pain and poverty is when our dreams go in vain because nobody is there to help us. Poverty is when we have no employment. The person who is indulged to crimes and is labeled as a criminal by the society merely due to poverty might be a genius if he had been brought up in a healthy environment. In my opinion their sins are less or no greater then the sins of the selfish and mean-minded people who call themselves honest but are constantly usurping the public money and taking it to outside the borders. The only answer to remove poverty is the creation of a sound economic and social structure. The recent trend in poverty as reported by UN found that “Food security in Pakistan in 2007-2008 has only but worsened as a result of food price hike”. The findings of the report indicate that the high food prices are undermining poverty reduction gain, as food expenditure comprises a large share of the poor total expenditures and food price hike has severely eroded poor household purchasing power. Under the minimum calorie requirement approach too, through which poverty is defined in terms of a food poverty line which reflects the minimum food expenditure needed to achieve the minimum required level of caloric intake, it is found that compared to 1969-70, poverty increased in 2009-10 and the people of Pakistan are left to get lesser caloric intake even after thirty years. According to Pakistan Planning Commission (2009), overall poverty rate has jumped from 23.9 to 37.5 percent in the last three years. The following recent report of the Asian Development Bank is an eye opener for our policy makers:
“Pakistan’s education indicators are the worst in South Asia - the fact that the education index in Nepal and Bangladesh, two countries with significantly lower per capita incomes than Pakistan, is 10 to 20 percent higher than Pakistan is a clear indicator of the low priority accorded to education in Pakistan’s development policies. Pakistan’s public sector spending on education and health, at barely 2.1 percent of GDP, is significantly lower than that of other countries in the region. At the same time, experience in Pakistan shows that accelerating human development is as much an issue of increasing expenditure on social sectors as of improving the effectiveness of spending through better governance, and future social development initiatives must be designed keeping this in mind. The report further concludes that, in general, the capacity of the poor in Pakistan to access public entitlements like political processes, or goods and services which determine human development contrasts strikingly with that of the rich. The report provides a comprehensive commentary on the causes of the increase in poverty in the 1990s, and hypothesizes that poor governance is the key underlying cause of poverty in Pakistan. Corruption and political instability, which are both manifestations of governance problems, have resulted in waning business confidence, deteriorating economic growth, declining public expenditure on basic entitlements, low efficiency in delivery of public services, and a serious undermining of state institutions and rule of law, which in turn translates into lower investment levels and growth. The effects of poor governance have compounded the economic causes of rising poverty such as decline in GDP growth rate, increasing indebtedness, inflation, falling public investment and poor state of physical infrastructure. At the same time, social factors such as the highly unequal distribution of land, low level of human development, and persistent ethnic and sectarian conflicts are also obstacles to the achievement of long term sustained development. Environmental degradation is also closely interlinked with increasing poverty and has impacts on the health of the poor as on the unsustainability of their livelihoods.”
From the above report it seems that the problem of poverty now looks to be beyond control. Official planning and the market economy system have failed to alleviate poverty.
It is an inevitable fact that 70s and 80s was a golden era in poverty reduction but this declining trend in poverty was reversed in the 1990s after revival of “democracy”. The policies formulated to eradicate it during 90s and thereafter have failed to achieve their objectives. Official planning and the market economy system both have failed to lessen poverty. Due to rapid growth of population, the number of dependents is increasing; earners have to carry the burden of the increasing number of dependents. This situation is leading to decrease in the per capita income of the people of the country. The largest sector of the economy, the agriculture sector, is heading towards backwardness as 93 per cent of the farmers are concerned with small farms whose per capita land is less then 10 acres. This is forcing a decline in the proportion of GDP which can be spent on development and social sectors. The poor law and order situation has led to flight of capital as well as private sector investment. High inflation, Shortages (Food, energy, water, oil, gas), Unemployment and business closures among the many factors (There has been load-shedding of 12 to 18 hours due to which large number of SMEs, factories and mills closed which increased the unemployment ratios in the country and ultimately poverty ratios jumped even as per official figures from 23.9 to 37.5 percent( in the last three years), reduction of 100 billion rupees in the social sector budget which has badly affected development activities, has further worsened the situation. The issue of poverty in Pakistan has its significance for sustainable development. Long run development is not possible without protecting the rights of the vulnerable groups and the participation of the entire population in the development process.
The recent trends suggest that rapid economic growth over a prolonged period is the only way for reduction of poverty. According to the ADB report, poverty is spreading in Pakistan due to the rising population, high level corruption, political instability, agriculture backwardness, internal situation unequal income distribution, defence expenditure, increase in utility charges and rise in unproductive activities. There is poverty in Pakistan but Pakistan has almost all it takes to be the richest country on earth. The major problem facing Pakistan today is corruption and poor leadership. There are greedy people in Pakistan including our leaders who don’t care about their poor mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. Some leaders are too greedy and that is why Pakistan remains poor and becoming poorer. They come in power as saints and leave as devils. The president of Pakistan is a president for a few selected people. President is a president for only in the higher class and those who are his earning hands. The President and his team see no poverty and hunger. The president sees only money and money and nothing but money and shows no mercy; that is why the people of Pakistan are so poor. The present PPP regime has put the people in danger of starvation and unimaginable suffering.
A higher and sustained economic growth must be accompanied by other poverty alleviation measures are essential to reduce poverty. Coherent approach is needed to combat the social and cultural stigma attached to it and it should be combined with effective service delivery in all parts of the country. To date, the biggest reason for the failure of the programs has been the lackadaisical attitude of the government and lack of its commitment. Unless that is altered, change will remain elusive. Problems of high unemployment, floundering education system, crises of food, water and energy and population growth will have to be handled sharply to curb the poverty. Accelerating economic growth and maintaining macroeconomic stability, investing in human capital, Expanding social safety nets; restoration of investor confidence, eradicating corruption and improving governance are the building blocks for the bridge that will lead Pakistan into the prosperity Inshallah.
http://www.pakspectator.com/poverty-in-pakistan/