Poverty in its human dimension
is the most important of all, because poor people live in conditions that are
miserable, conditions in which some members of their family die of hunger,
disease of famine. Poverty in its human dimension exists, when a child is down
with a curable disease and the parents have to take a decision whether to take
the child to a doctor and buy expensive medicines or purchase other essentials
of daily use. It exists when parents of a child sell their child into slavery or
prostitution because of lack of
resources to feed or care for that child and when government institutes fail to
protect the rights of the poor.
Poverty has emerged as the most
important issue for Pakistan. Poverty redressal requires economic growth
accompanied by an improvement in access to social services. The reason that
economic growth has failed to trickle down to the poor in Pakistan is the slow
improvement in social indicators Economic growth and social sector development
are interdependent as one reinforces the other. In fact economic growth is
necessary for poverty reduction but poverty reduction itself is necessary for
sustained growth.
The estimates of poverty are not
consistent in Pakistan. According to caloric based (2250 calories per person),
the incidence of poverty declined sharply from 46.5 percent in 1969-70 to 17.3percent in 1987-88. However , poverty
increased significantly in 1990’s rising from 17.3 percent in 1987 -88 to 22.4
percent in 1992-93 and further to 31 percent in 1996-97.The recent estimates suggest that
poverty ahs further increased from 32.6 percent in 1998-99 to 33.50 percent in 1999-2000. This shows that
the incidence of poverty has increased in 19990’s. similar trends have been
observed in the case of urban and rural poverty.
The main reasons for increase in
poverty during 1990’s can be attributed to the relatively lower rate of economic
growth, rising unemployment, stagnant real wages, declining flow of worker’s
remittances and bad governance. In addition to the factors mentioned above the
high population growth also puts pressure on the merge social services thereby
causing social distress.
Painting a broad picture of
third world poverty is not enough. Before anyone can formulate effective
policies and programs to attack poverty at its source, one needs some specific
knowledge of poverty groups and
their economic characteristics, It is not sufficient simply to focus on raising
growth rates of Gross National Product in the expectation or hope that this
national income growth will “trickle down” to improve levels of living for the
very poor. On the contrary many observers argue that direct attack on poverty by
means of poverty focused policies and plans can be more effective and one cannot
attack poverty directly without detailed knowledge of its location, extent and
characteristics.
National Economic development is central to
success in poverty alleviation. But poverty is an outcome of more than economic
processes. It is an outcome of economic, social and political processes. To
attack poverty requires action at local , national and global levels. The
following actions are required to be taken y poor people, government, private
sector and civil society organizations.
Growth is essential for
expanding economic opportunities for the poor. The question is how to achieve
rapid, sustainable and pro-poor
growth. A business environmental conducive to private investment and
technological innovation is necessary, as is political and social stability to invite public and private
investments.
The poor should be empowered in
the true sense. Empowerment means enhancing the capacity of the poor to
influence the states institutions that affects their lives by strengthening
their participation in political process, and local decision-making. It also
means removing the barriers political, legal and social that work against
particular groups and building the assets of poor people to enable them to
engage effectively in markets.
Enhancing security for poor
people which means reducing their vulnerability to such risks as ill health,
economic shocks and natural disasters and helping them cope with adverse shocks
when they occur.
The ultimate cause of the
unequal distribution of personal incomes in most third world countries is the
unequal and highly concentrated patterns of asset ownership (wealth). The
principal reason why less than 20 percent of their population receives over 50
percent of the national income is that this 20 percent probably owns ad controls
over 90 percent of the productive and financial resources, especially physical
capital and land but also financial capital (stock and bonds) and human capital
in the form of better education. It follows that perhaps more important line of
policy to reduce poverty and
inequality is to focus directly on reducing the concentrated control of assets,
the unequal distribution of power, unequal access to education and income
earning opportunities.
Policies to enforce progressive
rates of direct taxation on income especially at the highest levels are, what
are most needed in this area of redistribution activity. Unfortunately, in many
developing countries the rich do not show a larger part of their income and
assets. Further , they often also have the power and ability to avoid paying
taxes without the fear of government.
Pakistan is facing twin
challenges of reviving growth and reducing poverty. This requires rapid economic
growth keeping in view the factors responsible for slow growth and rising
poverty, the government has formulated a comprehensive economic revival
programd aimed at reviving economic growth and social development. The
government has adopted a multi-pronged approach to promote pro-poor economic
growth and reduce poverty.
Engendering growth by correcting
macroeconomic imbalances and stabilizing the economy has been made the central
pillar of the government’s economic revival program. The government has adopted
a sound macroeconomic framework aimed at both stabilizing the economy and
stimulating growth. It comprises five building blocks namely tax reforms,
expenditure management, prudent monetary policy, external adjustment and debt
management.
Implementing broad based
governance reforms are essential ingredients of he government’s poverty
alleviation strategy. Without governance reforms thee enormous tasks of reviving
growth and reducing poverty cannot be addressed. Sagging growth and rising
poverty are in partresults of the
poor performance of the government institutions in Pakistan. In fact, poverty in
Pakistan is not merely an outcome of economic ills but also a result of
mis-governance over the past years. The main element of reforms are devolution
of power at grass roots level, civil services reforms, access to justice and
financial transparency.
The care principle of Pakistan’
poverty alleviation strategy is to empower the people and to create greater
opportunities for increasing real income by improving access to productive
assets mainly housing, land an credit. Access to credit is the surest way of
empowering the poor and improving
their income generating opportunities. In addition to the already existing
financial intuition, the government
has now established the “Khushhali Bank” or “Micro Finance Bank” for the
provision of micro credit to poor communities.
The effects of sluggish economic
growth are clearly reflected in Pakistan’s performance in the social sectors,
Human development is essential for attracting investment and generating the
capacity for future sustainable growth.Pakistan’s progress on almost every social indicator e.g. education,
health and nutrition is poor as compared with that of other developing
countries. In order to address this situation, the government has prepared
comprehensive human development strategies aimed at the effective utilization of
the available resource s through improved institutional mechanisms.
The government’s key social
safety net for reducing vulnerability to exogenous shocks is the reformed system
of Zakat and Usher. The system of collection and distribution of Zakat has
recently been reorganized. However, its potential and scope in fighting poverty
is yet to be fully realized. The food support programed is another social safety
instrument of he government for the poorest.
In spite of all these
cataclysmic facts, on may hope that according to the economy revival plan of the
government, the time will be changed and the economic development rate will be
enhanced and at the same time the
level of poverty will be decreased. Now the time has come that if we want
Pakistan to rise up to that extent where the prosperity, integrity, solidarity
and economic stability will be all around, then every Pakistani will have to
work as far as in him lies. By working with whole dedication, concentration and
conviction we may achieve a strong Pakistan dream by Quaid-e-Azam , and by going
this way, the day will not be far
away when Pakistan ill bear the palm and it will l show its mettle of the rest
of the world.