Poverty In Pakistan: Contributing Factors And Possible Solutions

“Poverty is the state of one who lacks a certain amount of material possession or money. ”

Poverty is the deprivation of food, shelter, money and clothing when people can’t satisfy their basic needs. Poverty can be understood simply as a lack of money or more broadly in terms of barriers to everyday human life.

According to a report submitted by Ministry of Planning and Development in the National Assembly of Pakistan, about 29. 5% Pakistani lived below the poverty line which translates into 55 million people. . . . In 2011, 12. 4% of Pakistanis live below in Pakistan's definition of poverty.

Types of Poverty

Absolute Poverty: “It refers to the state of severe deprivation of basic human needs. ”

Absolute poverty refers to the deprivation of basic human needs, which commonly includes food, water, sanitation, clothing, shelter, health care and education i. e. Absolute Poverty is the absence of enough resources (such as money) to secure basic life necessities. It depends not only on income but also on access to services.

United Nations further defines absolute poverty as the absence of any two of the following seven basic needs: Food Safe drinking water Sanitation facilities Health Shelter Education Access to services.

Relative Poverty: “It is defined contextually as Economic inequality in location or society in which people live”.

Relative poverty views poverty as socially defined and dependent on social context, hence relative poverty is a measure of income inequality. The term relative poverty can also be used in a different sense to mean "moderate poverty" for Example, a standard of living or level of income that is high enough to satisfy basic needs but still significantly lower than that of the majority of the population under consideration.

Relative poverty is measured as the percentage of population with income less than some fixed proportion of median income. Measures of relative poverty are almost the same as measuring income inequality. If a society gets a more equal income distribution, relative poverty will fall.

Voluntary Poverty.

Among some individuals, poverty is considered a necessary condition, which must be embraced to reach certain spiritual, moral, or intellectual states. Poverty is often understood to be an country. Essential element of renunciation in religions such as Buddhism.

Causes of Poverty in Pakistan

Government Policies: Government is not well aware of present conditions of country. The policies of government are based on the suggestions of officials which do not have awareness about the problems of a common man. After implementation the policies do not get effective result. After the failure of one policy, government does not consider its failure and announces another policy without studying the aftermaths of last one. Heavy taxes crush the people and they are forced to live below poverty line.

Corruption: Another cause of poverty is corruption. There is no morality and everyone is trying to earn more and more by using fair and unfair means. Officials waste their time has low efficiency. Only relationship that exists in society is money. One has to pay a heavy cost to get his right. Law and order conditions are out of control and institutions are failed to provide justice to a common man. Justice can be bought by money only. But government is unable to control such type of things. In this whole scenario some corrupt people has been occupying the resources and common man is living in miserable conditions.

Lack of Education: The literacy rate of Pakistan is very low. Most of people do not have any concept about the modern earning sources. Most people are unable to adopt technology for their business needs, that’s why business do not meet international standards and results as decrease in revenue which lead the society to poor financial conditions. Unemployment: The very core and basic reason for poverty in Pakistan is ever increasing unemployment in the state. People are not getting jobs and one who are getting are not up to their standards, so even these unsatisfied employees consider themselves unemployed. There are no jobs in market and highly educated and skilled people are being left jobless and without earning this have significantly increased the poverty level in the Poverty Reduction Strategy.

The MTDF aims at establishing a just and sustainable economic system for reducing poverty and achieving Millennium Development Goals. Poverty has numerous facets, manifested in the form of low income, lack of access to resources, few opportunities for participation in the political process and high vulnerability to risk and shocks. Tackling poverty requires a holistic approach that promotes pro-poor economic growth, creates opportunities and choices while maintaining macroeconomic stability, improving governance, consolidating devolution to the grass roots level and protecting vulnerable segments of the society. Poverty reduction is an encompassing objective of MTDF 2005-10. It subsumes the Government’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper issued in 2003. The MTDF will promote policies and programs to reduce poverty by satisfying unmet basic needs of the poor (in terms of shelter, health and education, for example) through a participatory process that empowers the poor. During the 1990s, Pakistan witnessed increase in poverty from 26. 1 percent in 1990-91 to 32. 1 percent in 2000-01. This period has been characterized by political uncertainty and economic instability as well as a severe drought that hampered economic development. Also, many social indicators, particularly those for health, education, shelter, potable water and sanitation, and electricity showed marginal improvements. The main cause of rise in poverty in Pakistan lies in the widespread structural inequity that leads to the exclusion of the poor from both owning and accessing assets and services and their voices in decisions that directly affect them. Ensuring that economic growth translates into reduction of income and non-income poverty on sustainable basis is the major challenge for MTDF 2005-10.

Reduction strategies in Pakistan

Do charity work and accumulate money and donate to the people in countries facing poverty. Providing free shelter, food, health care, education and drinking water for them. Reducing government taxes for the villages that are facing poverty.

Poverty can be reducing if jobs creation for the poor family so they can earn a living and provide more opportunity for more children to be educated. Therefore, social entrepreneur are helping out, trying to prevent poverty from increasing. Government is the one who should be blamed for the cause of poverty in the country b/c this is their responsibility to eliminate this problem from the country. It is the duty of the government to play their role in the decreasing the poverty of the country and implement such policies and incentives and infrastructure which ultimately results in the decrease in poverty and increase in the stability of the country.

Pakistan government adopt that strategies or companies

• Benazir Income Support Program (BISP).
• Emergency Relief Packages
• Health insurance.
• Peoples Work Program (PWP)
• Pakistan Bait-ul-Mal (PBM).
• Employees Old Age Benefits institution (EOBI).
• Zakat.

Solutions to Poverty in Pakistan

Poverty will never end unless there are real solutions to end it; solutions based on economic justice and political changes.

• The full equality between men and women in public as well as private areas of life, a worldwide minimum wage of $20 per day and the end of child labor under the age of 16 with the creation of a subsidy for scholarship.
• The guarantee of shelter, healthcare, education, food and drinking water as basic human rights that must be provided free to all.
• A total redistribution of idle lands to landless farmers and the imposition of a 50% cap on arable land devoted to products for export per country, with the creation of a worldwide subsidy for organic agriculture.
• Government should create better policies to tackle this problem and learn from our past. There should be policies for providing jobs to unemployed people.
• Promote industrializations
• Replacement of the traditional agriculture
• Equipment with new specific equipment in order to increase the yields.

To give the incentive framers can hard work continuously in every season for flour, rice etc. but government cannot provide the high quality seeds, pesticides machineries etc. Government should create a specific method to provide a beneficial subsidies and relief to work more efficiently and create a large amount of value in agriculture field etc.

• Establishment of justices and equality
• Equal distribution of resources
• Elimination of discrimination policies

“Full equality between men and women’s in public as well as private areas of life a worldwide wage of 20$ per day and the end of child labour under the age of 16 with the creation of the subsidy for scholarship. ” To provide education incentives at least our economy goes to up the poverty line, not a still in literacy rate just read or write etc. , government right to provide schools, colleges, universities, the fees have limited to every person can afford easily,

• Social Protection

MTDF recognizes social protection as means of strengthening poor people’s capabilities to mitigate and manage risk and vulnerability, and thus, of impacting positively on underlying poverty and inequality. In addition to smoothing exposure to risk and vulnerability (from loss of income, from external shock), social protection can also play a significant role in employment promotion for poverty reduction. Pakistan’s PRSP contains a strong commitment to effective social protection, with “targeting the Poor and Vulnerable “as one of its core pillars.

Social Assistance Programs for the poor

The social assistance provided through programs and institutions is serving millions of people who are in need of some help to survive. The impact of relief assistance to the poor households is significant. The social assistance programs in the public sector such as Food Support Programs, Zakat, Pakistan Bait-ul-Mall, Employees Old-age Benefit Institution (EOBI), Social Security Schemes, and Social Welfare Programmes (Destitute Homes, Mother and Children Home, Rescue Homes, Abandoned Babies and Destitute Children Home, Home for Old and Infirm Persons etc. ), are providing relief to about 5 million beneficiaries or about 10 percent of the poor population estimated on the basis of food poverty. In the private sector, social assistance programs cover areas of income transfer, health, education, employment and income support activities to poor. These programs have been administered by various institutions such as Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (IUT), the Orangi Pilot Project (OPP), the Agha Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP), National Rural Support Programme (NRSP), Basic Development Needs Programme (BDN), Khuda Ki Busti (Development of Katchi Abadis), Al-Shifa Eye Hospital, and Edhi Foundation.