Poverty: Written By: Fida Karim

Poverty:

Written By: Fida Karim

The United nation categories countries as developed and developing countries. This division is based on the economic status, their output per year (GDP), per capita income and the standard of living etc. Those countries which are highly progressed and posses’ great technological advancement, good infrastructure and standard of living are called as Developed nations.  Developed countries provide free, healthy and secured atmosphere to live.

The other countries with low technological progress and low industrialization, with poor standard of living are called as Developing countries. These countries are in the initial level of industrial development along with low income. These are also termed as third world countries or lower developed countries.
One can easily classified Pakistan as developing country with low per capita income and poor living conditions. One of the major problem faced by developing countries and Pakistan is poverty. Here we will look at the definition, causes and problem of poverty.

What is Poverty?

In simple poverty is not having enough money and resources to enjoy a decent standard of living i.e. lack of basic health care, education, clothing, water, and sanitation facilities. Despite technological advancement and economic growth, 10% of the world population lives on less than $2 a day.

Causes of Poverty:

Poverty is a curse. Pakistan is poor and under developed country most of its population lives in adverse conditions and almost 40 percent of the population lives below poverty line. Four out of 10 people are living in acute population.

The main cause of poverty is Pakistan are.

(a) High Population growth and Family size:
The results of 2017 census indicate that the population of Pakistan has reached 207.8 million with a population growth rate of 2.37 percent. With this population growth rate, the population of Pakistan will be doubled by 2050.
This growth in population have decreases the available resources and thus there are more mouths to feed than there are hands to earn. Thus the increase in population growth tends to decrease the per capita income and decrease the income of households. The fertility rates in case of Pakistan is very high , countries which have been successful in bringing down the fertility rates have moved out of poverty more quickly .

b) Lack of Education:

Most of the people in Pakistan are uneducated. The poor people with low income do not have access to educational facilities so they tend to work at an early age. Thus they are ill equipped to lead a good life and don’t have the skills and abilities to live in this modern world. They don’t have enough knowledge and thus the productivity decreases, so these leads to Poverty trap.

c)  Slow Economic Growth:

Economic growth is concerned with the wellbeing of its citizens, the higher the growth the better off the citizens are, the lower the growth the more worse off. Countries with developing economies tend to have slow growth rate thus their national income increases at a very slow rate but the population growth rate increases at a faster rate. The slowdown in economy cannot provide enough jobs to the people and thus both unemployment and poverty increases.

Current Situation:

Renowned Economist and former finance minister Dr Hafeez Pasha in his article claim that almost 40 percent of the population lives under the poverty line. He said that about 800,000 to one million people have been unemployed because of the slowdown in economy.

The reason for this increasing unemployment and poverty is because of the slowdown in the economy because of domestic and external crisis. The economic growth rate decreases from 5.8 in 2018 to 3.3 in 2019. The forecast for 2020 is much more alarming as the growth rate continues to decrease and is predicted at 2.7 percent which will further increases unemployment and poverty.

In the first two years of PTI government the people living in poverty increases from 69 million in June 2018 to 87 million by June 2020 indicating an increase of 26 percent.

Poverty Alleviations:

Poverty alleviations or Poverty Reduction is set of measures to lift people out of poverty. Since the new government took charge in 2018, the PTI led government has focused more on poverty eradication than anything else. The 80 billion Ehsas program is aimed to help the vulnerable segments of society including poor, orphans, widows, homeless, disabled, jobless etc. Panahghas have been functional in major cities to provide shelter to homeless. Both the programs aim to provide instant supply of food, clothing, education, and health facilities to the poor and vulnerable persons of society.

However the government need to focus more on the long term Poverty alleviations programs which include sustainable economic growth, job creation, reducing unemployment and poverty. Poverty reduction is a huge task which need iron political will and commitment. The good thing is that the government has taken the initial steps and has made it a top priority.