Increasing unemployment and poverty

The seventh report of the Mahbubul Haq Human Development Centre on "Human Development in South Asia 2003: the Employment Challenge" came out in Islamabad on Monday, confirming the assertions of many who have been saying that the incidence of unemployment and poverty in this country has increased to an unacceptable level.
Unemployment in Pakistan, it says, has increased over the last 15 years due to the macro-economic strategy based on structural adjustment programmes imposed by the IMF and the World Bank.
In fact, it points out that in general South Asian workers, especially in small-scale industrial and agricultural enterprises, have been adversely affected by the opening up of regional economies to global markets while governments have not paid sufficient attention to the need to establish a linkage between the twin challenges of employment generation and poverty alleviation.
But the situation in the other countries of the region is not as bad as it is in Pakistan.
The following statistics, as quoted by the MHHDC report, for various South Asian countries speak for themselves.
The unemployment rate in Pakistan for the 1990-2001 period was 7.8 percent, while it was 7.3 percent in India, 3.3 percent in Bangladesh, 1.1 percent in Nepal, 1.4 percent in Bhutan and two percent in the Maldives. [During the last couple of years it has gone down even further.]
The figures were worse when it came to women's inclusion in the work force. It stood at 29 percent in Pakistan, which was the second lowest rate for the whole of South Asia.
It also had the lowest female employment rate, 14 percent, in the region. It does not take a genius to figure out, that when people have no way of earning a livelihood, poverty is going to increase, which is what has been happening in this country.
There is a general sense of despair in the populace, and, for over a decade now, the press has been continuously reporting economic hardship-related suicides, a high crime graph and general social unrest. That is hardly a recipe for progress and sustainable development.
The report also notes that the country's population growth rate is the highest in the region.
It was 2.62 percent during 1995-2000, and is expected to rise to 2.44 percent during the next two years.
As it is, high population growth rates are linked to poverty. Poor people are known to produce more children than educated and gainfully employed individuals, hence restricting the benefits of economic growth.
The issue has to be dealt with from all angles, ie, by controlling the birth rates through awareness campaigns and provision of necessary birth control facilities as well as by bettering the job situation.
According to the MHHDC report, during the 1960-90 period Pakistan's economic growth rate was six percent per annum which was quite high for a low income country; but in the decade of the 1990s, significant deceleration occurred, especially in the manufacturing sector.
Besides, whatever growth has taken place, it is marked with "very inadequate" performance.
Which is not surprising given that basic social and political indicators such as education, health, sanitation, fertility, gender equality, corruption, political instability and democracy, have been quite low on the priority list of our ruling elite.
It goes without saying that the provision of better education and health facilities to the workforce directly translates into higher efficiency at the workplace.
Education also engenders general enlightenment in social attitudes, especially towards gender issues.
And, of course, political stability and democracy create an atmosphere of certainty and accountability in which economic activity flourishes.
Clearly, the government needs to rethink its plans for sustainable development, and put in place projects and programmes that make maximum use of human capital.
It must also pay special attention to the need of upgrading social indicators so as to enhance both the pace and quality of economic growth.