There is a myth that nobody sleeps without food in Pakistan; based on a largely flawed argument that Pakistan is one of the biggest philanthropist nation and that the wealthy support the marginalized. There are ample statistics and studies to support that malnutrition remains one of the biggest enemy of the unprivileged.
Pakistan ranks amongst the worst in terms of child malnutrition with 40 percent children suffering from stunting and 30 percent underweight. That is a scary piece of statistic and partially explains why labour productivity is where it is; and it may fall further in upcoming generation.
The government officials are jubilating on the fact that absolute poverty is falling in Pakistan; but it is of little to no good if it cannot feed people. There is an intriguing comparative analysis by the World Bank on Pakistan and India. Twenty one percent of population is below WB's poverty line of $1.9 a day in India, versus 8 percent of Pakistan population.
Don't get too excited yet. Let's peep into other indicators - 15 percent of Indian population is undernourished as compared to 22 percent in Pakistan. Isn't it counterintuitive that absolute poverty is thrice of that in Pakistan but malnutrition is much less there? Similarly indicators of female education and child mortality rates are better in India.
The social scientist in the country may ponder upon the reasons of such counterintuitive trends; this column may partially explain the disparity in simple economic terms. The basic food prices in Pakistan are around 30 percent higher than our neighbours and this could be one of the prime reasons to explain higher malnutrition in the country.
The story goes back to the limited fiscal resources the country has and how the leaders choose to deal with it. Ten years ago, wheat price in Pakistan was one third of what it is today. The increase in staple food item price has cascaded to virtually all food items; and that explains the falling affordability of marginalized.
In 2008, the then government, in times of squeezing fiscal space dealt with farmer woes by introducing wheat support price mechanism. It increased wheat price in one go from Rs625 to Rs950 per 40 kg. And there was no stopping since, and today the price is Rs1300 per 40kg against the world price of around Rs1000 per 40 kg, and In India the price is Rs950 per 40 kg.
The increase in prices has affected virtually every food commodity - be it milk, sugar, red meat, pulses or vegetables. Why is there such dichotomy in prices? The reason is simple; the successive federal governments have moved away from direct subsidy to farmer to the mechanism of support price. While in India, the farmer has subsidized fertilizer, seed, pesticides, electricity and water on disposal.
This column opines that the sole reliance of support price has killed the purchasing power of poor and food prices have virtually trebled since 2006 in Pakistan, and the outcome is malnutrition and stunting. There is support price, both for wheat and sugar in India but they are comparable to global prices and at around 30 percent discount to Pakistan.
The government seriously needs to rethink its policies and should declare an emergency for enhancing nutrition value of virtually half the population. It all boils down to scarce fiscal resources - tax to GDP is too low in Pakistan and those who do not pay taxes argue that they do not trust the government and rather rely on charity. But whatever charity they do, is simply not enough to provide basic food to all.
The government ought to be blamed in the scenario as well. It has to change its priority from infrastructure building to provide for the suppressed half. What is the point of roads, bridges and buildings if 40 percent of kids are stunted and two thirds of female are illiterate?
It has to move back to the regime of directly subsidizing the farmer as support price only favouring the large landlords and in days of low commodity prices government is finding it hard to export surpluses despite higher export subsidies. But what the government did to reduce fertilizer prices was providing direct cash injection to fertilizer companies whose EBITDA margins are extraordinarily high.
That is not on! The government ought to mend its ways to deal with nutrition crisis. Plus, low female literacy and lack of knowledge of basic nutrients are to be blamed as well.
There has to be a country wide campaign to deal with the menace of malnutrition and illiteracy, before its too late, if it already isn't.
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