Poverty and related issues

In its most extreme form, poverty is a lack of basic human needs, such as adequate and nutritious food, clothing, housing, clean water, and health services. Extreme poverty can cause terrible suffering and death, and even modest levels of poverty can prevent people from realising many of their desires.
The world's poorest people - many of whom live in developing areas of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe - struggle daily for food, shelter, and other necessities of life. They often suffer from severe malnutrition, epidemic disease outbreaks, famine, and war. In wealthier countries - such as the United States, Canada, Japan, and those in Western Europe - the effects of poverty may include poor nutrition, mental illness, drug dependence, crime, and high rates of disease.
Extreme poverty, which threatens people's health or lives, is also known as destitution or absolute poverty. In the United States, extreme poverty is traditionally defined as having an annual income that is less than half of the official poverty line (an income level determined by the Bureau of the Census). Extreme poverty in developing nations, as defined by international organisations, means having a household income of less than US $1 per day.
Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less income than others within a society or country, or compared to world-wide averages. In developed countries, relative poverty often is measured as having a family income less than one-half of the median income for that country.
The reasons for poverty are not clear. Some people believe that poverty results from lack of adequate resources on global level - resources such as land, food, and building materials - that are necessary for the well-being or survival of the world's people.
Others see poverty as an effect of the uneven distribution of resources around the world on an international or even regional scale. This second line of reasoning helps explain why many people have much more than they need to live in comfort, while many others do not have enough resources to live.
CAUSES OF POVERTY Poverty has many causes, some of them very basic. Some experts suggest, for instance, that the world has too many people, too few jobs, and not enough food. But such basic causes are quite intractable and not easily eradicated. In most cases, the causes and effects of poverty interact, so that what makes people poor also creates conditions that keep them poor. Primary factors that may lead to poverty include (1) overpopulation, (2) the unequal distribution of resources in the world economy, (3) inability to meet high standards of living and costs of living, (4) inadequate education and employment opportunities, (5) environmental degradation, (6) certain economic and demographic trends, and (7) welfare incentives.
OVERPOPULATION Overpopulation, the situation of having large numbers of people with too few resources and too little space, is closely associated with poverty. It can result from high population density (the ratio of people to land area, usually expressed as numbers of persons per square kilometer or square mile) or from low amounts of resources, or from both. Excessively high population densities put stress on available resources.
Only a certain number of people can be supported on a given area of land, and that number depends on how much food and other resources the land can provide. In countries where people live primarily by means of simple farming, gardening, herding, hunting, and gathering, even large areas of land can support only small numbers of people because these labour-intensive subsistence activities produce only small amounts of food.
In developed countries such as the United States, Japan, and the countries of Western Europe, overpopulation generally is not considered a major cause of poverty. These countries produce large quantities of food through mechanised farming, which depends on commercial fertilisers, large-scale irrigation and agricultural machinery. This form of production provides enough food to support the high densities of people in metropolitan areas.
A country's level of poverty can depend greatly on its mix of population density and agricultural productivity. Bangladesh, for example, has one of the world's highest population densities, with 1,101 persons per sq km (2,850 persons per sq mi). A large majority of the people of Bangladesh engage in low-productivity manual farming, which contributes to the country's extremely high level of poverty.
Some of the smaller countries in Western Europe, such as The Netherlands and Belgium, have high population densities as well. These countries practice mechanised farming and are involved in high-tech industries, however, and therefore have high standards of living.
At the other end of the spectrum, many countries in sub-Saharan Africa have population densities of less than 30 persons per sq km (80 persons per sq mi). Many people in these countries practice manual subsistence farming; these countries also have infertile land and lack the economic resources and technology to boost productivity.
As a consequence, these nations are very poor. The United States has both relatively low population density and high agricultural productivity; it is one of the world's wealthiest nations.
High birth rates contribute to overpopulation in many developing countries. Children are assets to many poor families because they provide labour, usually for farming. Cultural norms in traditionally rural societies commonly sanction the value of large families.
Also, the governments of developing countries often provide little or no support, financial or political, for family planning even people who wish to keep their families small have difficulty doing so. For all these reasons, developing countries tend to have high rates of population growth.
Most developed countries provide considerable political and financial support for family planning. People tend to limit the number of children they have because of the availability of this support. Cultural norms in these countries also tend to affirm the ideal small family size. Recently, however, some developed countries with declining population levels have begun experimenting with incentives to increase the birth rate.
POVERTY IN PAKISTAN Poverty in Pakistan is a major economic issue. Nearly one-quarter of the population is classified poor as of October 2006. The declining trend on poverty in the country seen during the 1970s and 1980s was reversed in the 1990s by poor Federal policies and rampant corruption. This phenomenon has been referred to as the "Poverty Bomb".
The government of Pakistan has prepared an "Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper" that suggest guidelines to reduce poverty in the country. According to the World Bank, the programme has had tangible success, with the World Bank stating that poverty has fallen by 5 percent since 2000.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: It is the percentage of persons unemployed (those looking for work and temporarily laid off) to the total economically active population (10 years and above).
As of 2006, Pakistan's Human Development Index is 0.539, higher than that of nearby Bangladesh (0.530), which was formerly a part of Pakistan, but lower than that of neighbouring India (0.611).
Incidences of poverty in Pakistan rose from 22%-26% in the Fiscal Year 1991 to 32%-35% in the Fiscal Year 1999. They have subsequently fallen to 25%-28% according to the reports of the World Bank and UN Development Program reports. These reports contradict the claims made by the Government of Pakistan that the poverty rates are only 23.1%. The CIA fact book places the 2006 poverty rate at 24%.
ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL VULNERABILITY "Vulnerability" in this case stands for the underlying susceptibility of economically deprived people to fall into poverty as a result of exogenous random shocks. Vulnerable households are generally found to have low expenditure levels. Households are considered vulnerable if they do not have the means to smooth out their expenses in response to changes in income.
In general, vulnerability is likely to be high in households clustered around the poverty line. Since coping strategies for vulnerable households depend primarily on their sources of income, exogenous shocks can increase reliance on non-agricultural wages. Such diversification has not occurred in many parts of Pakistan, leading to an increased dependence on credit.
While economic vulnerability is a key factor in the rise of poverty in Pakistan, vulnerability also arises from social powerlessness, political disenfranchisement, and ill-functioning and distortionary institutions and these also are important causes of the persistence of vulnerability among the poor.
Other causes of vulnerability in Pakistan are the everyday harassment by corrupt government officials, as well as their underperformance, exclusion and denial of basic rights to citizens. Also, lack of adequate health care by the state lead the poor to seek private sources, which are expensive, but still preferable to the possibility of medical malpractice in state run medical facilities. Also, the failure by the state to provide adequate law and order in many parts of the country is a factor in the rise of vulnerability of the poor.
ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES Environmental problems in Pakistan, such as erosion, use of agro-chemicals, deforestation etc contributes to rising poverty. Increase risk of toxicity and poor industrial standards in the country contribute to rising pollution.
LACK OF ADEQUATE GOVERNANCE By the end of the 1990s, the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's social and economic resources for development emerged as Pakistan's foremost developmental problem.
Corruption and political instabilities such as various separatist movements in Balochistan and Waziristan resulted in reduction of business confidence, deterioration of economic growth, reduced public expenditure, poor delivery of public services, and undermining of the rule of law.
The perceived security threat on the border with India has led to the domination of military in politics, excessive spending on defence at the expense of social sectors and the erosion of law and order.
Pakistan has been run by military dictatorships for large periods of time, alternating with limited democracy. These rapid changes in governments led to rapid policy changes and reversals and the reduction of transparency and accountability in government.
The onsets of oppressive regimes have contributed to non-transparency in resource allocation. Development priorities are determined not by potential beneficiaries but by the bureaucracy and a political elite which may or may not be in touch with the needs of the citizens.
Political instability and macro-economic imbalances have been reflected in poor credit worth ratings, even compared to other countries of similar income levels, which results in capital flight and lower foreign direct investment inflows. The current government of Pakistan has professed commitments to reforms in this area.
In addition, Pakistan's major cities and urban centres are home to an estimated 1.2 million street children. This includes beggars and scavengers who are often very young. The law and order problem worsens their condition as boys and girls are fair game to pimps and others who would force them into stealing, scavenging and smuggling to survive.
A large proportion consumes readily available solvents to starve off hunger, loneliness and fear. Children are vulnerable to contracting STD's such as HIV/AIDS, as well as other diseases.
The rise of poverty in the country has been correlated with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism in many parts of the country. The Pakistani government's attempt at proposed reforms has been criticised as "weak" and has been associated with an "expedient brand of romance between the establishment and the religious right".
The continued marginalization of liberal, democratic forces has aggravated the situation. One third of all children being educated in Pakistan attend Madrassas over secular schools. Madrassa education is offered on the pretext that they provide better education than the much neglected secular schools. They study in a religious environment that has been radicalised by the state-sponsored exposure of the "Holy Jihad" in Afghanistan and against India in Kashmir.

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                    UN-EMPLOYMENT RATES

ADMINISTRATIVE UNIT      1998 CENSUS             1981 CENSUS

             BOTH SEXES        MALE     FEMALE             -

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Pakistan          19.68       20.19       5.05           3.1

           Rural  19.98       20.40       5.50           2.3

           Urban  19.13       19.77       4.49           5.2

NWFP              26.83       27.51       2.58           2.2

           Rural  28.16       28.64       4.00           2.0

           Urban  21.00       22.34       0.74           3.7

Punjab            19.10       19.60       5.50           3.2

           Rural  18.60       19.00       6.00           2.5

           Urban  20.10        20.7       4.70           5.0

Sindh             14.43       14.86       4.69           3.3

           Rural  11.95       12.26       3.70           1.6

           Urban  16.75       17.31       5.40           5.8

Balochistan       33.48       34.14       8.67           3.1

           Rural  35.26       35.92       9.81           3.0

           Urban  27.67       28.33       5.35           4.0

Islamabad         15.70       16.80       1.70          10.7

           Rural  28.70       29.40       8.20          13.5

           Urban  10.10       11.00       0.80           9.0

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