65.5 percent of population of Pakistan below poverty line: report

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report reveals that 65.5 percent of the population of Pakistan are below the poverty line (People below the poverty line are defined as those earning less than two dollars per day). A UNDP report titled High Food Prices in Pakistan - Impact Assessment and the Way Forward says.
"Food security in Pakistan has significantly worsened, as a result of the recent food price hikes. In rural households, particularly in the western provinces sharing a border with Afghanistan, food deficit districts are the most affected. The total number of households in Pakistan falling into this category was estimated to be seven percent."
The report further says: "The main findings indicate that more than half of the surveyed households experienced high food prices by reducing non-food expenditures. The high food prices undermine the poverty reduction gains, as food expenditures comprise a large share of the poors' total expenditures. The food price hike has severely eroded their purchasing power.
The field assessment suggests that the number of households that cannot afford to obtain medical assistance when sick has increased from six percent to 30 percent. Similarly, there is a serious risk of massive school dropout and thus loss of the gains in primary school enrolment achieved in past years." National Finance Commission believes that the nature and extent of the economic crisis that Pakistan faces today is structural. It explained that the crisis had been the making for 30 years, but was aggravated during the last eight years.
"Without the policies of the past eight years, we would have lasted a few more years, but we were heading for doom," it said. Leading economists in the country have estimated that the widespread inflation over the past year has pushed a further five percent of the population below the poverty line in Pakistan.
"Exact figures will be available when the Economic Survey is published, but an estimated five percent of the population has joined the people already living below the poverty line in Pakistan," confirmed the economists.
Every two or three year, the Federal Bureau of Statistics conducts a survey on the income and expenditure of families to ascertain the level of poverty in the country. People below the poverty line are defined as those earning less than two dollars per day.
According to a United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, this amounts to 65.5 percent of the population of Pakistan. Professor Dr Karamat Ali former vice Chancellor of BZU university agrees with the assessment that recent months have forced a further five percent of the population below the poverty line. According to him, the government should introduce an employment guarantee scheme similar to the one in India to combat poverty.
"In fact, the Pakistan People's Party (PPP) manifesto has such a provision, but it has not been implemented yet," he said. He added that the poorest section of the population should be provided with social security and cash support programme, while their children should be supplied with food at schools.