The "Economist" weekly, in its issue dated May 24 has argued that "a dollar a day" definition of the World Bank is outdated as events have overtaken the results of the 2005 study when the global poverty line was drawn at a per capita "a dollar a day".
In December 2007 the WB unveiled results of a fresh study covering 146 countries, and prices of more than 1,000 items. Taking into consideration the falling value of the dollar and relative purchasing power parities, it would need an average of $3.- per day (at its p.p.p. value of 2005) per head for a barest existence in the 15 poorest countries of the world (not counting Pakistan).
Translating that in the present day situation of Pakistan, (and assuming one bread earner in an average household of five persons) it would mean that the earning member would have to get paid Rs 1,050 per day, or a monthly salary of a minimum of Rs 32,000 just to make the barest of existence. Any sum below that means starvation and deprivation of the worst sort.
Now count the number of households that have an average income of Rs 32,000 per month or more, and you will find a very minuscule percentage of population that are living above the poverty line in this country in the present day and age. Need we say more?
The first policy statement by Prime Minister Gilani, on assuming office, included a minimum wage scale of Rs 6,000 per month. Working on above analogy of a wage earner with four dependants, that translates into Rs 40 per head a day, for a person to meet even expenses for housing, feeding, clothing, transport, education, health care and utilities. Each one of these items practically costs more than each individual's total budget.
The financial wizards of bureaucracy, who set the policies and projections for the budget, may learn a thing or two, if they just visit their local market with a shopping bag, as an ordinary citizen, without the accoutrements of their office, and personal guards and henchmen, and buy groceries for their households' consumption for a day only, with just Rs 200 in their pocket, and find out for themselves, of what they can buy for themselves and their family, to eat, drink, wash and clean just that day, without any other supplementary stores, provisions, fuel or whatever., without using any credit card or borrowing or buying on credit. An honest expedition (and that is a big qualification) on such a mission will open their minds to more facts than any written or verbal brief can provide.