MEMORANDUMClimate Change: Pakistan’s poverty indexTo: Prime Minister, PakistanFrom: Samra BatoolSubject: Poverty in Pakistan Date: 12th January 2018.(1)Summary: Corruption and poverty are two majorissues that completely drowns a country. Unfortunately, Pakistan is facing bothof these social issues together. As a nation, our only focus is on corruption,but we often forget about thousands of children who are unable to receivequality education due to poverty.Poverty not only affects economic but causes a change in political and socialelements as well. Economic aspects of poverty focus on materialneeds, which includes the necessities of daily living, for instance, take food,clothing, shelter and drinking clean water.Pakistan’s economy has been on the downhillfor a very long time now and it can be deduced from the fact, that the richkeeps getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.
There is a huge gapbetween the upper class and the lower class, and it largely affects our countryinternationally as well as on national level. Poverty is affecting not justthousands of children but also every middle class person, who has to pay a hugeamount of tax almost every day.In order to improve the living standards of our country, we need to take everypossible step that we can to reduce poverty. 2) BACKGROUND:Poverty really is a curse, it is continuously rising all over the world.In World Bank’s latest reports ‘global poverty ratio’ is rising and Pakistan isone of the the countries that fell victim.
Pakistan is counted among the 43countries that have the highest poverty risks. Pakistan’s new poverty indexreveals that 4 out of 10 Pakistanis live in multidimensional poverty, accordingto the reports nearly 39% people in Pakistan live their lives in poverty. Fataand Baluchistan have the highest rates of poverty. According to reports thepoverty rate in Pakistan decreased from 55 percent to 39 percent in 2004 to2015, but the progress across different region in Pakistan is not same. Poverty in urban areas is about 9.
3percent while in rural areas it is 54.7 percent, you see there’s a huge difference.In FATA, according to recent reports, 2/3 people (which is about 73 percent)and in Balochistan 71 percent live in multidimensional poverty. Poverty rate inKhyberPakhtunkhwa is 49%, In Gilgit-Baltistan and Sindh it is 43%, Punjab 31%, whilein Azad Jammu and Kashmir the poverty rate is 25%.Issues:Pakistan’sfirst-ever official report on multidimensional poverty stated that four out of10 Pakistanis are currently living under terms of acute poverty. The populationof Balochistan having it the worst.People areliving in states that are completely devoid of healthcare, clean drinkingwater, safe and hygienic food and education. Most citizens do not have anymeans of access to such facilities and some are not even aware of them beingaround in the first place.
Makeshift camps on the outskirts of dense cities andeven inside them are populated by gypsies living a life below the standard ofliving. The statistic that the report gives us states that 38.8% of Pakistan’spopulation lives in poverty.While mostprovinces suffer from deprivation of basic facilities, others such as Sindh areeven in more of a decline due to lack of education and health facilities.People have no means to shelter themselves or fight against the forces ofnature. A sluggish pace of developing these areas has been observed and thegovernment seems like it’s in no rush to see it through; seeing as how biggerprojects occupy their interest and attention. With the temperatures gettingharsher each passing year and no means of dealing with incidents of floodingeffectively; more and more people are forced to leave their already poor livingconditions and start anew leaving behind everything of the bare minimum assetsthey already had.
“The MPIfindings show 60.6% of Pakistan’s population does not have access to cooking fuel,48.5% do not complete schooling, almost four out of every 10 people (39%) donot have any assets and over 38% of the population lives in a one-room shelter.
About one-third population does not have access to health facilities.” TheTribune Article, published June 21st, 2016. Recommendations:For mostcases it can be observed that education plays a major rule in uplifting livingstandards but we must start from the basics first. People need healthcarefacilities set up and fresh water filtration plants.
After having those comefirst, more occupations and jobs need to be opened up. The quotas be maximizedto accommodate more people from rural areas and those from areas with below-parliving conditions.1) It can be observed thatthose of the poor who do hold jobs work on daily wage bases and are paid inminimum wage.
This needs to be raised and more stable means of work should beoffered.2) Affordable or freehealthcare facilities or medical camps be opened up near these areas to treattheir sick and also to raise awareness about living conditions so precautionscan be taken to avoid outbreak and spread of diseases.3) Areas be cleaned anddecontaminated of all pollution so that standards are raised geographically.4) Free and high-qualitychild care institutions be set up and awareness be raised among the masses tosend their children to school.5) Vocational Traininginstitutes need to opened to teach people technical skills with which they canearn a livelihood from.
Technologies such as RAC, sewing, textile and construction.6) Surveys be done to povertystricken areas on a regular basis and their development and progress be kepttrack of.7) A body should be appointedto maintain the upkeep of such areas and proper funds be allocated to themwhich they can dispense according to necessity and circumstances.
