Thepriceofpoverty

Our poverty reduction programmers have had mixed fortunes and there have always been
ongoing attempts to reduce the number of people living in poverty and at the same time
improve the lot of those that are. According to the Human Development Index (HDI, 2007), 60.3
per cent of Pakistans population lives on under $2 a day, compared to 75.6 per cent in India and
81.3 per cent in Bangladesh. About 22.6 per cent live on under $1 a day, compared to 41.6 per cent
in India and 49.6 per cent in Bangladesh. Although there is wrangling about the ways in which
poverty is calculated we may conclude that in relative terms we may be slightly better off than
either of our neighbors but still have millions living marginal and impoverished lives.

What we spend on the reduction of poverty is a rough guide to how committed the government is
to its alleviation; and although there are increases in poverty reduction expenditure in the first
nine months of the current fiscal, they are small and some are cancelled out by inflation and
currency devaluation. Perhaps the most high-profile attempt to alleviate poverty in recent years is
the Benazir Income Support Programmed. It is too soon to say with any certainty what the effect
of this ambitious programmed might be, but it is now under threat. Data released by the Finance
Ministry last Friday indicates that only Rs17.7 billion of the BISP had been utilized in the current
fiscal and the government is expected to divert a whopping Rs40 billion from the BISP to prop up
the fiscal deficit. Considering that there was only Rs70 billion in the BISP to start with the poor
have become palpably poorer as only Rs30 billion is ever likely to wind up in their pockets. This
negates the present governments claim of being committed to bettering the lot of the poor. The
government should find better ways to cope with its financial problems than to take from those
who already stand deprived of much that they deserve from life, from the state they serve, and
from the government they choose. And it is the government they look to for care and protection.

References:
Copyrights the News 17.5.2010
At Sunday, May 16, 2010