Families living in misery due to poverty

Outline:
1) Definition of poverty and poverty alleviation.
2) Poverty in Pakistan.
3) Reasons of poverty.
i) Education
ii) Technical education
iii) Political instability
iv) Taxation and more especially indirect taxes
v) Bad governance
vi) Lack of industrialization
vii) Unemployment
4) How to alleviate poverty?
i) Growth in education
ii) Technical know-how
iii) Stability
iv) Law and order situation
v) FDI
vi) Increase tax base and specifically Direct taxes
vii) Improving governance
viii) Industrialization
ix) Mechanization of agriculture
x) Loans and credits from banks
xi) Help in generation of resources than aid
xii) Community reforms
xiii) Restructuring of charity
5) Conclusion.


Poverty is the state, in which one lacks the availability of sufficient money to fulfill the basic needs of life such as medical treatment, education, and shelter etc. The maximum threshold of income below which all the people are considered poor is called poverty line. World Bank has recently updated its international poverty threshold from $1 to $1.90. This line provides a rough estimate otherwise, the 1.90$ per day is not sufficient at all by any law.

Pakistan has a long history of facing severe poverty and is still facing it. With the inception, Pakistan had to face the problem of the huge inflow of refugees, political instability, economic disparity and lack of constitutional framework. This never allowed our forefathers to focus on the efforts to root out poverty and disparity. The rule of corrupt political and military elite further aggravated the already acute economic problems.

Pakistan did experience a decade of relative stability and economic prosperity after the first decade and a half. Ayub era produced some substantial results in the form of hydroelectric dams, industrial, stabilisation of economy and improvement in macroeconomic indicators. However, this improvement never tricked down to the most deserving poor sections of society and poor remained poor. The nationalisation of Bhutto proved to be a stab in the back of our economic development. Bhutto’s nationalisation policy not already hampered the rapid economic growth but also damaged the image of the country in the circles of investors because he took over many industries and subordinated them under government’s control. Nawaz Sharif as the prime minister abolished the nationalisation policy and introduced the privatisation policy under which many banks and industries were privatised, however, the damage has already been done. The privatisation policy produced its own hazard of exploiting poor workers by the big industrialists and landlords. Till now, the real problem to be tackled is unsolved and that problem is ‘poverty’.

The key reason of poverty is the lack of education and specifically that of technical education. According to the statistics, only 50 percent of our population is illiterate and this also includes those people who can only write their names.  The lack of technical know-how further adds to this grim situation.  Bad governance is another major issue that has created havoc for poor people. It is responsible for many lacks of policy implementation, utilisation, corruption and many another set of reasons which need to be solved. The low collection of taxation from the rich segments is also a drawback of our governance and administration. Slow industrialisation and the lack of generation of jobs due to this is also a major reason for poverty. Lastly, political instability and law and order situation is not only a reason of poverty but is a source of other problems too.

In order to deal with this problem, we need a complete overhaul of the education system from top to down. The government should provide free and coequal education to all the segments of society irrespective of their class or stature.  This education should be compulsory for every child with benefits for the poor to encourage them to admit their children in schools. Another thing should be given due attention is the worldwide demand for technical education. The majority of the Pakistani students get deep theoretical knowledge but lack in practical experience to follow. This results in wastage of their theoretical knowledge and hard work. The government should provide funds to build well-equipped laboratories in the institutes and post-job experience opportunities to cater the needs of modern times.

Poor governance is one of the key reasons for the increase in poverty instead of improvement in it. The government needs to take measures to improve governance and to root out corruption. This is not possible without a free and partial authority that can catch the big fishes without political pressure. The formation of Ehtisab commission by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is a good step towards transparency in the system. Moreover, National Accountability Bureau can also be used as a tool to crack down on the corrupt elements in the government both in upper and lower tiers. A transparent system is needed to make it sure that competent officers were appointed. The appointment of competent officers can act as a catalyst for change in the system to benefit the poor.

Political instability and law and order situation has also played its part in the increase of chaos. Every state institution should remain in its limits as defined by the constitution. The duty of the armed forces is to safeguard the border of the county and not to rule; hence they should focus on that. The civil government also needs to focus on the delivery of service to the public instead of making money out of the treasury. The corrupt practices and ill-competent have provided a room to the military to intervene in the political domain. Law and order situation is of primary importance for the production of more jobs and for the attraction of foreign and domestic investors to invest in the country.

The western countries have achieved high economic growth due to their industrialization and mechanization of agriculture. We should also follow the suit. New and versatile industries should be built apart from the conventional industries that we host. Information Technology, Telecommunication, Defence production, manufacturing plants and other such highly valued industries will widen the base of our economy. Similarly, mechanization of the agriculture sector should be the top priority of the government because almost 70 percent people are associated with agriculture, directly or indirectly.  Hybrid seeds, fertilisers, thrashers and other such facilities should be provided by the government of the time to help farmers in their farming.

Tax reforms should be introduced to deal with the precarious contribution of tax to the overall Gross Domestic Product. Internationally, the accepted least tax to GDP ratio is 30 percent but in Pakistan, the current ratio of tax to GDP is not more than 10 percent, giving an account of our economic disparity. The tax reforms initiatives introduced so far are more focused to widen the base horizontally than to target the rich class. Even when the tax is imposed on the upper class, they do not even bother to pay them. This lack of payment of taxes by the upper-class results in more indirect taxes, which affects poor people more than the rich. Therefore, the government should identify and target the elite class instead of imposing indirect taxes on the daily commodities.

Banks should be made responsible for paying loans to poor people at a very low-interest rate. This will not only help poor people in starting their own businesses, buying hybrid seeds or thrashers but can also prove to be of great help to young entrepreneurs to create more job opportunities.
The practice of entrepreneurship at the grass root level throughout the world shows some immensely positive results in generating jobs and same can happen here. This will not only make them capable of creating jobs but will also help employees to make themselves earners and not beggars.

Lastly, community reforms and involvement at the very basic level is the order of the day. The government should initiate steps to involve civil society and people at the level of villages in its reforms to alleviate poverty. They should be made an important part of the government initiatives to feel them the responsibility that they are guardians of their people. A lot of charity is wasted in the country or goes into wrong hands. This is due to lack of attention from the government, community reforms will also help in utilizing the charity for the welfare of the local people, about which they have complete information.