Poverty in Pakistan has been recorded by the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
at 39.3% using the lower middle-income poverty rate of 3.2 per day, and 78.4% using the upper middle-income poverty rate of 5.5 per day, for the fiscal year 2020–21. In September 2021, the government stated that 22% percent of its population lives below the national
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
set at per month.
Independent bodies supported estimates of a considerable fall in the statistic by the 2007-08
fiscal year
A fiscal year (or financial year, or sometimes budget year) is used in government accounting, which varies between countries, and for budget purposes. It is also used for financial reporting by businesses and other organizations. Laws in many ...
, when it was estimated that 17.2% of the total population lived below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
. The declining trend in poverty as seen in the country during the 1970s and 1980s was reversed in the 1990s by poor federal policies and rampant corruption.
["Poverty in Pakistan: Issues, Causes, and Institutional Responses"](_blank)
''Asian Development Bank'' (accessed: 2008-05-04) This phenomenon has been referred to as the "poverty bomb". In 2001, the government was assisted by the
International Monetary Fund
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is a major financial agency of the United Nations, and an international financial institution, headquartered in Washington, D.C., consisting of 190 countries. Its stated mission is "working to foster globa ...
(IMF) in preparing the ''Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper'' that suggests guidelines to reduce poverty in the country.
["Interim Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper"](_blank)
(accessed: 2008-05-04) According to a report submitted by Ministry of Planning and Development in the National Assembly of Pakistan, about 24.3% Pakistani lived below the poverty line which translates into 55 million people.
As of 2020, Pakistan's
Human Development Index
The Human Development Index (HDI) is a statistic composite index of life expectancy, education (mean years of schooling completed and expected years of schooling upon entering the education system), and per capita income indicators, whi ...
(HDI) is 0.557, and
ranks 154 out of 189 countries. Pakistan's HDI is one of the lowest in
Asia
Asia (, ) is one of the world's most notable geographical regions, which is either considered a continent in its own right or a subcontinent of Eurasia, which shares the continental landmass of Afro-Eurasia with Africa. Asia covers an area ...
, after
Yemen
Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...
and
Afghanistan
Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...
.
Wealth distribution
Wealth distribution
The distribution of wealth is a comparison of the wealth of various members or groups in a society. It shows one aspect of economic inequality or heterogeneity in economics, economic heterogeneity.
The distribution of wealth differs from the i ...
in Pakistan is slightly varied, with the top 10% of the population earning 27.6% and the bottom 10% earning only 4.1% of the income. Pakistan generally has a low gini co-efficient and therefore a decent distribution of income (relatively lower inequality).
In 2015, 24.3% Pakistanis lived below Pakistan's definition of poverty. Statistics vary due to the definition of poverty. According to the
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
, poverty in Pakistan fell from 64.3% in 2001 to 24.3% in 2015. Poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day (2011 PPP) (% of population) fell from 6.2% in 2013 to 4% in 2015. Pakistan has made substantial progress in reducing poverty giving it the second lowest headcount poverty rate in
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
.
AidData
AidData is a research and innovation lab located at the College of William & Mary that seeks to make development finance more transparent, accountable, and effective. The AidData website provides access to development finance activity records from ...
cites the World Bank and states that overall "Pakistan has done well in converting economic growth into poverty reduction."
According to a
World Bank
The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and grants to the governments of low- and middle-income countries for the purpose of pursuing capital projects. The World Bank is the collective name for the Interna ...
report in 2019, districts varied widely in poverty, with the richest district
Abbottabad
Abbottabad (; Urdu, Punjabi language(HINDKO dialect) آباد, translit=aibṭabād, ) is the capital city of Abbottabad District in the Hazara region of eastern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. It is the 40th largest city in Pakistan and fourth ...
at a
head count ratio
The head count ratio (HCR) is the population proportion that exists, or lives, below the poverty threshold. One of the undesirable features of the head count ratio is that it ignores the depth of poverty; if the poor become poorer, the head count ...
of 5.8pc and the poorest district —
Washuk District
Washuk District ( Balochi and Urdu: ) is a district in Balochistan province of Pakistan. Washuk, the district headquarters, is located at the center of the district.
Administration
Washuk District was once part of Kharan District in Balochista ...
in Balochistan — at 72.5pc.
Spatial distribution of poverty
During the last decade, poverty elimination programs helped many of the poor to participate and rise up. However the Global financial crisis and other factors like the occupation of Afghanistan have impacted Pakistani growth. Poverty in Pakistan has historically been higher in rural areas and lower in the cities. Out of the total 40 million living below the
poverty line
The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...
, thirty million live in rural areas. Poverty rose sharply in the rural areas in the 1990s
[ADB report pg 11] and the gap in income between urban and rural areas of the country became more significant. This trend has been attributed to a disproportionate impact of economic events in the rural and urban areas.
Punjab
Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...
also has significant gradients in poverty among the different regions of the province.
The
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (; ps, خېبر پښتونخوا; Urdu, Hindko: خیبر پختونخوا) commonly abbreviated as KP or KPK, is one of the Administrative units of Pakistan, four provinces of Pakistan. Located in the Geography of Pakistan, ...
of Pakistan was one of the most backward regions of the South Asia. Despite this, tremendous progress has been made in many areas. The NWFP now boasts several universities including the Ghulam Ishaq Khan University of Science and Technology. Peshawar, a sleep cantonment during British towns, is a modern cosmopolitan city. Much more can be done to invest in the social and economic structures. NWFP remains steeped in tribal culture, though the biggest Pahan city is Soviet invasion of neighboring Afghanistan is intact and according to Western reports supported the
Taliban
The Taliban (; ps, طالبان, ṭālibān, lit=students or 'seekers'), which also refers to itself by its state (polity), state name, the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a Deobandi Islamic fundamentalism, Islamic fundamentalist, m ...
regime. These and other activities have led to a breakdown of law and order in many parts of the region.
Poverty and gender
The gender discriminatory practices in Pakistani society also shape the distribution of poverty in the country. Traditional gender roles in Pakistan define the woman's place as in the home and not in the workplace, and define the man as the breadwinner. Consequently, the society invests far less in women than men.
Women in Pakistan
Women in Pakistan make up 48.76% of the population according to the 2017 census of Pakistan. Women in Pakistan have played an important role throughout Pakistan's history and they are allowed to vote in elections since 1956. In Pakistan, women ...
suffer from poverty of opportunities throughout their lives. Female literacy in Pakistan is 46% compared to Male literacy at 69%. In legislative bodies, women constituted less than 3% of the legislature elected on general seats before 2002. The 1973 Constitution allowed reserved seats for women in both houses of parliament for a period of 20 years, thus ensuring that women would be represented in parliament regardless of whether or not they are elected on general seats. This provision lapsed in 1993, so parliaments elected subsequently did not
have reserved seats for women. Reserved seats for women have been restored after the election of 2002 .Now women have 20% seats reserved for them in Parliament .
[
]
According to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
Human Development Report
The Human Development Report (HDR) is an annual Human Development Index report published by the Human Development Report Office of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The first HDR was launched in 1990 by the Pakistani economist ...
, Pakistan's
human development Human development may refer to:
* Development of the human body
* Developmental psychology
* Human development (economics)
* Human Development Index, an index used to rank countries by level of human development
* Human evolution, the prehistoric ...
indicators, especially those for
women
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or Adolescence, adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female hum ...
, fall significantly below those of countries with comparable levels of per-capita income. Pakistan also has a higher
infant mortality
Infant mortality is the death of young children under the age of 1. This death toll is measured by the infant mortality rate (IMR), which is the probability of deaths of children under one year of age per 1000 live births. The under-five morta ...
rate (88 per 1000) than the
South Asia
South Asia is the southern subregion of Asia, which is defined in both geographical and ethno-cultural terms. The region consists of the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.;;;;;;;; ...
n average (83 per 1000).
Economic and social vulnerability
"Vulnerability" in this case stands for the underlying susceptibility of economically deprived people to fall into poverty as a result of exogenous random shocks. Vulnerable households are generally found to have low expenditure levels. Households are considered vulnerable if they do not have the means to smooth out their expenses in response to changes in income. In general, vulnerability is likely to be high in households clustered around the poverty line. Since coping strategies for vulnerable households depend primarily on their sources of income, exogenous shocks can increase reliance on non-agricultural wages. Such diversification has not occurred in many parts of Pakistan, leading to an increased dependence on credit.
Due to this economic vulnerability, a large portion of Pakistan’s population is unable to access or qualify for credit and loans through traditional banking institutions. Furthermore, the majority of major banking institutions are concentrated primarily urban areas are unable to reach the large populations living within these rural areas.
While economic vulnerability is a key factor in the rise of poverty in Pakistan, vulnerability also arises from social powerlessness, political disenfranchisement, and ill-functioning and distortionary institutions, and these also are important causes of the persistence of vulnerability among the poor.
[ADB report pg 16]
Other causes of vulnerability in Pakistan are the everyday harassment by corrupt government officials, as well as their underperformance, exclusion and denial of basic rights to many in Pakistan. Also, lack of adequate health care by the state lead the poor to seek private sources, which are expensive, but still preferable to the possibility of
medical malpractice
Medical malpractice is a legal cause of action that occurs when a medical or health care professional, through a negligent act or omission, deviates from standards in their profession, thereby causing injury or death to a patient. The negligen ...
and being given expired medicines in state run medical facilities. Also, the failure by the state to provide adequate law and order in many parts of the country is a factor in the rise of vulnerability of the poor.
Environmental issues
Environmental problems in Pakistan, such as erosion, use of agro-chemicals, deforestation etc. contribute to rising poverty in Pakistan. Increasing pollution contributes to increasing risk of toxicity, and poor industrial standards in the country contribute to rising pollution.
Lack of adequate governance
By the end of the 1990s, the manner in which power is exercised in the management of a country's social and economic status resources for development emerged as Pakistan's foremost developmental problem. Corruption and political instabilities such as the insurgency in
Balochistan
Balochistan ( ; bal, بلۏچستان; also romanised as Baluchistan and Baluchestan) is a historical region in Western and South Asia, located in the Iranian plateau's far southeast and bordering the Indian Plate and the Arabian Sea coastline. ...
and decade long armed conflict with the Taliban in
Waziristan
Waziristan (Pashto and ur, , "land of the Wazir") is a mountainous region covering the former FATA agencies of North Waziristan and South Waziristan which are now districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan. Waziristan covers some . ...
region resulted in reduction of business confidence, deterioration of economic growth, reduced public expenditure, poor delivery of public services, and undermining of the rule of law. The perceived security threat on the border with India has dominated Pakistan's culture and has led to the domination of military in politics, excessive spending on defense at the expense of social sectors, and the erosion of law and order, in conjunction with several implementations of martial law and approximately four coup d'états in the past fifty years.
Pakistan has been run by military dictatorships for large periods of time, alternating with limited democracy. These rapid changes in governments led to rapid policy changes and reversals and the reduction of transparency and accountability in government. The onset of military regimes have contributed to non-transparency in resource allocation. Those who do not constitute the political elite are unable to make political leaders and the Government responsive to their needs or accountable to promises. Development priorities are determined not by potential beneficiaries but by the bureaucracy and a political elite which may or may not be in touch with the needs of the citizens. Political instability and macroeconomic imbalances have been reflected in poor creditworthiness ratings, even compared to other countries of similar income levels, with resulting capital flight and lower foreign direct investment inflows. The current government of Pakistan has professed commitments to reforms in this area.
In addition, Pakistan's major cities and urban centres are home to an estimated 1.2 million
street children
Street children are poor or homeless children who live on the streets of a city, town, or village. Homeless youth are often called street kids or street child; the definition of street children is contested, but many practitioners and policym ...
. This includes beggars and scavengers who are often very young. The law and order problem worsens their condition as boys and girls are fair game to others who would force them into stealing, scavenging and smuggling to survive. A large proportion consumes readily available solvents to starve off hunger, loneliness and fear.
Children
A child ( : children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The legal definition of ''child'' generally refers to a minor, otherwise known as a person younger ...
are vulnerable to contracting STDs such as HIV/AIDS, as well as other diseases.
Feudalism
Pakistan is home to a large
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
landholding system where landholding families hold thousands of acres and do little work on the
agriculture
Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...
themselves. Since, feudalism is rampant in such areas, people cannot acquire and hold land, which is one of the main sources of livelihood in rural agricultural areas of Pakistan. They enlist the services of their
serfs
Serfdom was the status of many peasants under feudalism, specifically relating to manorialism, and similar systems. It was a condition of debt bondage and indentured servitude with similarities to and differences from slavery, which developed ...
to perform the labour of the land. 51% of poor tenants owe money to the landlords. The landlords' position of power allows them to exploit the only resource the poor can possibly provide: their own labour.
Inequality and natural disasters
The
2010 Pakistan floods
The floods in Pakistan began in late July 2010, resulting from heavy monsoon rains in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Punjab and, Balochistan regions of Pakistan, which affected the Indus River basin. Approximately one-fifth of Pakistan's tot ...
accentuated differences between the wealthy and poor in Pakistan.
Abdullah Hussain Haroon
Abdullah Hussain Haroon (; born 21 October 1950) is a Pakistani politician, and businessman who served as Foreign Minister of Pakistan in the Mulk caretaker ministry. He previously served as the Speaker of Sindh Assembly and Pakistan Ambassad ...
, Pakistan's diplomat to the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and international security, security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be ...
, alleged that wealthy
feudal
Feudalism, also known as the feudal system, was the combination of the legal, economic, military, cultural and political customs that flourished in Middle Ages, medieval Europe between the 9th and 15th centuries. Broadly defined, it was a wa ...
warlord
A warlord is a person who exercises military, economic, and political control over a region in a country without a strong national government; largely because of coercive control over the armed forces. Warlords have existed throughout much of h ...
s and
landowners in Pakistan have been diverting funds and resources away from the poor and into their own private relief efforts. Haroon also alluded to was evidence that landowners had allowed embankments to burst, leading to water flowing away from their land. There are also allegations that local authorities colluded with the warlords to divert funds. The floods have accentuated the sharp divisions in Pakistan between the wealthy and the poor. The wealthy, with better access to transportation and other facilities, have suffered far less than the poor of Pakistan.
See also
*
Poverty by country
countries of the world, Countries by percentage of population living in poverty, as recorded by World bank, World Bank and other sources.
Methodology
"Poverty" is defined as an economic condition by the lack of both money and basic necessit ...
*
*
Family planning in Pakistan
References
External links
{{Poverty