Pain is the only definition that fits perfectly on all dimensions of poverty, hunger being one of them that is used by our government as a yardstick for measuring poverty in the country, ignoring its other equally vital aspects. Measuring poverty from the point of view of hunger only is misleading though even by this yardstick one-third of our population still lives below poverty line.
Poor people suffer physical pain that comes not only with too little food but also with long hours of work that they are forced to do. In addition they suffer emotional pain stemming from the daily humiliations of dependency and lack of power; and the moral pain from being forced to make choices such as whether to pay to save the life of an ill family member or to use the money to feed their children.
Education, health care, proper roads and sewerage might be out of reach of the people officially declared out of poverty line only because they have enough income to fill their stomachs.
The economic managers fully realise that the problem of poverty cannot be tackled without improving the quality of human life. This realisation is well depicted in the official poverty reduction strategy. But realisation is not enough. The strategy has not been implemented in its true spirit due either to lack of resources or lack of will at implementation level.
The health budget has failed to cross even one percent of the GDP. Governance has remained poor and has failed to improve at levels that impact the lives of the poor. Corruption might have decreased at the higher levels but it is as rampant as ever at the lower levels where it further weakens the resources of the poor.
Police excess, delay in justice, inability to get any official work done without greasing the palms of concerned circles add salt to the injury of the poor. Perhaps poor people are invisible to the authorities - just as blind people cannot see, the policy-makers cannot see them.
Poverty is humiliation, the sense of being dependent on others, and of being forced to accept rudeness, insults and indifference whenever the poor seek help even from those who are bound by law to facilitate them. Poverty is lack of freedom, enslaved by crushing daily burden, by depression and fear of what the future will bring. The State is responsible to provide security, justice and respect to its entire citizen.
Women are vulnerable to abuse and violence in the home, when widowed and in the workplace. Men, particularly young, are more likely to be picked up by the police. When the State fails in its duty everything is terrible for a poor - illness, humiliation, shame. They are like cripples; they are afraid of everything and depend on everyone. No one needs them. They are like garbage that everyone wants to get rid of.
The presence of ghost schools or absent teachers is the failure of governance. Missing doctors from public basic health units speaks of the manner in which even the available resources are wasted. If an employed individual still has to worry about buying his or her child bread and has to scrape to make ends meet - this is not normal. It portrays the glaring inequalities that exist in a society where handfuls have access to huge resources while the poor despite extensive labour do not earn enough to feed their family. The statistics prepared officially do not tell the whole story. While quantitative measures provide important aggregate-level information, these data are able to tell only a partial story.
Poverty in Pakistan varies across and within provinces; its precise contours and dimensions are always contingent on time, place, and social groups involved. Aggregate data by definition do not reveal location specific variations. Neither do these data reveal the more subjective elements of poor people's experience of poverty or the ways in which individuals cope.
Nobel Laureate Sen has frequently argued that absolute poverty includes what Adam Smith called "the ability to go about without shame". The poor deprived in numerous ways need government intervention in multiple ways. Agenda for change requires committed actions from policy- makers in different social and economic areas. First action should be to eliminate material poverty to ensure adequate assets and livelihood for the poor. This not only requires high but equitable growth. The government has achieved high growth.
However the benefits of growth elude the poor as the distribution is not balanced. The Governor State Bank, Dr Ishrat Hussain, at a seminar in Lahore last year admitted this flaw in current high economic growth benefits and explained that it would continue for a while.
Poor living in slums and isolation need adequate infrastructure to access and services. Most of the public sector development fund is used to improve infrastructure and services for the posh localities and building mega projects. While mega projects would reduce poverty after completion in the long term their immediate impact on quality of life of poor is negligible.
By living in unhygienic conditions and taking insufficient food the poor are prone to get ill or even develop physical and mental incapability. They need health and education facilities besides adequate infrastructure. Since this falls under the domain of provinces the approach and impact is different in all provinces, though none has performed ideally but some have edge over others.
Poor in all the provinces, particularly the rural areas, still have little or no access to proper health or education facilities. Though the fund allocation is also low this denial to the poor is more due to bad governance.
Having 10 daughters but no boy is the same as having no children; this is true in most of the families in Pakistan.
Gender inequality also increases poverty as it denies equal opportunity to women some of whom if provided similar opportunities have the potential to outperform males in many fields and contribute to family income and better health.
Society has got to play a major role in this regard. Credit must be given to the present government that has taken steps to promote gender equality. The poor need measures by the State that ensure that they do not live in fear and lack of protection and have surety of peace and security. The poor live in exclusion and are far from decision-making. They must be included and empowered in decision-making.
Corruption impacts poor more severely than the rich and need to be eliminated at the lower levels also.
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