Poverty census: unpleasant facts

Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Sardar Assef Ahmad Ali has said the government has started a poverty census to ensure benefits of the Rs 34 billion Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) go to the target groups. He told an interviewer that the census drive is being undertaken on the urging of World Bank, which wants a comprehensive analysis of the incidence of poverty in Pakistan.
The Banks interest in the issue raises the hope that finally we can expect to have an authentic picture of the prevalence of poverty in accordance with internationally accepted standards. Unfortunately, so far successive governments have tried to downplay the problem to cover up their respective acts of omission or commission.
Not long ago, whilst those familiar with the situation insisted as many as 40 percent of the people lived below the poverty line, the then government claimed the figure to be around 30 percent, also directing the Federal Bureau of Statistics to use that statistic in its public documents. About two years ago, the same government made a downward revision in the number to put it at 26.5.
The magic wand it had used for the drastic reduction in poverty was the use of a new measurement formula that relied on caloric intake rather than per day income. Sardar Assef Ali now says poverty has risen to 40 percent whereas some of our economic managers claim it to be around 35 percent. Indeed, the economy has been on a nosedive for over a year now, pushing more and more people below the poverty line.
Even so, the difference in the numbers is too wide to be attributed to economic downturn alone. It is reflective of our economic managers inclination towards figure fudging. Assef Ahmad Ali deserves credit for having acknowledged that the problem is much more serious than it is recognised to be. Recognition of a problem, of course, is the first important step towards its redressal.
Once the poverty census drive is complete the government must focus on adopting a well thought-out strategy to combat poverty as well as income disparities. That it must do as part of its responsibility towards less fortunate members of society and to put the country on the road to sustainable development.
In our peculiar circumstances such a strategy is needed also to fight the menace of a violent militancy emanating from Fata that, at least in part, owes its existence to conditions of extreme poverty. It is good to note that the Planning Commission intends to use the present census, as its Deputy Chairman indicated, for designing different employment generation and human resource development projects and programmes with the help of Friends of Democratic Pakistan who are scheduled to meet at Tokyo on April 17.
The poverty census, in fact, has assumed a special significance at a time our friends want to help us with social sector development. That actually could be the reason why the government is willing to accept some unpleasant facts about the existing levels of poverty.