Some oft-repeated statements - the country has come a long way; growth rates are increasing; Internet growth is one of the highest in Pakistan; the new airport at Islamabad is really comparable to many international airports; and retail industry is booming. These statements are indicators of all the trends signaling a country ready to take off, till you see the man living in rural Pakistan. Rural-urban difference is always there in most countries; however, these differences have to be gauged on many criteria. The gap between the standard of living of the rich and the poor and the proportion of the population living in them is what shows the story behind the statements as does the rate of urbanization in a country.
The fact that Growth Rates have increased from 2.5% to 5.8% of the GDP in the last decade but the difference between rich and poor has skewed higher is an indication of the growth misdirection. The World Bank study that has researched on poverty in rural areas of Pakistan has made this shocking revelation that rural poverty has increased up to 80 percent in the last one decade. This study was carried out for the years 2004 to 2014, a time which covers both the dictatorial rule and the democratic term. According to a World Bank report titled 'State of Water Supply, Sanitation and Poverty in Pakistan', Balochistan has the highest rural poverty rate, with over 62 percent of its rural population living below the poverty line. Gap between rural and urban poverty is the widest in Sindh at almost 30 percent. While urban-rural gap in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa was 13 and 15 percentage points, respectively.
The problem with macroeconomics is that Growth becomes the end goal and most economists justify pursuit of growth by explaining it through the trickle-down approach where the belief is that sooner or later growth will reach the poor as the expansion of the economy will lead to more jobs and more social benefits. However, as we have seen in the case of Pakistan the additional growth has only helped the rich grow richer and the poor grow poorer. Firstly, the quantity of trickle-down is a few micro drops and the quality of these micro drops is based on some non-essential development projects doled out near elections that are not really contributing to the real development of the region.
Rural areas comprising 60 percent of Pakistan are the most neglected parts of the country. Governments normally focus on main cities for development especially metro cities. Most governments in Pakistan have focused on provincial capitals. Lahore is an example of this focus as Punjab's 58 percent budget is spent on Lahore while the rest of 51% budget is divided over 107 cities. When you compare a city like Rajanpur and Layyah in South Punjab to Lahore, it is like comparing the third world to the first world. The infrastructure development that you see in Lahore and Islamabad is nowhere to be seen in most of the cities. Even more abysmal is the human development situation. The literacy levels are sub normal, health facilities nominal and job opportunities dismal.
Successive governments have tried to support the agricultural sector on which the livelihood of most rural sector depends. Various farmer/agri packages have been offered, however, very little improvement has taken place. Support prices are mere slogans, farmer access to market difficult and loan provisions are always diverted to infrastructure development in urban areas in the budget revisions. Even if all these incentives were given in rural areas the real differences in the lives of farmers will not take place if an integrated rural development program is not introduced.
Stunting and poor health have not been tackled in rural areas on an emergency basis. Severe lack of WASH infrastructure, i.e., water and sanitation hygiene facilities cause damage to the child health. Infant mortality rate, according to the UNICEF report released in 2018, has become the highest in the world. According to the World Bank 2018 study, "Lack of investment in fecal waste management, combined with the expansion of low-quality toilets, is the most critical determinant of weak nutritional outcomes in Pakistan". 42 percent of households in rural Punjab, 60 percent in rural KP and 82 percent in rural Sindh and Balochistan have no drainage system as the metro cities get maximum benefit of these already inadequate WASH infrastructure allocations. The total per capita allocation for Lahore was almost 18 times higher than the average for all other districts in Punjab combined. Meanwhile, Karachi received almost 100 times more in per capita terms than the other districts of Sindh.
The integrated approach also requires that these physical facilities are combined with human and social development initiatives to develop a proactive and pre emptive approach to the uplifting of the rural areas. Literacy rates and skill development should be part of the approach. While social safety net programs help give relief to rural poverty they are not sustainable as they make the recipient dependent rather than independent. Benazir Income Support Programme (BISP) has provided a social safety net but has not succeeded in breaking the poverty circles especially in rural areas. Simple cash transfers are not the effective poverty breakers. What is needed is to resort to more and more conditional cash transfers. These cash transfers should be tied to education and skill building incentives. Similarly, the introduction of health cards for treatment for the very poor is a good way of providing healthcare but again preventive health awareness programmes are necessary to reduce the incidence of diseases.
Many economists propose more urbanization but in Pakistan the lack of urban planning has put tremendous pressure on city development as well. With the lack of job opportunities in cities and higher cost of living, as the rural population transfers to cities, it finds no place to work and live, thus turning to violence and crime. Crime rates in Karachi and Lahore have shot up dramatically. Young, unemployed, unengaged youngsters are involved in mugging and dacoits due to a lack of direction and future.
Integrated rural development requires effective policymaking and governance to ensure service delivery. The best mechanism to ensure equity in rural Vs Urban development is to have an empowered local body system that is decentralized right down to village level as it was in KP where the results show maximum decrease in rural poverty. As the decision making and authority to develop is shared with those who are closest to the problems, the level and quality of ownership, engagement and development will experience a real difference.
(The writer can be reached at [email protected])
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