ISLAMABAD, Nov 23: Six million children are out of primary school in the country and of those 14 million who are in school, 95 per cent or more are not getting the quality education necessary to help them become productive members of an increasingly complex globalizing socio-economic system.

This was stated in the Human Condition Report 2002, launched on Saturday at the Planning Commission. It analyzes the probable determinants for the human condition and assesses the prospects of improving the situation.

It said about 40 million people in the country were living below the poverty line, while the consumption distribution was severely skewed with 32 per cent of the consumption shared by the top 20 per cent and only 10.8 per cent shared by the bottom 20 per cent.

The report said the redistribution of Zakat would not be able to lift these people out of poverty.

It asked the government to explicitly adopt the human poverty index (HPI) as the basis for formulating its anti-poverty strategy.

The HPI, which according to the report was 47 per cent, would permit full consideration of deprivation. The recently announced official poverty line was food-based and did not address the issues like education, health, water, justice etc., the report said.

At the fundamental level, the report categorizes the poor as a group that owns and has access to fewer human, physical, financial resources and, thus, has limited possibilities for generating income from asset utilization.

The traditional ratios of head-count and poverty gap indicate that the incidence of poverty has increased during the 1990s, the report said.

It said about 55 per cent of the 10-year-of-age population was illiterate under a criterion of literacy that was not even “basic” under Unesco definition. If “functional literacy” be taken as criterion, then the illiterate population would be over 100 million.

As far as adult literacy is concerned, about 55 per cent or 80 million people in the country are deprived of education, which is a violation of their human rights. In Pakistan, it also violates their constitutional rights.

The report said the participation rate at the university level was three per cent of the 17 to 23 years age group — a figure which was very low for a country seeking to become a modern state. In East Asia and Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, this rate is over 30 per cent.

In addition to this, Pakistan does not have a sustainable domestic scientific community. Its research and development investment rate is about 0.2 per cent of the GDP, when it should be at least 1 per cent.

With 100 scientists and engineers per million population, the country does not have a sustainable domestic scientific community.

The report said the lowest literacy rate recorded among women in the country was nine per cent in Balochistan.

The mortality rates of infants, children and mothers are high by regional and world standards. As a result, of high maternal mortality rate of 400 per 100,000 live births, the sex ratio in Pakistan is 108 males to 100 females. In Balochistan, this ratio is 115 to 100.

About 40 per cent of children under five years of age are malnourished. The income generation is highly skewed with the top 20 per cent getting 50 per cent of the income, and the bottom 20 per cent getting only six per cent. This contributes to the persistence of poverty and also creates tension within the society.

Air pollution contributes as much to the burden of disease as water pollution does. With the current 40 per cent urbanization and its 3.5 per cent annual growth rate, it is essential that ambient air pollution (indoor and outdoor) be measured in a systematic manner, the report suggested.